Moving to United Kingdom from Canada

A longer stay needs the Youth Mobility Scheme if you are 18 to 35, the UK Ancestry visa if a grandparent was born in the UK, or a work, talent or business visa. To be safe, more than 42,000 pounds a year, or the job's going rate if higher: GOV.UK says the Skilled Worker minimum salary is whichever is highest of a set figure and the going rate for the job. To be safe, have a job offer paying more than 42,000 pounds a year, which is about CA$79,000 at the ECB-derived rate of 15 October 2026. Lower floors apply in set cases (a relevant PhD, a job on the Immigration Salary List, a new entrant at the start of a career, or some healthcare and education jobs on national pay scales), and across them the floors run about 25,000 to 37,500 pounds a year; if you rely on one of those cases, to be safe, have a job paying more than 38,000 pounds a year. You also need a job offer from a Home Office approved employer before you apply. The British High Commission in Ottawa does not handle visas, so no Canadian office prints a different figure: GOV.UK's is the one that applies. The figures can change, so confirm them on GOV.UK when you apply.

You need a minimum balance in your bank account for 28 days in a row (to be safe, hold more than 2,600 pounds), with day 28 within 31 days of applying, and you cannot apply if you have children under 18 who live with you or depend on you, or if you have been in the UK under the scheme before. The application fee is 340 pounds and the immigration health surcharge is 776 pounds a year. The visa lasts up to 24 months, and Canadians (with Australians and New Zealanders) can extend it once by a year, for 3 years in total, for another 340 pounds and 776 pounds. You can work in most jobs and study. Self-employment is allowed only if you own no premises other than your home, your business equipment is worth no more than 5,000 pounds and you have no employees; you cannot bring family on your application or claim public funds, and the scheme is not a route to settlement. We found nothing saying how the scheme treats remote work for an employer or clients outside the UK, so that is unknown. A decision usually comes within 3 weeks, and you can apply up to 6 months before you travel. The UK Ancestry visa is open to a Commonwealth citizen (Canada is on the list in Schedule 3 to the British Nationality Act 1981) aged 17 or over who has a grandparent born in the UK, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man (or born before 31 March 1922 in what is now Ireland, or on a UK-registered ship or aircraft). A great-grandparent does not count, nor does a grandparent born in a British colony or overseas territory, and you cannot claim through a step-parent. You must be able to work and plan to work in the UK, and show you can support and house yourself and any dependants without public funds. The Home Office sets no fixed sum; your evidence, such as bank statements dated within 31 days of applying, is judged as a whole and credible support from a relative or friend can count, so the amount you need is unknown. The visa costs 726 pounds plus the immigration health surcharge of 1,035 pounds a year, which is 5,175 pounds for the 5 years on our arithmetic. It lets you work, including self-employment, study and bring a partner and children, and you cannot switch into it from another UK visa. A decision usually comes within 3 weeks from outside the UK, and you can apply up to 3 months before you travel. After 5 continuous years (in most cases no more than 180 days outside the UK in any 12 months) you can apply to settle for 3,226 pounds, with a Life in the UK test and an English requirement (level B2 for applications on or after 26 March 2027), or extend for a further 5 years for 1,407 pounds plus the surcharge. If you have a UK-born parent, check first whether you are already a British citizen, or whether you have the right of abode, which a Commonwealth citizen can have through a parent who was born in the UK and was a citizen of the United Kingdom and colonies when you were born or adopted, if you were a Commonwealth citizen on 31 December 1982 and never stopped being one.

A Global Talent application starts with the endorsement letter and must be made within 3 months of getting it; a High Potential Individual application needs the Ecctis certificate for your degree and proof of savings. For the Youth Mobility Scheme you provide a valid passport and a bank statement showing the minimum balance (to be safe, hold more than 2,600 pounds); Canadian nationals have no country-specific certificate to add. For the Ancestry visa you provide your passport, your full birth certificate, the full birth certificates of the parent and grandparent your claim runs through, evidence that you plan to work (job offers, or a business plan if you will be self-employed), bank statements dated within 31 days of applying, and where they apply name-change papers (marriage certificates, a deed poll) and adoption papers. Money held in Canadian dollars is converted to pounds at the OANDA spot rate for the date you apply. The account must be in your name at a regulated institution with electronic records, and overdrafts, shares, bonds and credit cards do not count. You prove your identity with the UK Immigration: ID Check app or by giving fingerprints and a photo at a visa application centre, and GOV.UK says you will be told which when you apply; we could not confirm where Canadians give biometrics. A tuberculosis test is needed only if you are coming for 6 months or more and have lived 6 months or more in a listed country, and Canada is not on the list. We found no official page listing a police record that any of these visas accept from Canadians, so that is unknown. GOV.UK says you can apply for a Skilled Worker visa up to 3 months before the start date on your certificate of sponsorship, and a decision usually comes within 3 weeks from outside the UK. Global Talent decisions also usually come within 3 weeks. A High Potential Individual visa can be applied for up to 3 months before you travel. A Youth Mobility Scheme application can be made up to 6 months before you travel, with a decision usually within 3 weeks; because Canada has a cap of 10,000 places in 2026, check that places remain before you plan around it. An Ancestry application can be made up to 3 months before you travel, with a decision usually within 3 weeks, and you cannot switch into it from another UK visa, so apply from outside the UK. An ETA decision usually comes within a day. Whether you can switch from visitor status to a work visa from inside the UK is not something we researched.

Whether you are UK resident depends on how many days you spend in the UK in the tax year, which runs from 6 April to 5 April. You are resident if you meet an automatic UK test or the sufficient ties test and no automatic overseas test. The automatic UK tests include 183 or more days in the UK, having your only home in the UK for 91 days or more in a row with at least 30 days spent there in the year, and working full-time in the UK for any 365 days that overlap the year. You are usually non-resident if you spend fewer than 16 days in the UK (46 if you were not UK resident in the 3 previous tax years), or work full-time abroad, spend fewer than 91 days in the UK and work no more than 30 of them. Between 16 and 182 days the test counts ties such as family, accommodation and work. UK residents normally pay UK tax on income from the UK and abroad, and when you move in the year is usually split into a non-resident and a resident part. The statutory residence test is in Schedule 45 to the Finance Act 2013. A stay of 183 days or more in one tax year meets the first automatic UK test, so a full 6 months as a visitor can make you UK resident. Canada does not end your tax residence at the airport: you are an emigrant only if you leave to live in another country and sever your residential ties, and keeping a home, a spouse or partner, or dependants in Canada usually leaves you a factual resident of Canada. If both countries treat you as resident, Article 4 of the Canada-UK convention decides in this order: permanent home, centre of vital interests, habitual abode, nationality. The CRA offers Form NR73 for its opinion when you leave.

Employees pay Class 1 National Insurance of 8% on weekly earnings between 242.01 and 967 pounds and 2% above. Self-employed people pay Class 4 of 6% on profits from 12,570 to 50,270 pounds and 2% above, and no Class 2 contributions where profit is 7,105 pounds or more. Capital gains are taxed at 18% and 24% for individuals, with a 3,000 pound annual exempt amount. We have not worked out any person's bill.

It covers eligible foreign income and gains such as foreign interest, dividends from non-UK companies and profits of a trade carried on wholly outside the UK, but foreign earnings are not eligible. If you claim, you lose the tax-free allowances for Income Tax and Capital Gains Tax. Overseas Workday Relief covers employment income for duties you perform outside the UK in those years, up to the lower of 30% of the qualifying employment income or 300,000 pounds, and electing for it also loses the Personal Allowance and annual exempt amount for the year. Work you do while physically in the UK is not covered, so a Canadian employee working remotely from the UK for a Canadian employer gains little from it. Canada keeps taxing you as a resident until your Canadian residence ends (see below), and neither UK regime changes that, so ask an adviser whether either regime changes your total.

The CRA lists form CPT71 for a certificate of coverage, with a maximum initial detachment of 60 months; an employer sending an employee abroad temporarily can ask for one, and so can a self-employed person who is a resident of Canada and will be working outside Canada temporarily, but a permanent transfer is not a detachment. The pages we read do not say how this applies to someone who moves on their own and keeps working for a Canadian employer or clients, so that is unknown until you ask the CRA and HMRC. A separate 1995 arrangement lets UK residents count certain periods of residence in Canada toward UK benefits. Retraite Quebec's list of Quebec agreements does not show the UK, so Quebec contributors should check separately. A CPP retirement pension can be paid abroad with one valid contribution; OAS only with 20 or more years of residence in Canada after age 18; the Guaranteed Income Supplement for 6 months. Under Article 17, periodic pension payments, which the convention says include social security payments such as CPP and OAS, are taxable only where the person lives, and HMRC says the same for pensions arising in Canada and paid to a UK pensioner. Annuities can be taxed in both countries, with the source country limited to 10%. HMRC says a lump sum taken from an RRSP or RRIF by a UK resident faces 25% Canadian withholding tax, and whether the UK gives credit depends on whether the funds built up before or after 6 April 2017. We found no HMRC guidance on how a UK resident is taxed on a TFSA, so that is unknown. The UK has no reciprocal healthcare agreement with Canada: Canada is not on GOV.UK's list, and visitors pay for NHS care at the point of use. Provincial rules for keeping health coverage while away differ: Ontario allows up to 2 years in some cases. This is a mechanism, not your bill.

If you are UK resident with foreign income or gains you usually report them on a Self Assessment return; if you have not filed before, tell HMRC by 5 October after the tax year in which you had the income. We found no official figure for how long HMRC registration takes.

We did not research the CRA's reporting forms for Canadian residents with foreign property, so those are unknown.