Canada+Ancestry+US+Transfer: Help plan best course of action

[krelkor]

Greetings!

Sorry for the giant post, this is not the most complicated of situations but I just want to make sure I'm not missing anything

First, some background!

Me:
Canadian Citizen
Grandparents born in Scotland
I've lived in the US for 12 years -- naturalized US citizen in addition to Canadian Citizen
Currently live in US

Wife:
Canadian Citizen
No UK ancestry
Currently lives with me in US - on H1B (employer sponsored visa, not permanent resident)

Situation
We want to move to the UK for adventure. My company has an office in London which I have been approved to transfer to, but we have not yet started any of the visa processes. Normally I would just go with the standard inter-company office transfer and be done with it...however:

My biggest fear is moving to London on an transfer work sponsored visa is that it will make me tied to my employer. This would greatly limit my ability to move to a new company in a few years, and puts me at huge risk if my company has layoffs, which then I assume I would need to leave the country.

I bring this up because when my Wife first came with me to the US, I was a greencard holder and she was on an H1B(work sponsored). Her company laid her off, thus terminating her H1B status -- giving her 30 days to leave the country. Being a greencard holder, I was unable to keep her in the country and had no recourse. A terrifying situation! Luckily she's brilliant, and managed to land a new employer in 20 days, including H1B sponsorship allowing her to stay in the country. But that entire horrifying ordeal has us never want to be dependent on an employer visa again.

So, after all that background above, my question is:

Since I qualify for an Ancestry Visa via my grandparents and me being Canadian, is it best for me to pursue that route instead of an employer sponsored visa?

Thanks for taking the time to offer suggestions

[newperson]

You must *absolutely* go the Ancestry route. Your wife should subsequently be an Ancestry dependent. And if you can get your employer to pay for these visa applications, all the better.

I have a similar background to yours and I can guarantee to you that it's the best way to go. There's a lot less fuss to an ancestry application than a work one. The path to permanent residency/citizenship is also a whole lot clearer.

Btw, if your wife can get her US citizenship before you head off, that might be a thing to consider. Given that she's only on a work visa now, I reckon that's unlikely...but just putting it out there to ponder.

Btw btw...your wife should realise that if for any reason your relationship flounders with her while she's on the ancestry dependent visa, she will have to leave the UK unless she can qualify for something else on her own merits. That's something for her to keep in mind. You, however, will always be good to go immigration-wise.

[krelkor]

Thank you for the quick reply!

Wife will not be able to get US citizenship before we head to the UK. In fact we're purposely not applying for her permanent residence status in the US because of our planned move to the UK. Once you have a greencard, and give it up(move out of country), it just creates more hassle if and when you wish to come back to the US.

Separate from our UK move, but i suppose tangential, she is in process of applying for Slovenian citizenship through her mother. The goal of this is for her to have EU citizenship eventually. Not that it matters really for this discussion, but its still exciting.

Your point about her being left stranded if things do not work out or anything happens to me is a prudent thought. Is her ability to be self sufficient any different between being my dependent via an Ancestry visa vs employer visa?

[newperson]

Your point about her being left stranded if things do not work out or anything happens to me is a prudent thought. Is her ability to be self sufficient any different between being my dependent via an Ancestry visa vs employer visa?

The practical differences are minimal. As a dependent, she can take any work without restriction. However, on the ancestry path if you divorce, she's on her own. If you lose your job on the work/ICT path, you and she might have to leave the country if you cannot switch to another employer or into another route (e.g., she gets a work permit herself and you become the dependent).

However, if you lose your job on the ancestry path, she can keep on working. With ancestry, her working is not curtailed by your not working.

Just keep in mind that with ancestry, you (the main applicant) will have to be working or looking for work or have a significant history of working to be granted permanent residence/ILR.

If your wife becomes Slovenian, great. I would just inform the Home Office/Inland Revenue/Work & Pensions should that happen. I wouldn't be tempted, however, to switch to the EU route once she gets that red passport. Although it's a no-cost route, your five years to permanent residence would start over, thus delaying your own UK citizenship application.

[krelkor]

The practical differences are minimal. As a dependent, she can take any work without restriction. However, on the ancestry path if you divorce, she's on her own. If you lose your job on the work/ICT path, you and she might have to leave the country if you cannot switch to another employer or into another route (e.g., she gets a work permit herself and you become the dependent).

However, if you lose your job on the ancestry path, she can keep on working. With ancestry, her working is not curtailed by your not working.

Actually, this brings up a situation I had not thought of.
Say I come into the UK on a work/ICT visa, with her working while being my dependent. I then decide to get a new job with a company that re-sponsers me -- will my wife's employer have the hassle of dealing with new visa problems? Will she be impacted at all while she continues to work?

[mulderpf]

Best suggestion is to stick to ancestry route - it's the easiest. You don't have the hassle of having to worry if you want to resign how it will affect your whole family, you don't have the hassle of the government trying to clamp down (they have said they will leave the ancestry route alone), it is more likely that the rules won't change significantly as they have for all the other routes. You don't have this big cloud hanging over you about having to renew your visa etc. With ancestry it's a 5 year visa and you can then move onto ILR. With Tier 2 it becomes messy as you have to renew your visa inside this time and you are never clear whether you can even move onto ILR or not.

Stick to ancestry!! It will really save you a ton of hassle in the long-term. (Being a dependent on an ancestry visa is not really much different to being a dependent on any other visa - as long as the main applicant has a right to remain in the UK and the relationship is ongoing, the dependent can also remain in the UK).

[newperson]

Actually, this brings up a situation I had not thought of.
Say I come into the UK on a work/ICT visa, with her working while being my dependent. I then decide to get a new job with a company that re-sponsers me -- will my wife's employer have the hassle of dealing with new visa problems? Will she be impacted at all while she continues to work?

I don't know the answer to that. I was on ancestry and never had to deal with such issues. Hence why ancestry route trumps the work/ICT route...

[krelkor]

Perfect, thanks to both for confirming what I thought of originally.

1 last silly and obvious question. Since i hold both US and Canadian passports, and I live in the US, I assume that I just submit my Canadian passport to the visa application office in the US and hold onto my US passport?

Or do we think that the Visa application office in the US only deals with US -> UK visas?
I ask because having to go back up to Canada for a few weeks to submit in Toronto with an uncertain verification date would make me a little uneasy.