spousal sponsorship when out of status or ??

[dande]

My girlfriend came to canada in april 2007 on a temp resident visa and has been living together with me (canadian citizen) since that time.

She applied to extend her temp. resident visa but this extension was recently rejected due to the fact the she mentioned wanting to complete a course she had been taking and thus would require a student visa.

We plan to be together for the future and i would like to sponser her for PR under the Spousal common law class. Our intention would be to make the application from inside canada so that we could continue to be together.

Because we have only been living together for approx. seven months at this point we would have to live together for another approx. 5 months before i could submit the application.

The question i have is that due to the fact she now has no status in canada, will this affect our application?

( The documents on the CIC website indicate that submitting such an application while the person being sponsored is out of status should NOT be a factor considering all other requirements are met. Am i interpreting this correctly or ???)

Is there a better route to go? Would it be beneficial for us to apply for a "restoration of status" or something else?

As i understand there is no appeal process for a temp resident visa so is there something that we can do so that she will be able to remain in canada legally prior to us submitting our application for PR.

Thanks in advance for any insight that you provide!

[thaiguy]

It won't affect your application, except that immigration might have some questions for you about why she didn't leave.

You're probably not going to be able to change her visa status until one of two things happen..
1) you get married and sponsor her as your wife, or
2) you live together for 12 months and sponsor her as your common-law partner.

Keep in mind that common-law partnerships require documentation of your relationship.  Since your girlfriend can't open a bank account, sign a lease, etc., you're going to have difficulty coming up with this proof.  You should start now planning how to document the consolidation of your affairs.