Bringing loved one from Dominican To Canada

[Sebastian]

Hi,

I'm a newb to this forum and all this is new to me so hopefully there are some kind souls out there who could point me in the right direction so I can make a lifelong dream come true.

I've found someone I truely love and would like to bring here to Canada to live and we have already met a few times on either vacations together or meeting the parents.

She is a Citizen of Dominican Republic and I'm a Citizen of Canada.  What i need to know is what steps I have to take in order to bring her here where she will live with me permanently.  We are deciding on getting married but is the a pre-requisite before making her permanent here in Canada or can she obtain a temporary visa or residency for a couple years until we settle down, find her a job, then get married!

I've read posts here and it all seems soo easy but the common denominator is that people get married first before bringing the other over...

What are my options?

Thank you to those who have given their time to educate me.

Sebastian

[Leon]

Go to the CIC website at http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/sponsor/index.asp and read read read

The basics of it is that if there is nothing preventing you from getting married or living together, you can not apply as conjugal partners.  If you haven't lived together for 12 months, you can not apply as common law partners.  That pretty much leaves getting married.

There is no fiance visa or temporary residency for fiances.  It is unlikely that your girlfriend will be given a visitors visa to come and stay with you since they are not supposed to issue it to people who are planning on staying and with a Canadian boyfriend, they will assume she will be staying.  That leaves you going there to marry her, then applying to sponsor her.  You can expect 6 weeks to approve you as a sponsor, see http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/times/canada/process-in.asp#sponsorship and after that her file goes to Port-au-Prince where it takes average 11 months, see http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/times/international/05-fc-spouses.asp#west

In the meantime you can visit her.  It is possible that after you have been approved as a sponsor that you can apply for a visit visa with dual intent for her to come and stay with you while you wait but she would not be allowed to work.  It depends on the embassy if they will allow it or not.  If she would be called for an interview, she would have to go back for it.  Eventually she would get a permanent resident visa and would be able to come to Canada as a permanent resident with all such rights and responsibilities.  She would have to live in Canada 3 years as a PR to be able to apply for citizenship.