Hi. I am a Canadian citizen (21 years old), and my boyfriend of 2 years is an American citizen (23 years old). We met online but have met in person, and we are now looking to have him move to Canada to be with me. Having never had any post-secondary education he is considering going to school here both to study at a university level and to be able to move here, though our financial situations aren't the best and there is a chance that schooling will not be a good option right away. We also do not wish to get married right away. I am wondering what other steps we can take to be able to have him move here to be with me as soon as possible. I have been trying to do my research and I've been getting mixed information, and I really just want straight answers without spending a fortune on consulting lawyers and all. We just want to get this process going as soon as we can :/
American boyfriend looking to move to Canada to be with me
- Thread starter casscull
- Start date
Unfortunately there is not much you can do to bring him to Canada permanently except sponsoring him for PR which you can't do unless you get married or live together as common law partners for at least a year.
He can come and visit you for up to 6 months at a time but he can't work. He could apply to extend his visitor status if he wants to stay longer than 6 months. However, if he wants to work, he needs a work permit and in order to get that, he would need to find an employer who is willing to apply for an LMO/LMIA for him and in order to get that, they would have to advertise the job for x weeks in order to prove that no PR or Canadian could be found who wanted and was qualified for the job. Finding an employer who will apply for that may not be easy because 1) they wont get it unless they can prove that they really can't find a Canadian and 2) because the employer has to do a lot of paperwork for it and 3) because the employer has to pay for it.
If you are short of money, him coming over on a study permit is not an option because in order to get that, he would have to show that he can pay at least his first years tuition which is international student tuition, about 3 times what you would have to pay for the same course as well as he needs to show that he has funds to support himself too.
You could start by having him visit you and see how it goes. If you find that you want him to stay, you could get married and sponsor him. Another option would be that you could go and stay with him in the US. As long as you end up with at least 12 months of living together that you can prove, it doesn't matter in which country that was.
However, you should also be aware that sponsoring someone is a commitment not to be taken lightly. You would be responsible for him for 3 years after he gets his PR so if he were to break up with you but stay in Canada and take welfare or go on disability, the government would come to you to pay it back.
He can come and visit you for up to 6 months at a time but he can't work. He could apply to extend his visitor status if he wants to stay longer than 6 months. However, if he wants to work, he needs a work permit and in order to get that, he would need to find an employer who is willing to apply for an LMO/LMIA for him and in order to get that, they would have to advertise the job for x weeks in order to prove that no PR or Canadian could be found who wanted and was qualified for the job. Finding an employer who will apply for that may not be easy because 1) they wont get it unless they can prove that they really can't find a Canadian and 2) because the employer has to do a lot of paperwork for it and 3) because the employer has to pay for it.
If you are short of money, him coming over on a study permit is not an option because in order to get that, he would have to show that he can pay at least his first years tuition which is international student tuition, about 3 times what you would have to pay for the same course as well as he needs to show that he has funds to support himself too.
You could start by having him visit you and see how it goes. If you find that you want him to stay, you could get married and sponsor him. Another option would be that you could go and stay with him in the US. As long as you end up with at least 12 months of living together that you can prove, it doesn't matter in which country that was.
However, you should also be aware that sponsoring someone is a commitment not to be taken lightly. You would be responsible for him for 3 years after he gets his PR so if he were to break up with you but stay in Canada and take welfare or go on disability, the government would come to you to pay it back.
Leon said:
So to be clear, if he were to visit me and live with me, he would not be able to work in Canada unless he were to extend his visitor status after six months and apply for a work permit (once he is offered a job here)?
Also do the 12 months of living together need to be consecutive?
And I do understand the commitment of a sponsorship. We've both discussed this and yeah, if something were to happen and we broke up (which no one can predict), I understand that I would need to continue to support him for a certain amount of time. If that were to happen then I would deal with it then. Though we are both serious about this now and we are both willing to do whatever we can to get this to work.
casscull said:
IF he can find an employer willing to go through LMO/LMIA process to hire him, he could then apply for a work permit at anytime. However its expensive and time consuming for an employer to do this, so unless he has some skills that are in demand this will be hard or impossible to get.
Other option is to apply for 1-year working holiday via the US SWAP program if eligible: http://www.swap.ca/in_eng/us_index.aspx
Yes, 12 continuous month. Any break in the middle where say he returns to the US for 3-4 weeks while you stay in Canada, could break the cohabitation and would need to start the 12 months again from scratch.