Hello:
We are trying to decide what to do. I have a south african girlfriend... we are going to apply for a visitors visa so she can come visit me for three months.... We are not sure whether to marry in Canada or South Africa....
Can we get married in Canada then start an outland PR? How do we go about it? any idea how long it takes....
We just thought that we still want to be together for awhile before we marry so we thought a visitors visa would be best just stating she is a friend for now.... Then in Canada we could wed.... as her boss has given her a leave of absence letter although she will not have a job to return to... so another visitors visa or and extension is probably out of the question... Since she is a first time traveler we don't know if she will get a multiple entry visa... We are trying to keep our costs as low as possible... Eventually we would like to split our time up between South Africa and Canada....
So any suggestions for a couple that want to be together, and not completely sure how to go about it? and don't really want to be apart for long periods of time..
thanks
Well, I guess the good news is that you got the application going for a tourist visa, and the agent feels positive that it will be approved, but I wish you had waited until you got a bit more input here before submitting that, because my first question would have been whether the children were included on that application. If not, I would highly recommend that you NOT get married when she gets here - because she won't get back into Canada again on a temporary visa after you marry - and the bad news is that Pretoria (the embassy that assessed South African nationals) takes 23 months to assess spousal PR applications. My advice to you would have been to try to get your lady and her children into Canada and then, once you're married, apply to sponsor them via the in-Canada process which only takes 18 months (and after the first year of assessment she'd have a work permit and they'd have study permits as their temporary status until things were finalized). If you've only applied for
her to come now, then she will have to go back again and your only chance of getting her and the children back into Canada will be to hold off on the wedding. The good news is that by going back when she's supposed to, she'll be better able to prove next time that she is willing to comply and that should help her maybe get another TRV, and then bring the kids, later on. If you're not in a hurry to marry, and it sounds like you're wanting to be certain about things, that might be your best option.
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