My girlfriend and I are considering getting married in the middle of this year. I'm an American citizen, and I'm going to be relocating to Seattle to work as a software dev for Microsoft. She's in college studying in Vancouver with a few years left in her degree, and she's a Canadian citizen. We're trying to figure out some details as part of our decision.
There's a great chance that I'd be able to work remotely 100% of the time from Vancouver. The issue with this is that, if I were to relocate to Canada as a visitor, I wouldn't have the authorization to perform my job from Canada since it would be considered "work" seeing as Microsoft has Canadian clients that I'd be serving. We've heard that the process for spousal sponsorship can take anywhere from 6 months to a year, although it's possible for it to go past this. Because of our situation, we'd be doing long-distance during that time, with me moving to Vancouver once it goes through.
However, doing some research I've stumbled across the requirements for an open work permit and I'm wondering if this is something that could apply to me. If we're married and we've submitted an application for spousal sponsorship, would I be eligible to apply? This would allow me to immediately relocate to Vancouver to work remotely while staying with my now-girlfriend (then-wife).
Am I misunderstanding the way this works? What sorts of factors would prevent me from receiving the permit?
To be clear, we are also able to rent an apartment together before applying for the permit. That way we can apply with an inland sponsorship.
There's a great chance that I'd be able to work remotely 100% of the time from Vancouver. The issue with this is that, if I were to relocate to Canada as a visitor, I wouldn't have the authorization to perform my job from Canada since it would be considered "work" seeing as Microsoft has Canadian clients that I'd be serving. We've heard that the process for spousal sponsorship can take anywhere from 6 months to a year, although it's possible for it to go past this. Because of our situation, we'd be doing long-distance during that time, with me moving to Vancouver once it goes through.
However, doing some research I've stumbled across the requirements for an open work permit and I'm wondering if this is something that could apply to me. If we're married and we've submitted an application for spousal sponsorship, would I be eligible to apply? This would allow me to immediately relocate to Vancouver to work remotely while staying with my now-girlfriend (then-wife).
Am I misunderstanding the way this works? What sorts of factors would prevent me from receiving the permit?
To be clear, we are also able to rent an apartment together before applying for the permit. That way we can apply with an inland sponsorship.
Last edited: