Emigrating with Debt

yippeedoo

Hi,

I've been offered a postion by my company out in Canada and it's something that we'd like to do. From a visa, etc point of view there will be no problem according to the company I work for due to my experience, etc. However, they are unaware of my debts and I'm not sure how it will affect my visa application (if at all).

The bad days are behind me and my debt is now under control and manageable. It consists of;
3 x Payment Plans with credit card companies (£12k total)
2 x Payment Plans with DCAs (£18k total)
All will be paid off within 6 years at current rates. However, I'm also slowly building some savings so that I can settle some of these early (regardless of whether we leave the UK or not)

What I'm hoping someone can answer is;
1. Will my Payment Plans affect my visa application?
2. Will my Credit Rating be investigated and affect my application?
3. I don't want to run and leave debt behind but are my creditors likely to accept a low settlement offer in case they think I will do this?

Thanks for any help.

Culex

How long do you expect to stay in Canada?

Delree

Why does anyone need to know? As long as you transfer money to your UK accounts to service your arrangements you could be on the moon.
I got a one year working holiday visa (not quite the same thing I realise) in Canada with a fairly meaty credit card balance (£3k) and it was never a problem.

My only tip is to shop around for your bank account because over there they charge you for EVERYTHING and take a nasty cut of any overseas transactions.

yippeedoo

Culex wrote: »

How long do you expect to stay in Canada?

The plan is indefinitely but should the family not settle or things don't work out, we may need to come back to the UK - another reason not to ignore my debt here.

yippeedoo

Delree wrote: »

Why does anyone need to know? As long as you transfer money to your UK accounts to service your arrangements you could be on the moon.
I got a one year working holiday visa (not quite the same thing I realise) in Canada with a fairly meaty credit card balance (£3k) and it was never a problem.

My only tip is to shop around for your bank account because over there they charge you for EVERYTHING and take a nasty cut of any overseas transactions.

Thanks for the tips.

I understand your point about servicing my arrangements from abroad but I'm more concerned about obtaining the visa itself. I don't know if the Canadian Immigration would actively look at any applicant's credit history and if it was poor, decline an application because of it.

Guess I better go and find an Immigration forum somewhere.

d-van

It shouldn't affect your visa application as long as you have no CCJ's or have been declared bankrupt. They do a criminal check on you but all the financial check they wanna know is that you have enough money to support yourself without recourse to public funds. My friend emigrated to Toronto a few years back and she had a student loan which they wiped clean when she got there. Apparently if you move abroad you don't need to pay student loans back! It will obviously not apply to you but you should check out canada's embassy and then see which kind of visa will you need. But you are more than likely to obtain it seen as you already have a job guaranteed there. Don't worry, just do your research

yippeedoo

d-van wrote: »

It shouldn't affect your visa application as long as you have no CCJ's or have been declared bankrupt. They do a criminal check on you but all the financial check they wanna know is that you have enough money to support yourself without recourse to public funds. My friend emigrated to Toronto a few years back and she had a student loan which they wiped clean when she got there. Apparently if you move abroad you don't need to pay student loans back! It will obviously not apply to you but you should check out canada's embassy and then see which kind of visa will you need. But you are more than likely to obtain it seen as you already have a job guaranteed there. Don't worry, just do your research

That's a great help - thanks d-van.

Delree

d-van wrote: »

My friend emigrated to Toronto a few years back and she had a student loan which they wiped clean when she got there. Apparently if you move abroad you don't need to pay student loans back!

That is not correct. A friend of mine lives in Luxembourg and is paying his loan back.
There's a difference between not paying because it's wiped and not paying because they can't find you.

FOURCANDLES_2

A friend of mine moved to spain 8 years ago and is still there he left debt of 32k back in the uk he has not been bothered once, and his relative who lives in the house now said they returned all letters and have only in the 8 years had 1 debt collector call for £750 who left once they told him he left 2 year prev .

yippeedoo

FOURCANDLES wrote: »

A friend of mine moved to spain 8 years ago and is still there he left debt of 32k back in the uk he has not been bothered once, and his relative who lives in the house now said they returned all letters and have only in the 8 years had 1 debt collector call for £750 who left once they told him he left 2 year prev .

Yeh I've considered that option but if things don't work out in Canada and we need to come back, I'll be coming back to a bigger mess than the one I got myself in first time around. I don't fancy going through all that again.

However, I'm wondering if I approach my creditors and tell them that I'm emigrating but I'd like to settle before I go so that I leave with a clean slate, they'll consider a lower than normal offer. As far as they're concerned, there is a risk to them that I can just disappear forever and they'll get nothing? As I said, it's not my intention to do that, but they don't know that do they.

Has anyone had any experience of that?

d-van

Delree wrote: »

That is not correct. A friend of mine lives in Luxembourg and is paying his loan back.
There's a difference between not paying because it's wiped and not paying because they can't find you.

She isn't paying because they can't find her, she comes back regularly and was never asked to pay it back. The way I understand it, they are repaid as tax and she does pay tax in canada therefore if she had to pay it back they would deduct it as they would here! She hasn't ran away from it!