Mortgage debt

[xan3ver]

Hi there!

Me & my fiancé will soon be starting the process of applying for a skilled work permit (for him) and a spousal visa (for me). We are currently permanent residents of South Africa (also residing in South Africa), and planning to immigrate to Canada end of this year. We have been wanting to buy a house in South Africa for a while now, but seeing that we must almost start our application, we were wondering whether buying a house now will in any way have a negative influence on our application? Does mortgage debt have any influence in the consideration of granting/rejecting our application?

Regards

 

[ihabkal]

yes, you will then have negative assets, plus the officer will feel you are still not 100% committed to Canada and that you might be planning to go there just to live off welfare.

 

[Pippin]

I am getting mixed messages from your post so here are my thoughts. It sounds like you have a busy year ahead of you! 1. Are you planning to marry BEFORE applying as that bit wasn't included in the post? Unless you do, the spousal application will not work. 2. You state your finance is applying for a skilled work permit. Do you plan to come as a temporary worker or as a Federal Skilled Worker or under a Provincial Nominee Programme for permanent residency? 3. If applying for a work permit, does he already have a job offer with an LMO? If coming as a temporary worker, owning a house provides evidence of TIES TO HOME COUNTRY which is useful to prove you plan to return at the end of the visa. 4. If applying as an FSW how do you know you will immigrate at the end of this year? IF you are applying as an FSW, you will have to show that you have a good sized amount of liquid assets as part of your application. Most people put as much as they can as a downpayment on a house, so will you be able to do both? If planning to move to another country permanently, it does not make much sense to buy a house, however, I have heard you are only allowed to take a certain amount of money out of S Africa, so is this actually an investment opportunity?

 

[xan3ver]

He will be applying for a work permit - He has already signed the contract, and the employer has applied for the LMO, we are still awaiting feedback! Buying a house will be for investment, as we will not be able to live in the house for a maximum of two months (and this is, if everything goes through quickly) - and we have been looking for such an opportunity for about two years!! But I think the general feel is that it is not a good idea - which is what we expected!!

Thank you so much for your insets! We appreciate it a lot!!