Visa times

My husband & I are going to be applying for a UK visa via the ancestry option. Once they issue the visa, how long do you generally have to move there (to settle things here etc)? Should everything be ready to move when you apply for the visa?
Thanks for any help in advance!

Laura & Jim Brown

Hi there,

Generally from what I understand, you have up to 90 days after your visa is issued. We're doing the same thing very shortly (applying late July for a September departure).

I would highly suggest being as prepared as possible; we've had several garage sales already, and our house has several private offers of sale, with conditions depending on a price and that we get our visas to go.

Thanks for the reply.I guess we'll be going through our stuff first before we apply! Definitely a case of being prepared. It seems from what we have seen from the various postings that the visas are granted quite quickly as well. We had anticipated 2 or 3 months for the application to be processed but we will be readjusting our timelines!
We are in an apartment so at least we don't have to worry about selling a house, which is a huge relief. Just a case of making sure we have gotten rid of as much as we can etc.
Where are you planning to move to in England?
Thanks again for the info - good luck with yours!

Yes, from what I've been reading, it's a pretty quick process- once your application is done (online only), you have to have your biometrics done (and I'm pretty sure there's an office in Ottawa for that) within two weeks of your application. Once they receive everything, it seems most people get an answer within 48 hours; we're hoping to know by the August long weekend and leave around the end of September (we have a pet to bring, but he has to wait until September 26th minimum for his health clearances to clear).

For the Ancestry visa, make sure you have long form certificates of EVERYTHING- marriage certs/birth certs; I've read too many horror stories on that here and on other forums!

Right now, Scotland is the leading candidate as I used to work there on a WHM visa 10 years ago, and I think I can have my old job back at RBS (good to keep in touch with friends). If we went to England, I think we'd be heading towards Cheshire (Crewe area) or Staffordshire (Stoke "The Potteries") due to friends there as well. My wife is pretty open to go anywhere- after all, it's her Ancestry we're riding on!

Best of luck too- please let me know how you get on with your online app and biometric appointment if you go before us.

I am taken aback at how quick it all is - which is a good thing as we want to go as soon as we can!
I already have all the appropriate certificates, once we had decided we were going to move to England I made sure I had them all!
That's great that you may be able to get your old job back - definitely good to keep in touch with people. Staffordshire in on my list of places to visit - to see "The Potteries".
We're hoping that my husband can get a transfer through his company once the visas come through - which means we are likely going to end up in Milton Keynes though Bristol (where my maternal grandfather is from) & Portsmouth (we have friends there) are also topping the list.
Once we take the cat to the vet which will likely be in the next week or 2 we will then be doing the application.
Since your wife has the Ancestry option - did you apply using the Spousal option or? I've heard lots of horror stories with people trying to open ban accounts. So we opened an acct with HSBC over a year ago. Are you going over to sort out a flat or house before you go or will you stay with those friends first (depending where you end up!). And is it 'only' you, your wife & dog that are going? What does your family think about it?! Sorry I am not being nosey - I am just curious about these things!
Let me know how you get on!

Laura,

I noticed you're bringing your cat- I assume you've already gone through the PETS Scheme and waited the 6 months for the rabies blood test? It caught us off guard, and I think we'd already be there if it wasn't for that portion but we simply are not going to give up our dog.

It's just the three of us going. Ideally we'd like to have a flat sorted before we go if possible, but we do have the "last resort" options if we need them. By wanting to reside in Scotland, it's created a bit of a pain as the only two ports of entry with a pet are London and Manchester, so I'll likely have to hire a car to get us up there.

As far as the application, my wife is the Ancestry Visa and I'm the dependant applicant. I've heard the same horror stories with the bank account stuff, but I'm hoping that because I previously held accounts with both RBS (and worked for them) and the Bank of Scotland that I can get one with no worries.

Family and friends think we're nuts. They forget that I've previously lived there, and that it's not as expensive as everyone thinks it is- at least not in my eyes. I don't expect to own a vehicle right away, or ever for that matter; the public transport is a heck of a lot more efficient there than here (but I know the Brits still complain about it). I don't need a 4 bedroom house with 3 acres of land. I don't need a big screen TV and all the toys. In my eyes, Europeans are a lot more modest and to me, it makes sense. Sure, some things cost more there than here, but it's how you choose to live too. However, we'll gladly trade our lives here for 5 weeks holidays, 7 hour workdays, and just a lifestyle that's so much more laid back. Plus if we decide to have kids, they'll have the opportunity to have Canadian citizenship, and then UK citizenship (provided we go for it after our 5 years) and thus opening the doors to the rest of the EU; to me that spells out a lot more opportunities.

We're in the process of getting the cat sorted out - I have been sourcing out a vet who knows the whole PETS scheme & process to get the cat ready to go. When we started looking at moving to England, I knew that there would be a whole lengthy process to take our cat with us - at the time we had 3 of them! What concerned me at the time was that 2 of them were nervous cats so I was quite anxious about having to fly them over. Now, we only have the one as oddly the 2 that were nervous became ill (not at the same time) & had to be put down. So we are left with one who will come with us - as I agree with you that there is no way we would go without the cat!
It's just the 3 of us going as well. Thankfully we have friends there as well - so that we would fly into London as usual & stay with them (or my friend's mum who has a flat that we can use) for a bit before moving into a flat (which would be temporary).
We set up a bank account with HSBC over a year ago; recently when we relocated to Ottawa from Hamilton we sold our house we took the proceeds from the sale of our house to open another account with them in British pounds. This should ease the issue of the bank horror stories!
Thankfully with us most people (family & friends) are really amazed that we are going to do this & think it's great- we do have one set of friends who wonder about us going there as they moved here from England as they didn't like it! I agree with you that it's not as costly as people seem to think it is (that is one reaction we get a lot, people thinking we're crazy if for no other reason that England is perceived to be costly). I too think the transit there is better, here the population is too spread out for it to work well.
We love the idea of the 5 weeks off as well as the shorter workdays - one of the things that we love is that there seems to be so much MORE to do there. It'd take ages to see all that is on my list of things to see in England alone let alone Europe. Far more culture there than here in my opinion. So many things to see & do.
Our families are both fine with us moving there. My dad lived there for 3 years when he was little so I am hoping he will enjoy coming to visit. And people can come visit & at least save on the accomodation! And also get a better idea from us as to what to see -or not as the case may be! (We went to Broadlands 2 years ago - it was very disappointing! And Stonehenge wasn't so impressive as everyone is led to believe tho our daughter in law is still wanting to go!).
I definitely see it as more opportunities - when you do have children the education system is far better there!