UBC med from Ontario?

[Victor Donovan]

Hey guys, I've always had my eye on UBC med and am now close to applying to a few med schools. I hear UBC has a strong in provence preference...is this true? Would I get an advantage if I just change my Ontario staus to BC with some govenerment paperwork lol   or do you have to do your undergrad and live there as well? Be great to get some input from people who are from ontario based universities (anything to up my chances).

 

Cheers,

Victor 

[frenchpress]

UBC only gives a maximum 10% of the seats to out-of-province applicants, so it’s much more competitive. To be considered as an in-province applicant you’d need become a BC resident, which means meeting the criteria to obtain health care coverage (MSP) here. I think you need to have resided in BC for a minimum 6 months to qualify for MSP.

[scrubbed0ut]

Hey if you become a BC resident would you have to change your healthcard/drivers license? I live in Ontario so i have the ON healthcard/drivers license. Would I still be able to use my ON cards even if I live in both provinces? 

[frenchpress]

3 hours ago, scrubbed0ut said:

Hey if you become a BC resident would you have to change your healthcard/drivers license? I live in Ontario so i have the ON healthcard/drivers license. Would I still be able to use my ON cards even if I live in both provinces? 

When it comes to governmental things like healthcare, drivers license, tax filing, etc, you can only be a resident of one province at a time even if you have ties to more than one province. 

Usually residency is dictated by the amount of time you’re residing in the province. So if you’re moving to BC you’ll become a resident and then need to change your healthcare and driver’s license after you’ve been here a certain period of time. For your driver’s license, it’s 90 days. For health care, you usually lose eligibility from your home province after you’ve been gone ~6 months (the exact number of days varies from province to province) — usually they actually suggest you apply right away when you move, or you risk losing coverage if your old coverage expires before you actually get coverage in your new province. You can sometimes get away with not switching a driver’s license right away (I did), but with stuff like health care they can notice pretty quick if they get wind your address has changed to another province (for example, filling prescriptions or going to the doctor in a new province can tip them off). 

The exception is that all the provinces generally give exemptions that can allow you to remain as a resident of one province if you can prove you’re living in another province “temporarily” — e.g. full-time students for duration of a degree, on an extended vacation, etc. So if you meet any of those exemptions you could choose to remain a resident of your original province (e.g. Ontario) and keep your healthcare and driver’s licence, file taxes in Ontario, etc. But then you wouldn’t be able to claim residency in BC for UBC medical school (which I assume is why you’re asking?).

 

[chiynadoll]

4 hours ago, scrubbed0ut said:

Hey if you become a BC resident would you have to change your healthcard/drivers license? I live in Ontario so i have the ON healthcard/drivers license. Would I still be able to use my ON cards even if I live in both provinces? 

You can use your Ontario DL to drive in BC. However, if you get pulled by a cop for any reason, they will flag you and ask you to "update your address", which would mean getting a BC DL. If you have a full license though, its just an application, no additional tests. 

If you want to be a BC resident for the purpose of applying in-province to UBC, you'd need to be MSP eligible before the application deadline, so you have to move to BC the winter/spring before to have your MSP paperwork and care card ready to go. I've done this for a relative (the move, not med) and it took only 3 months, but you never know.

You can't hold residencies in two provinces for health care though, so if you want to use OHIP in BC, you can (under whatever they allow for out of province care, if the HCP will bill to OHIP), but then you're not a BC resident for UBC's criteria.