18 MONTH HABITUAL RULE

[jonesoboneso]

I am a UK resident, currently living in Australia. I am married to my Australian wife. My brother lives in Canada and he is married to his Canadian wife. I want to be able to go and see him and work there for a year. I have not lived in the UK for a 18 or more months in the last three years so i have a few questions...

1. Does this mean i am not able to get a working holiday visa under the habitual rule?

2. Is there another visa which will allow me to work in Canada?

3. I am sure my Australian wife will be accepted, is there anyway that she could 'take me' on her visa?

4. I know this is a little silly but if all else fails can I lie and say i have been living in the UK... I have a mailing address and bank account there. Do they cross check with Australian visa authorities for example.

Thanks in advance...

Matthew

 

[Leon]

I am pretty sure that if your country of nationality can not get you a working holiday visa, no other country will. Say, you would not qualify to apply for it in Australia for example. Your wife can not take you with her because a working holiday visa is only for 1. You could go with her as a visitor at most but you would not be able to work and you would have to leave within 6 months unless you extend or get your own work permit.

Aside from the working holiday programs, there are just the normal work permit options which are not so easy. First, you would have to find an employer. The employer must advertise the job and prove that he can find no Canadian or PR qualified for the job to get a labour market opinion. If he gets it, you can apply for a work permit. All this takes a few months and finding the employer who is willing to go through that if he has a choice of just simply hiring a Canadian or a person on a working holiday permit is not easy.

 

[jonesoboneso]

Thanks for the reply,

As I feared, the work permit wouldn't be easy.

I still hold a British passport but I am eligible to apply for Australian citizenship, is there anything stopping me applying for that and then applying for the Canadian working holiday visa as an Australian?

Thanks again

 

[Leon]

I don't know about the processing time for Australian citizenship but other than that, it should work. Another bonus is that Australians can get 2 years so if you want to stay longer, that is cool.