Baby born (in UK) to parents with PR in Canada

[BRL4]

Hi all,
Sorry for the long post! Really hoping someone can help provide some clarity for me and our situation, last time I posted on this site regarding us ‘landing’ in Canada and it was really helpful so hoping it will be again!

1) My husband and I (both British citizens) did our soft landing in July 2023. We only stayed in Canada for 1 week. Our PR cards were sent to our friend’s address where we always stay, they then posted them back to us in the UK. We love our PR cards and look at them daily!

2) In December 2023 I gave birth to our daughter in the UK. (Please no comments saying “should have given birth in Canada”….its not as simple as that)

3) We are aware of the 730 days in Canada rule to keep our PR. Our PR expires in July 2028, so we have plenty of time to build up those days in Canada (they don’t have to be continuous) and we intend to move permanently in February 2026 which will easily fulfill our quota of 730 days before July 2028. We already have two planned visits before Feb 2026 also.

4) We are planning on having another child before we move permanently!

so the questions….

A) when we enter Canada in Feb 2026 for our permanent move, can we bring both our children in on eta’s, as we are from a visa exempt country? And then start the sponsorship of them the day after we land? At least my husband (and hopefully me too) intend to have jobs lined up before we move. I’m a university lecturer and he’s an app developer tech type person.

B) the visits we have before Feb 2026, again can our babies enter on eta’s? They will both have passports obviously.

C) I am concerned when we enter Canada they will see me and my husband have PR and our babies are on etas…will that be an issue if we tell them we are sending off their sponsorship applications right away? I fear they might turn them away as it’s obvious we intend them to stay permanently. If that happened obviously my husband and I could not enter Canada without them and we don’t wish to separate as a family. However I would be willing to leave Canada for a short window with the children when their visitor visa’s maxed out at 6months if need be, then reenter. This is possible being from the UK on an eta.

A couple of notes: we got our PR through express entry, so as long as we are living in Canada (which we will be when we send off the sponsorship in February 2026) we will be eligible to sponsor themas neither of us were sponsored in the first place.

For those that assume it’s easier to give birth in Canada so our baby’s are Canadian citizens (I’ve seen these types of reply’s on many similar posts!), we decided to have our baby in UK, and will give birth to our other baby in the UK due to me having an excellent maternity pay package and also having access to an excellent maternity team as well as having our parents nearby for support.
To get maternity pay in Canada I’d have to work for a Canadian company for a full year and also healthcare wouldn’t kick in for the first 3months, and I’m not the youngest, so we don’t want to have to wait another 2years to try for another baby.
Also we are aware we will need private medical insurance for the first 3 months at least for my husband and we know that we will need private medical insurance for our two children until they get their PR which could be up to a year in processing.
Just stating all this in case someone else is in a similar situation.

 

[armoured]

a) Basically yes. But assume the children will not have health insurance until you get them PR status, so have private insurance coverage.
b) Ummm, sure. I may be missing something in the question.
c) I don't think they think this hard about children, if parents are still in compliance with the residency obligation.

Minor note, arriving in Feb 2026 leaves you very little 'buffer' if things should happen or one of you needs to travel a lot, etc. It's up to you but life can get inconvenient if you're restricted on that end due to decision to move relatively late to maintain compliance with the RO.

 

[BRL4]

a) Basically yes. But assume the children will not have health insurance until you get them PR status, so have private insurance coverage.
b) Ummm, sure. I may be missing something in the question.
c) I don't think they think this hard about children, if parents are still in compliance with the residency obligation.

Minor note, arriving in Feb 2026 leaves you very little 'buffer' if things should happen or one of you needs to travel a lot, etc. It's up to you but life can get inconvenient if you're restricted on that end due to decision to move relatively late to maintain compliance with the RO.

Thanks so must for such a quick reply. Very helpful and reassuring! And yes, we plan to be paying for a lot of private medical insurance for our three months and then the children for maybe up to a year or more till their PR is hopefully granted.

and yes, the “buffer”, my husband calls it the same! I calculated with our previous visit and our next two planned visits we should have 133 “buffer” days…so around 19 weeks or so leeway over the 2 and a bit years from Feb 2026-July 2026. As you say it’s not much, but it’s just the outcome of the decisions we’ve made so will have to live with it! Hoping everyone will visit us so we don’t have to leave Canada.