coming to england from canada. to live.

sandraroffey

no strictly holiday i know, but this was the only bit i could find to do with travel.

hope someone can point me in the right direction. my cousin lives and was born in canada. her parents were born in england.

she want to come back to england to live. Now, sometime last year i came across a website that gave all the information she could possibly want about this. apparently, because her parents were born here, as were all ancesters before her parents, she would have no problem coming back over. BUUUUUUT i cant find the website!!!!!!!!!!

can anyone point me in the right direction??? is it home office?? is it immigration services??? british embassy????

any help gratefully accepted. with my thanks.

charlearose

try posting on either uk resident or immigration boards ( just google) they are very informative and there are lots of boards there with regard to your type of question
she would be applying for a visa due to ancestory this info is on these boards they are both very good for all information regarding any type of visa /immgration issues

jd87

Immigration is dealt with by the UK Border Agency, part of the Home Office. Their website has lots of advice about this sort of thing:

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/

DavidHayton

I would suggest that she applies for a British passport. She should contact the British High Commission in Ottawa. http://ukincanada.fco.gov.uk/en/help-for-british-nationals/passports/ They will refer her to the UK embassy in Washington: they handle all passport issues from North America. It will cost her 217 USD. This, incidently, is significantly more than it would cost a UK resident (!!!)
Once she has that in her hand she will be able to enter the UK freely and stay as long as she likes. However there is then the questions of National Insurance numbers, housing, how to apply for work without local references, and a myriad of other issues that we take for granted. There are several forums along the lines of canadiansintheuk dot something that would help.
David

DavidHayton

Here is the page on the UK-embassy-in-Washington website from where you can download UK passport application forms
http://ukinusa.fco.gov.uk/en/help-for-british-nationals/passports/how-to-apply/canada

She will need form C1 if she is an adult. If she fills out the form with all her parents' details then she should have no trouble securing a full British Passport. (form C1 for adults; C2 for under 16s)
The BN-O form is not what she wants - BN-O status does not convey the right to live in the UK.

David

cpdc1030

As mentioned, the British High Commission in Ottawa no longer issues passports, these are handled by the embassy in Washington.

However, once she receives her passport things are dead easy - she can literally book a flight and start making plans as soon as she's received it. The most important thing is to arrange an interview for a National Insurance number as soon as possible after arriving, as this is needed before she can start working.

Finally, when she's looking for a bank account, only try Barclays or HSBC first rather than smaller banks or building societies who will drop you like a hot potato (or may take several weeks to do so, which is even more frustrating)

Any more questions, I'm happy to help as I made the same move 4 1/2 years ago.

Cheers

CPDC1030

sandraroffey

thanks you all for the most excellent responses. sorry for the delay but dont have the internet at home. will pass all this information to her.

Voyager2002

cpdc1030 wrote: »

The most important thing is to arrange an interview for a National Insurance number as soon as possible after arriving, as this is needed before she can start working.

CPDC1030

She is actually allowed to work without one, but many employers may not understand this.