Overstayed visa

[formerbritsoldier]

hi guys, i raelly hope someone could shed some light on my situation and help me out... im not here for sympothy or to tell my tales of woe.... im looking for some genuine advice as i am at the end of my wits right now!!

to cut a long story short i am an ex british military man who met my fiance whilst training in canada! we got together and i made a few visits over here before leaving the army. Having left the army to start a new life in canada, with plans to get married within the 6 months..... things have gone so wayward its untrue!
my final paycheck from the army barely covered my flight over here and my fiance has had to support us both since my arrival.... we are both still very young and have gone through so much crap to be together.....the first 6 months of our relationship was long distance and i vowed this time to never leave her again!!

we have been together for just over a year now and we've been living together permanently for 8 months

so we have got to the point where i am now over my visa by 2 months and no closer to being able to afford to get married!!
the stress is causing us both so many problems..... its affecting our relationship and i cant bear the thought of losing her because of all this....but we can barely afford to eat at the moment and i cant put the woman i love in this position anymore

so my question is, what would happen if i were to hand myself in to immigration?? i know my case is no different to a lot of peoples out there but do the courts even listen to people like me??

or if i hand myself in will i inevitabley end up being torn away form the only thing i have in my life??

i appreciate any help and advice offered, thanks in advance

p.s.... ive posted this in a few places as im not sure where it should go

[starlord]

formerbritsoldier, if possible go to the CIC website and get an extension for your visitor visa. You can do this online, it doesn't cost very much. You do need to show some proof of savings, credit cards, some sort of financial information that shows you have something to fall back on or that your basic living expenses are getting paid by your wife and though not working (which most people with a visitor permit can't legally work or go to school anyway), you can state that your wife is supporting you 100%. I did this once before myself and they approved it for me.

I think in your case since it has been such a short time you may fare better and are more likely to get it extended, but be very vigilant about keeping it up to date from now on!

I made the mistake of not renewing my visitor permit as well, however overstayed by about 9 months (yes, life just got away from me, and I had sworn I renewed it but I simply forgot! Sounds lame perhaps but yes a bad mistake..)

I have some of the same values you do, and crossed the border from Canada into the USA (for which I am a natural born Citizen). The idea was that I was going to be honest and owned up to the fact I overstayed my visa, and would return with my wife to the US to look for work. You would think that they honor people who do that, but it seems that they really don't look at it that way.

I was told by Canadian border patrol that they would have normally continued to renew my visa (almost indefinitely) if the situation looked sensible and I wasn't planning on going on welfare/assistance or be a drain on the Canadian economy, or do anything criminal. Yes the economy pretty much sucks right now and a lot of people are struggling in both US and Canada.

But, because I overstayed my visa, and I left Canada, they would not let me back into the country. The guy at the border said they felt that since they make the process easy to extend your visa, and for you not to do it and let it go for a long time (such as I did) was rather like a slap in the face to Canada.

Now I need to prove residency and ties to USA before they will allow me back in as a visitor, so I made it hard for myself and my wife, and it could have been avoided. I have heard other stories of people who overstay their visitor permits and continue to live in Canada, they don't normally come chasing after you to deport you out of the country.

As well, when my wife tried to cross the US border, they assumed she was trying to immigrate illegally and didn't let her cross, turning her away and put her on a sort of alert list where she can't come in until she proves several ties to Canada such as job, finances, taxes, housing, etc-- being self-employed and renting a home instead of owning a house and paying a mortgage makes this very difficult to "prove" her ties to Canada, she can't get a letter from an employer if that person is herself, even if she's making adequate money to support us both. She's renting from someone without a formal written contract (though the person could write her up one) and doesn't have a lot of savings even though she lives well enough, it's still paycheck-to-paycheck, so those are challenges.

So, if you go turn yourself in at a border crossing or airport, you risk being deported.

I would advise that you renew your permit straight away, and start your paperwork for a Permanent Resident card/status, if you have not already done so, do this ASAP.

Generally they will tell you what sort of information they require when you fill out the form online, and it's as easy as scanning some statements, passport, visitor documents, etc. on the computer and uploading JPEGs or other files to the website. It takes a few days and you can check online to see if it was approved. If they do, then they send you your new visitor permit/visa in the mail, simple as that, then you are good for another 6 months though I've heard people getting longer permits too.

Best of luck to you! I am sure others here will chime-in about this as well. My case may be unusual, but I feel for you because I'm apart from my wife right now and it may have been avoidable if I did a better job of thinking things through.