Hi guys! Canadian born, UK citizen, wanting to come home, require help!!

[TommyTom]

Thanks for stopping to read,

My Girlfriend and I are pulling our hair out! I've tried embassies on both sides (websites & phone conversations), talked to immigration companies and trawled the web all to no avail.

I have a Canadian birth certificate, I was born in Richmond BC in October 1982 to my parents (UK expats who had 10 years permanent citizenship previous to my birth), my mother was homesick when I was a baby so they returned home to the UK, I was 3 years old at this stage.

My girlfriend and I would love to move back out to Canada, after several vacations over the years I know I am supposed to be back home!
I know my birth certificate qualifies my citizenship, but the information I cannot find Is how my status can help my girlfriends application, and indeed, how to find the correct application route for us to follow.

What I would really be grateful to know is:

1# What would be the optimal process for securing my girlfriend and I citizenship, I.E what would the most applicable visa be to our situation?

2# Do I need to 'activate' dual citizenship for myself?

3# Is the guy that quoted me £2500 for a visa application having a bloody laugh?

At the end of the day we want to progress this ourselves, i will not let some opportunist rip off merchants rule the day by a general lack of information!
Has anyone found the act of gathering information on immigration with non-standard circumstances as infuriating as I have?

Any comment are hugely appreciated, Tom

[ariell]

Hi Tommy

Sorry it took you so long to find the info. you need. It's really not so complicated.

1. Your best bet is to either get married and apply to sponsor your wife as a member of the family class. Or if you have lived together for at least 12 months consecutively, you can apply to sponsor her as your common-law partner. In either case, the application form is the same and can be found here: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/applications/fc.asp The application has 3 parts that have to be completed and sent together: your sponsorship application, her permanent residence application and country-specific guidelines for the UK. Read through the information carefully and then if you have specific questions about the forms you can post back here.

2. No, not necessary.

3. Yes. Your total fee payable to  Canada Immigration would be $1040. See here for the fee calculator: https://services3.cic.gc.ca/efee/efee.do  There would be additional fees of course if you decided to hire a lawyer or immigration consultant but that is totally not necessary unless your case is complicated which it doesn't sound like it is. Most of us here did our own applications and were approved with no problem.

Good luck!

[Immigration Expert]

Hi Tommy,

I am one of those guys who help people to prepare their immigration applications, take care of their files while they are in process, etc. I am licensed by CSIC and have over 14 years of experience in the field.  I agree with most of the people in this forum , that you are indeed need no one to help you with your matters. Having said that, I suggest in your case to take a legal advice or 1/2 hr consultation from a Canadian lawyer/CSIC member in UK to make sure you understand the procedure and what is required for your file. Immigration is such a simple but very confusing field, especially when it comes to filing, processing and replying to immigration authorities, never mind final decisions. I hope it helps. Good luck!

[TommyTom]

Thank you for both of your replies,

I'll do some investigating and check those forms out, time to get the ball rolling i think!

Ariel: I'm deffinatley going to give it a go myself, though beurocracy really gets my goat, it's not worth the paper its written on! (bad pun i know, but I couldn't resist)

Immigration Expert: I'll keep you in mind if things prove to be overbaring, but don't go getting any ideas about a £2500 fee! ;)

I'll post back here as things progress, hopefully there will be other people who can benefit from your help.

Thanks again, Tom

[owen00]

Hi there

My situation is very similar to Tom's in that my boyfriend is Canadian-born, but has been living over in UK for the last couple of years.  We have been living together for a year now and are just about to apply for a common law visa too.

My questions are about the process and approval times -

1) How long does it generally take to get your visa approved from when you first send off the application to me getting my visa approved? 

2) I take it my boyfriend first has to qualify as a sponsor?  Will he have to show that he will have employment when we move over there?  How long does this stage of the application take?

3) Where do we have to send our application?  I have heard that processing it outbound is the quicker route...but have also read that we'll have to send it to CanAda to get it processed...is this correct?  And why is that?

Thank you very much in advance for your help!

[mitamata]

1.) It takes about a month for Mississauga to approve the sponsorship and then an additional 2-8 months for London to finish things up.
You can see the processing times here: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/times/international/05-fc-spouses.asp
and here: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/times/canada/process-in.asp#sponsorship

2.) This is the Mississauga part, it's currently done in just over a month. He doesn't have to show he'll have a job, though that of course would be great. As he's living outside of Canada though, he WILL have to prove he intends to move back when you get a visa. So he should start looking into that soon. A job offer is great proof, if not that, then maybe owning or renting a place to stay in Canada, having letters from family saying you can stay with them, emails showing he's been looking for a job, enrollment in a college course in Canada etc.

3.) Yes, you complete all the forms (for sponsorship and for PR), do the medical, get the police checks and pay the fees and send it all to Mississauga. Because they're the ones that approve the sponsorship. Mississauga will transfer your file to London once they've done their part.