Job Discussion Forums

koshechka · Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2007 10:49 pm Post subject: having a baby in canada

well, my question may appear to be a bit strange but here it goes. my husband and i want to move to canada. he is mexican and i am american. right now, we are living in chile. long story short, what are the options for us if he (my husband) decides to study at ubc in a master's program. can i go along? what will our medical coverage be like? could we have a baby while we are there? if he gets a job offer, can he stay and become a resident, by default making us all legal? is columbia university recognized in canada and will it be seen as better than ubc by the employers? he is an architect and i am an english teacher, finishing my master's degree. from what i've read, it will be difficult for me to find some sort of decent paying job. how can i make sure that my degree will be recognized by canada? any thoughts will be greatly appreciated since we've just gotten the moving chills (something that seems to happen every two years or so) and vancouver is calling.
thanks

naturegirl321 · Joined: 04 May 2003 Posts: 9041 Location: home sweet home

From what I know, having a baby in the USA or Canada, the baby automatically becomes a citizen, something's that's rare these days, but it also happens in Peru.

Have you thought of both of you studying?

You're in Chile now, could you afford to buy some type of housing and then rent it out? That's what we're planning on doing. Renting out rooms to uni students could give you 100 USD per room per month.

About your degree, why wouldn't it be recognised if it's from an acredited university?

GambateBingBangBOOM · Joined: 04 Nov 2003 Posts: 2021 Location: Japan

naturegirl321 · Joined: 04 May 2003 Posts: 9041 Location: home sweet home

VanKen · Joined: 29 Oct 2003 Posts: 139 Location: Calgary, AB Canada

naturegirl321 · Joined: 04 May 2003 Posts: 9041 Location: home sweet home

Guess the best way would be to get pregnant in Canada and have the baby there.

VanKen · Joined: 29 Oct 2003 Posts: 139 Location: Calgary, AB Canada

GambateBingBangBOOM · Joined: 04 Nov 2003 Posts: 2021 Location: Japan

rusmeister · Joined: 15 Jun 2006 Posts: 867 Location: Russia

Gordon · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Posts: 5309 Location: Japan

if your child is born in Canada, they are automatically Canadian, but you will still be American. So in essence they can stay in the country, but you may not be able to.

naturegirl321 · Joined: 04 May 2003 Posts: 9041 Location: home sweet home

But you'd think since they want more young couples, they'd rush a visa application for those young couples rather than old ones. Plus if you have a Canadian baby, then wouldn't you be more likely to stay in the country?

koshechka · Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2007 7:22 pm Post subject: thanks

thanks to those of you who have answered,
i especially liked the suggestion that my baby would be canadian and can stay while i would have to go. hm, maybe it's just me but this doesn't seem the way to go. as far as purchasing insurance, i saw that the university is supposed to provide care to their international students, is this not so, or are the wives not included in this deal? and i don't see the baby as a loophole, the master's in architecture at ubc is 3 and a half years long, and we want to have a baby sooner than later, so it is just bound to happen. thanks especially to GambateBingBangBOOM for explaining the canadian college system. by the way, what do you mean that the baby will be canadian unless we tell the doctor that we are not canadians, wouldn't it be clear anyway. i am practicing my "about" pronunciation but i am not at all convinced. finally, if he cannot just change from being a student to being a resident, would we have to leave, stay somewhere else waiting for two years and come back? that just doesn't seem in any way logical. i am sure that there are other people who remained after finishing their degrees, or no?
p.s. what happens if we apply to be skilled workers, well, my husband does, from buffalo, could he put that he has a master's degree if he is enrolled but not finished. it's pretty clear that if the application process takes two years, many things may change. what if we get accepted but his program isn't finished as of yet, would this be a problem? i think that this is a difficult system, here in chile, you first come in, get a job offer, start your residence process and live and work while it's taking care of itself. but, well, i am digressing.
thanks again for any suggestions you can give,
cheers

naturegirl321 · Joined: 04 May 2003 Posts: 9041 Location: home sweet home

GambateBingBangBOOM · Joined: 04 Nov 2003 Posts: 2021 Location: Japan

Babies that are born to non-Canadians (which includes non permanent residents of Canada) are not actually automatically Canadian. But it's so rare for that type of thing to happen that the baby is automatically called Canadian, unless the parents actually tell the doctor that they have no permanent legal status in the country. If a doctor has just delivered a baby, he or she isn't going to stop and think "hmmmmm....this is the fourth baby I've delivered today but before giving out a birth certificate, maybe I'd better do a spot check of these peoples' legal status in this country, even though I have no right to do that!"

It's basically a rule that is hardly ever applied because there isn't anybody in charge at Canadian hospitals of ensuring that all babies have parents with permanent residence or citizenship.

But having a dependent with citizenship isn't going to net someone all that many points on the permanent residence application. Having relatives is worth points because it suggests a financial and social safety net for living life in Canada. A baby is definately not a financial safety net!

MELEE · Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2007 2:39 pm Post subject:

Okay,
I know that a graduate degree from a Canadian university is probably more prestigous in the long run, but why not Mexico? Mexico is very very good to it's graduate students, I know, I'm married to one. If your husband qualified to be a CONACYT (Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia) scholar he would pay no tuition or inscription fees, get a stipen of 7000 pesos a month, and he, you and any offspring would get medical coverage as part of the deal. They also have funding for studying abroad, so maybe they could even fund you to go to Canada and they would cover your health care while you were there. I used to work with a British women who married a Mexican, her husband got a scholarship to do his PhD studies in England and the Mexican government funded the family (they already had one son born in Mexico) for three years. The Brisith Council also have many attractive programs for Mexicans to study in England. So unless there is a particular person he wants to work under at UBC, he's got loads of options open to him as a Mexican.
It's also worth mentioning that it is ridculously cheap to have a baby in Mexico. Even though I was covered by both IMSS and ISSTE a chose to have my twins at a private clinic. A twin delivery (c-section) with six MDs present and all associated hosptial stay costs came to a gran total of 15,000 pesos (about 1500 dollars). In the US that would have been at least 150,000 DOLLARS!
So really, why Canada?