90 day grace period expired, need help.

[IronMike]

Hey everyone.
I've done my best to sift through forum posts, so please accept my apology for asking a question answered elsewhere.
The gist of our problem is this; my fiance is a US citizen and she has overstayed her 90 day grace period to refile and is currently without status. CIC says she has to leave Canada and her re-entry is entirely up to the officer at the border crossing. CIC refuses to give any further information with regards to what we need to do or can expect when she tries to re-enter. BIS will not answer any immigration questions either.
Of course, our biggest fear would be that we try to flagpole and she is denied access. We haven't received any removal order, but her status expired Aug. 19 of this year and we need to decide a course of action before we receive an order, hopefully showing our efforts to get back on track.
We also want to get married. We would be already, but we had only been together a short time before she entered Canada, and immigration said marrying that soon might raise some red flags. We applied for an extension to her visitor pass last March on the advice of a private immigration firm, and were told again that marrying before we were even common law would raise red flags with immigration. Well the red flags are up now with no status and we're both ready to move forward with our lives.
That said, can we get married in Canada and would I be then able to sponsor her as a spouse, or does she still need to leave and return to Canada?
If that's so, how should we present ourselves at the border to prove that we are trustworthy and made an honest mistake by not filing within the 90 period?
She isn't coming in as a visitor, and she isn't going to work or be a student either, so what will we say she's coming in as?

Truthfully, I have ton more questions to ask, but primarily we need to know what to expect at the border if she tries to re-enter. Is it really up to crossing officer? If so, I hope he's having a great day before we get there.

 

[zardoz]

Hey everyone.
I've done my best to sift through forum posts, so please accept my apology for asking a question answered elsewhere.
The gist of our problem is this; my fiance is a US citizen and she has overstayed her 90 day grace period to refile and is currently without status. CIC says she has to leave Canada and her re-entry is entirely up to the officer at the border crossing. CIC refuses to give any further information with regards to what we need to do or can expect when she tries to re-enter. BIS will not answer any immigration questions either.
Of course, our biggest fear would be that we try to flagpole and she is denied access. We haven't received any removal order, but her status expired Aug. 19 of this year and we need to decide a course of action before we receive an order, hopefully showing our efforts to get back on track.
We also want to get married. We would be already, but we had only been together a short time before she entered Canada, and immigration said marrying that soon might raise some red flags. We applied for an extension to her visitor pass last March on the advice of a private immigration firm, and were told again that marrying before we were even common law would raise red flags with immigration. Well the red flags are up now with no status and we're both ready to move forward with our lives.
That said, can we get married in Canada and would I be then able to sponsor her as a spouse, or does she still need to leave and return to Canada?
If that's so, how should we present ourselves at the border to prove that we are trustworthy and made an honest mistake by not filing within the 90 period?
She isn't coming in as a visitor, and she isn't going to work or be a student either, so what will we say she's coming in as?

Truthfully, I have ton more questions to ask, but primarily we need to know what to expect at the border if she tries to re-enter. Is it really up to crossing officer? If so, I hope he's having a great day before we get there.

You can certainly get married but it won't change her lack of status. She still needs to leave Canada and attempt to reenter in order to gain a valid status. You are incorrect about coming back however. If she isn't a student or a worker, she's a visitor. Once married, you can attempt to sponsor her, ideally via the "outland" path.

 

[Naheulbeuck]

You can certainly get married but it won't change her lack of status. She still needs to leave Canada and attempt to reenter in order to gain a valid status. You are incorrect about coming back however. If she isn't a student or a worker, she's a visitor. Once married, you can attempt to sponsor her, ideally via the "outland" path.

The problem at this point is that to be accepted as a visitor, they look for ties that confirms to them that she will not stay beyond the time she is allowed to stay and will return to the US after that. By already failing this requirement right now, in my opinion, you shouldn't try to flagpole as it is very likely that the officer will reject her claim to come as a visitor only and that she will leave Canada after that...

I recommend that she effectively goes back to the US for a little while and then try reentering. This would have better chances. Furthermore, she should try to establish some ties to the US to show that she will not overstay in Canada.

As for your last question, yes it is really up to the officer, but with no ties to the US and an overstay you will need him to have an outstanding day...

 

[CDNPR2014]

She isn't coming in as a visitor, and she isn't going to work or be a student either, so what will we say she's coming in as?

i'm not sure what other type of status you think she would have other than visitor? if given entry, her status will be visitor. She will always be a visitor until she is approved for either 1) work permit, 2) student visa or 3) pr status. there is no other status available to her right now. being married to a canadian or having a PR application submitted does not give her the right to enter as anything else. being approved for 1 of the 3 types of visas will.

I recommend that she effectively goes back to the US for a little while and then try reentering. This would have better chances. Furthermore, she should try to establish some ties to the US to show that she will not overstay in Canada.

As for your last question, yes it is really up to the officer, but with no ties to the US and an overstay you will need him to have an outstanding day...

agreed. the only "ties" they care about are employment and housing related. if she still has family in the us, then she should go take a trip there for a few weeks, see if they will draft a general lease agreement and use that as a tie to the us. if she can find a remote job for a us company, that will alleviate their concerns of her trying to work in canada without authorization. There are some freelancer websites that she can do work for, as long as the company is not canadian. I used ODesk (now called UpWork) when i was waiting for my app to process. i'm not going to lie... CBSA is a lot more suspicious of people just dating than married couples. with married couples, they are far more helpful. if you get married before she tries to enter canada again, then she will want to carry a copy of her application (even if she is still working on it) as well as a receipt for at least 1 fee paid. this shows CBSA she knows the rules and intends to apply for PR status. otherwise, she really needs to be able to show ties to the us, and she should think about spending more time in the us than Canada for a bit. It's when you are not married and you spend more time in canada than your home country they tend to get suspicious and deny entry (i know this from experience).

bottom line is... she needs to understand that right now, she can only VISIT canada. she can not "move to" or "live in" canada until she is approved to do so. she needs to use the right language when speaking to the CBSA officer to avoid problems. Also, only answer the questions that are asked and don't elaborate. they don't need to know her entire life's story. they only need to know the answer to the question they ask.

Also, the immigration lawyer you spoke to sounds like an idiot. why would it matter if a couple got married before they became commonlaw? that makes no sense. being married and becoming commonlaw are completely seperate and have nothing to do with eachother. US/Canadian couples have a low threshold for proving relationship validity. the fact you want to get married before living together a year is not relevant to your application. what is relevant to your application is that your relationship story makes sense and it's known to other people in your lives. there are many couples who marry quickly and have no issue and there are many couples that marry quickly who do have issues. the success of the application is unique to your own circumstance. just because you got married quickly, doesn't mean you won't be approved. stop talking to this attorney and read information on the family sponsorship section of this forum. you will probably find you have a pretty common story and a straightforward case. having a previous overstay in Canada ALONE will not negatively affect a PR application.