So it is ただ だ then. Thanks! You just saved me from so much irritating confusion.

The まえから was actually a correction of one of my posts on Lang-8. It was written by a native speaker so I would assume it’s correct. I had originally written ながいこと　ならたかった which was then corrected to まえからならいたかった.

Here is the entire corrected sentence –
日本語をまえからならいたかったので、日本にりょこうします。