inland / outland... please help

[hecapoole]

My boyfriend and I are planning on getting married here in Canada(Ontario) very soon. He is a Canadian citizen and I am a British citizen here on an open work permit, and we are living together.

My question relates to the inland/ outland forms. I previously thought we could submit our application to Mississauga, Ontario and then for it to be processed outland in London, UK. Now I am reading further, should we instead submit it to in Vegreville, Alberta as this applies to family members living inside Canada? As I currently live here, although I am a British citizen, does this mean I cannot submit an outland application?

[PMM]

Hi

My boyfriend and I are planning on getting married here in Canada(Ontario) very soon. He is a Canadian citizen and I am a British citizen here on an open work permit, and we are living together.

My question relates to the inland/ outland forms. I previously thought we could submit our application to Mississauga, Ontario and then for it to be processed outland in London, UK. Now I am reading further, should we instead submit it to in Vegreville, Alberta as this applies to family members living inside Canada? As I currently live here, although I am a British citizen, does this mean I cannot submit an outland application?

It sounds weird, but you can submit an "out of Canada" application while residing in Canada, you give your residential address for the UK but your Canadian mailing address.  Probably the best way to go.

PMM

[dfb]

I also thought that I had to apply inland b/c I am living legally in Canada, but that is not the case.  I think that the website is not entirely clear at first glance.

[Leon]

Generally an outland application is faster and an inland application can put you in a weird situation if it goes wrong.  With outland, it goes to Mississauga and then to your homeland or if you have residency in another country than your homeland, you could choose to have it processed there.  If they are not convinced, they will call you for an interview and that is the only drawback with outland.  If they call you for an interview, you'd have to go there.

With inland, they are supposed to give you a first stage approval with a work permit in 5-6 months time (in many cases you will have PR already with outland in 5-6 months time).  If they are not convinced, they will forward your application to your local office where you live for an interview without giving you the first stage approval.  All good so far except the local offices are in some cases so busy it can take them up to 2-3 years to get you this interview.  In the meantime, you are stuck in Canada with no work permit.  Since you have to reside in Canada for inland, if you leave and for any reason can't come back or if you leave and they find out that you aren't in Canada anymore when they want to get in touch, you lose your application.

[hecapoole]

Thank you all! I'm so glad this is the case because there are so many good reasons for applying outland.  And If I need to attend an interview, a trip back to the UK is not the worst thing I guess.