Dual Intent. Selling our house, shipping our belongings.

[Jaffamuzz]

Hi everyone,

We are planning to arrive in Canada from NZ while my application for PR is still underway (current processing times are 11 months via Sydney). We plan to arrive with dual intent. We are myself (principal applicant), wife (sponsor) and two kids (Canadians).

I know that we need to satisfy the immigration officer at the port of entry that I/We must leave Canada should my application for PR be refused.

The problem is, we need to sell our house since it's far too too small for our growing family anyway and we plan to use the money from the house to satisfy immigration that I can sustain myself in Canada with my family without me working illegally.

Will it look suspicious if we have already sold our house? assuming they ask us what 'ties' we still have in our country of origin?

We believe that honesty is the best policy and we do plan to ship our belongings either ahead of us, or after, I'm not sure which is best. We could keep paying for storage here and tell the immigration officer that we still have belongings in NZ, but realistically that would not be true as we plan to sell/ship all of our stuff.

Our story is simple, We have no family here (which is why we want to move to Canada anyway!) so we don't have any family 'ties' in NZ.

If I/We are forced to return to NZ if my PR is rejected, then we'd need to buy/rent another house anyway, outside of the city that we live (too expensive).

I'm from the UK and hold UK/NZ citizenship so I'm visa exempt, but will the immigration officer want substantial proof of our intention to return?

What do you think?

I've read elsewhere on the forum that people have shipped goods and bought return tickets and entered with dual intent no problem.

 

[tink23]

Since you have had your pr application submitted for 11 months already, this will probably be received ok, however, one never really knows until they are speaking to the border officer.

 

[zardoz]

Be careful shipping your stuff over before you get your PR. You should plan for your sponsor to do so under the "returning resident" exemption, as you will not yet qualify under the "settlement" exemption. If you get this wrong, you are looking at paying a lot of duty.

 

[Jaffamuzz]

Since you have had your pr application submitted for 11 months already, this will probably be received ok, however, one never really knows until they are speaking to the border officer.

Thanks for the reply. I must have written that wrong. Our application WILL take 11 months once it goes to Sydney, our application was submitted on Oct 6th 2014. So we've got a while to wait.

 

[Jaffamuzz]

Be careful shipping your stuff over before you get your PR. You should plan for your sponsor to do so under the "returning resident" exemption, as you will not yet qualify under the "settlement" exemption. If you get this wrong, you are looking at paying a lot of duty.

Ah, I didn't know about that. We can easily put all the belongings in my wife's name if that's easier. Other than that, there should be no problem I hope.

 

[canuck_in_uk]

Arriving with your Canadian family and a sponsorship app in process, you will be perfectly fine. Border officers understand in situations like yours, the chances of your PR app being refused and you having to leave Canada are pretty much nil, so they are very lenient. There is no need for you to offer up information, so don't mention that you have sold the house or get into the whole "dual intent" declaration. Just say you are coming to be with your family while your PR app processes and then answer whatever questions the officer asks. Most likely, they won't even ask about you returning to NZ or anything along those lines.

When we came to Canada while our app was processing, it was very straightforward. I had bought my partner a one-way ticket back to the UK just in case but the officer never even touched on the subject of my partner leaving. He asked about our funds but didn't even ask for proof. He verified that we had a PR app going in the system, told my partner not to work until he was a PR and sent us on our way.

 

[Jaffamuzz]

Arriving with your Canadian family and a sponsorship app in process, you will be perfectly fine. Border officers understand in situations like yours, the chances of your PR app being refused and you having to leave Canada are pretty much nil, so they are very lenient. There is no need for you to offer up information, so don't mention that you have sold the house or get into the whole "dual intent" declaration. Just say you are coming to be with your family while your PR app processes and then answer whatever questions the officer asks. Most likely, they won't even ask about you returning to NZ or anything along those lines.

When we came to Canada while our app was processing, it was very straightforward. I had bought my partner a one-way ticket back to the UK just in case but the officer never even touched on the subject of my partner leaving. He asked about our funds but didn't even ask for proof. He verified that we had a PR app going in the system, told my partner not to work until he was a PR and sent us on our way.

Thanks so much for the reply, this is exactly what we were looking for/hoping would be the case. I understand of course that every immigration officer is different and some may ask more probing questions. But I appreciate your advice regarding not offering up information. Although if they did ask about our 'ties' back in NZ, I'd rather just be honest about the house etc.

Hopefully we won't be asked anything like that.

If you didn't declare 'dual intent' did you not get the year long visa? or did you just enter as the standard tourist?

 

[kiwi123]

Thanks for the reply. I must have written that wrong. Our application WILL take 11 months once it goes to Sydney, our application was submitted on Oct 6th 2014. So we've got a while to wait.

You will probably be quite surprised, I'm a kiwi just had application approved in about 4-5 months. 11 months is for cases with some sort if issue. Expect everything to go a little faster than you planned. You should get 1 year from your medical date to land though. Or in my case I randomly got a few weeks more.

 

[Jaffamuzz]

You will probably be quite surprised, I'm a kiwi just had application approved in about 4-5 months. 11 months is for cases with some sort if issue. Expect everything to go a little faster than you planned. You should get 1 year from your medical date to land though. Or in my case I randomly got a few weeks more.

I hope you're right. I was just reading elsewhere on the forum that some 'straightforward' applications are not even going to Sydney and that they are being processed right away in Mississauga. I hope it's not just a rumour!

Regardless, we plan to leave NZ in about 3 months, I expect my PR will still be in process by then so I'll have to enter Canada as a tourist. I just hope they are ok with that.

 

[canuck_in_uk]

Thanks so much for the reply, this is exactly what we were looking for/hoping would be the case. I understand of course that every immigration officer is different and some may ask more probing questions. But I appreciate your advice regarding not offering up information. Although if they did ask about our 'ties' back in NZ, I'd rather just be honest about the house etc.

Hopefully we won't be asked anything like that.

If you didn't declare 'dual intent' did you not get the year long visa? or did you just enter as the standard tourist?

As I said, doubtful that the officer will ask anything about your NZ ties.

My partner was given the standard 6 months on entry. The PR app was processed well before that 6 months was up.

 

[rhcohen2014]

I hope you're right. I was just reading elsewhere on the forum that some 'straightforward' applications are not even going to Sydney and that they are being processed right away in Mississauga. I hope it's not just a rumour!

actually, as an outland applicant, you want your application to stay in mississauga. the files that are staying there are being processed in 2-4 months. outland and inland are different, and just because they are processed in the same office, it certainly doesn't mean the process and/or the timeline is going to be the same.

 

[Jaffamuzz]

actually, as an outland applicant, you want your application to stay in mississauga. the files that are staying there are being processed in 2-4 months. outland and inland are different, and just because they are processed in the same office, it certainly doesn't mean the process and/or the timeline is going to be the same.

Yes that's exactly what we hope will happen! Ideally Mississauga will just do the PR as well and send it back quickly! Our application should be very straightforward.

 

[robyn129]

Thanks for all the questions and responses on this thread! It is all fantastic information for my family, as we are in pretty much exactly the same situation except we just finally sent our application today after many delays I am Canadian (sponsor), my husband NZ/Argentina (applicant) and we have one daughter (NZ/Canadian). We are also planning to start trying to sell our tiny house in February and hoping to head to Canada in April/May. Lots of things to organise in the meantime, that's for sure!!!

 

[AranChen]

Hi everyone,

We are planning to arrive in Canada from NZ while my application for PR is still underway (current processing times are 11 months via Sydney). We plan to arrive with dual intent. We are myself (principal applicant), wife (sponsor) and two kids (Canadians).

I know that we need to satisfy the immigration officer at the port of entry that I/We must leave Canada should my application for PR be refused.

The problem is, we need to sell our house since it's far too too small for our growing family anyway and we plan to use the money from the house to satisfy immigration that I can sustain myself in Canada with my family without me working illegally.

Will it look suspicious if we have already sold our house? assuming they ask us what 'ties' we still have in our country of origin?

We believe that honesty is the best policy and we do plan to ship our belongings either ahead of us, or after, I'm not sure which is best. We could keep paying for storage here and tell the immigration officer that we still have belongings in NZ, but realistically that would not be true as we plan to sell/ship all of our stuff.

Our story is simple, We have no family here (which is why we want to move to Canada anyway!) so we don't have any family 'ties' in NZ.

If I/We are forced to return to NZ if my PR is rejected, then we'd need to buy/rent another house anyway, outside of the city that we live (too expensive).

I'm from the UK and hold UK/NZ citizenship so I'm visa exempt, but will the immigration officer want substantial proof of our intention to return?

What do you think?

I've read elsewhere on the forum that people have shipped goods and bought return tickets and entered with dual intent no problem.

It would be great to know if your move all went according to plan? We (me, Canadian, our 7 month old son, my British wife and our Cypriot dog) are pretty much in the same situation. We submitted the application in April and we intend to move to Canada in September. We our arranging to have our belongings shipped before we leave for Canada (so they should show up after us) but I'm not sure how to navigate customs and immigration when we enter Canada. I, too, think honesty is the best policy especially seeing as what we're doing is completely above board.
Did you divulge all of the information you've laid out above to the immigration officer? Did you have any problems?

 

[MJSPARV]

It would be great to know if your move all went according to plan? We (me, Canadian, our 7 month old son, my British wife and our Cypriot dog) are pretty much in the same situation. We submitted the application in April and we intend to move to Canada in September. We our arranging to have our belongings shipped before we leave for Canada (so they should show up after us) but I'm not sure how to navigate customs and immigration when we enter Canada. I, too, think honesty is the best policy especially seeing as what we're doing is completely above board.
Did you divulge all of the information you've laid out above to the immigration officer? Did you have any problems?

This is an old thread so don't be surprised if the original poster is no longer active here. I posted about my dual intent entry in May. I think if you search my name and dual intent it should come up. I'm happy to answer any questions, just don't have time to re-type the whole spiel. If you can't find the thread let me know on this one.