Staying in Canada while applying outland from the US

[rasa]

So, anecdotally, what should I tell the IO? I haven't crossed since getting married and I'm wicked nervous! The facts are: my parents are driving me up and will stay the weekend to visit with my husband. I, obviously, want to stay for as long as possible within the letter of the law, as it were--finish the PR app, send it in, get visitor record extension when necessary, hopefully be granted PR status. But telling the IO, "I want to stay for as long as possible and will apply for an extension when necessary" and not having a set return date sounds like a recipe for disaster.

We're not going to have the app done. I'll have had my medical and sent in my FBI stuff. We could pay the fees and I could bring a receipt. I don't plan to bring a lot of stuff. I could tell the iO that I plan to apply for PR, show them the app, medical/FBI/proof of marriage, etc. and that I'd like to stay for 6 months and hope for the best. Or I could neglect to mention filing for PR unless specifically asked, but I don't want to pick a date at random to say I'll leave by. Argh.

[fizzlefunk]

Hi rasa,

I'm in a similar position -- my app is filed (waiting on sponsorship approval) and my wife and I want to head back to her home of Vancouver soon.  We'll be driving up with a UHaul of my stuff but plan to unload it to a storage unit in Washington, crossing the border with just myself, wife, a suitcase each, car, and our three cats.  I intend to bring proof of employment with a US company as well as a copy of my apartment lease, though I'll be ending it shortly after crossing, proof of immigration application and proof of marriage.  I'm completely paranoid and terrified that I'll catch an IO on a bad day and they'll turn me away at the border though

Best of luck to all of us!

[mommyk]

I am a Canadian/US dual citizen who lived in the US for over 15 years, where I met my spouse who is a US citizen and we have 4 children all born in the US so also dual citizens.  We applied for my hubby's PR status outland just before we just crossed over the border into Canada a few weeks ago and I was so nervous too....especially after reading some of the posts on this forum. 

We don't own any property in the US and my husband has been out of work for almost 2 years and has been a stay at home dad so we don't have much for "ties to the US".  We gave up our rental house and put most of our stuff in storage in the US and just came up here with our 2 vehicles with one pulling a u-haul trailer.  Of course, we have a big family so we have a lot of stuff even if we were just visiting but we were completely honest with the IO at the border and when he asked if we had a physical residence in the US, we said no.  He asked my husband if he was moving to Canada and he said no, he is just visiting.  The IO kind of looked at us and said, "Come on, you are moving there right?"  But we just kept repeating that we knew he could not move there, would not be working or studying, and we were going to follow the proper procedures and if his application was not approved for any reason, then we would all move back to the US because we could not be separated.  He was very nice to us and we spent a long time in the office there doing the paperwork for importing our vehicles and he gave my husband a 6 month visitor visa and said he should not have a problem getting it extended if needed.

I realize my situation is not exactly the same as yours but I just wanted to share that my border experience was very positive.  He couldn't see our outland application in the computer system yet (as we had just sent it before we left) but we showed him the receipt of paying the fees.  I would also suggest doing as much as you can before leaving and at least pay the fees if you can't submit the whole application before your departure.  We surprisingly got back the FBI check less than a month after submitting the request so you just never know how long it will take.

Good luck!