U.S. citizen to marry a Canadian

[dallasgal8050]

Hi,
I'm a U.S. citizen and I'm to marry a Canadian citizen in June (In Canada) I'm comeing back to
the States and then we are going to send in the paperwork for sponsorship.
My question is.....how long does this take, some say 6 months some say 8 months. Is there going to be
a issue because we both have been married before, I have all my divorce papers.
I would just like to get a time line if anyone could help.

Thank you
Dallasgal8050

[tamee]

im am also from US and married to canadian, the time line is 3-8+ months, most getting done by 6. Have you found out all you need to get married in canada? Lot easier to do it in the states, because of the divorces.you need a lawyers permission in canada to do it there. anyways make sure you make copies of the divorce certs, you will need them.

[dallasgal8050]

so you don't need a lawyer's premission to marry in the states?

[cwolf241]

Tamee,
 I am a bit confused about what you wrote saying you needed a lawyers permission to marry in Canada since you had a prior divorce. I am divorced and coming to get married in two weeks. We did not need a lawyers permission. We showed the divorce cert. and the death Cert of my first wife. We also talked to city hall before we decided to get married at a chapel and they said all we needed where the papers. We have been posted for a Dec 22 wedding. Would you please explain what you said in your email. Maybe I am just confused as to what you mean. Thank you and take care Cwolf241

[tamee]

if you have done everything and you have the right permissions to get married then congrats, maybe its different becasue your wife passed away, so please ignore my post if you have the marraige license already.


dallas, no you dont only needed id and date of divorce here in virginia

[dallasgal8050]

tamee,

We have the divorce papers for both our last marriages and he has passport (the canadian boyfriend)
I just need to be CRYSTAL clear that Canadian immagration see's marriages in the States as legal
in Canada.  We don't want to have to get married twice, once here in Texas and once in Vancouver.
Does that make sense?

I just want to make sure that Immagration will see it as Legal in Canada, I am going to be immagrating
to Canada he is not immagrating to the U.S.

Any feed back is greatly appreicated.

Dallasgal

[TaaDow]

As long as the conditions of the marriage would be legal in Canada, any marriage performed outside Canada is taken at face value.

The conditions being:
1. Age (must be 16+)
2. No Polygomy
3. Properly registered and witnessed

[dallasgal8050]

explain "Face Value"
does that mean they will either consider it or not, its their discretion?

[Gdaymate]

Hi Dallasgal8050

I think I can clarify this for you.  In your first post you said you were going to marry in Canada - in this case you should know that the requirements for marriage in Canada differ slightly from province to province.  In some provinces you need a Canadian lawyer's certification for your foreign divorce before you can remarry.  You will need to check this in relation to the province you will be marrying in - it's not hard, just do a google search and you'll soon find out if you need to do this or not.

Then in your second post you say you will marry in the US and you want to know if this marriage will be valid in Canada?  If your marriage is legal in the states (and presumably you already know the requirements to re-marry there in terms of your previous divorce) then your marriage will be valid in Canada.

Hi cwolf241

I think my comments above should have clarified your confusion regading the requirements for re-marriage in Canada - it's just that they differ slightly from province to province so if you've been told you're good to go, that's great.

And congratulations to you both!

[dallasgal8050]

Thank everyone for their replies, at least now I have an idea for either marry'n in Canada or the States.

Dallasgal

[tamee]

THANK YOU GDAY. To reitterate, yes if your marraige in USA is legal then it will be as well in canada. My husband and i were both previously married and divorced, so in order to get married in canada (Ontario) we had to get an affidavid for this and that then submit it to a lawyer to approve the marraige and saying it was ok socially for us to marry. I thought it was a load of crap and a time frame of more than a month. Well with me being impatient as i am i said heck with that lets just get married here in Virginia and all we needed was ID and date of our divorces lol. So again im sorry if i confused anyone or frightened anyone, just saying it was 100% easier and faster to get married in the states than in ontario.

Good luck to You both and i hope your application goes quickly, i know how hard it is to be seperated from the love of your life :(

[cwolf241]

Thanks everyone,
 I am getting married in Quebec. The minister had everything and we talked to city hall. Like I said it is posted and everything is ready to go, but I am going to have my fiance double check again. We were originally scheduled to be married two months ago, I called immigration with a question (not to do with the marriage) and as we were talking I mentioned that we were getting married three days from then. She told us we could not if I ever wanted to visit here again during the out of country process. We canceled the wedding. The minister called and asked what happened. We explained and he said who we spoke to was wrong and to call a supervisor. We did and that person told us the first one was wrong. So alot of money was lost for the reception and things. Don't want to lose money again this time. It gets expensive. Figure if immigration decides to interview us I will bring all the receipts. That has to prove something I would think. LOL Take care

[TaaDow]

The first person you spoke to was incorrect.

They were probably thinking more along the lines of people from countries that require a Visitors Visa just to enter the country. In this case, if the visitor has previously married a Canadian, a visa officer is quite likely to deny a temp. visa due to the visitor now having stronger ties in Canada then in their country of Nationality. It would be suspected that the visitor would not likely return to the country of origin when the visa expired.

Again, not against the rules to marry first and then attempt to visit, just adds complication.

As an US Citizen you have the benefit of being able to cross the border with just a PPT, but be prepared that a border officer may find out you have married a Canadian and thus may deny you entrance for the same reason noted above.

[dallasgal8050]

Taa........

I'm thinking that if I have my round trip tickets then there should not be a problem at any entry.
As long as I provide something from my job and a plane ticket back home.

Dallasgal

[TaaDow]

Those items would definately help, but just be prepared for the negative as it's entirely at the officers discretion.

American's are rarely turned away for this unless there's a proven history of issues with an individual.

I would avoid crossing the border until AFTER you've submitted your sponsorship application, this will show the border officers that you have already begun the process to immigrate legally and will help dispell any fears of staying illegally. They know that you're not likely to go breaking immigration law when you're awaiting a decision from CIC.

[tamee]

TaaDow--speaking of this subject, i know you can go visit your spouse in canada (im in the US) while awaiting cic approval on a spousal outland application. Im wondering if its legal to go to canada for 6 months while waiting and register my kids in school while i am there? Ive heard of people doing this but i wanted to know the complications of this on an application other than if you have to go for an  interview i know you would have to go to your orignal country for it. Could you shed some light on this topic please?

[TaaDow]

As long as your children can legally attend school in Canada then there is no issue with what you are suggesting.

[tamee]

Legally as in i didnt steal them away from their dad or anythinglike that?i have court papers saying we can move to canada.

[TaaDow]

I admit I have no idea what's involved with enrolling children in school these days. I have none myself and this isn't a part of the immigration process I deal with.

I assume if they're not Citizens or holding PR status that they would require some form of Student Visa but this may not be the case at the public school level. If they are Citizens by birth or holding PR status then I imagine it's as simple as enrolling them...

A little out of my field...

[tamee]

Thank you TaaDow for ur input, its much appreciated!!