American Citizen and Canadian Citizen

[JEC]

Hello
My girlfriend is from the United States, I am a canadian citizen. We are going to apply for PR Inland. She hasn't seen her family in over a year from being here. We would both like to go visit for a week. There's alot of confusing information as to your PR obligations. Part of it read that each day you are accompanying a canadian citizen outside of canada is considered a day for which you satisfy the residency obligation providing that the person you are accompanying is your spouse or common-law partner. The total number of days that you spend accompanying a canadian citizen may be added to the total number of days for which you otherwise satisfy the residency obligation. So are we allowed to cross the boarder once the PR has been finialized? Cause from my other understanding is that she would need a PR card in order to travel anywhere. This is all really confusing and any help would be appreciated.

 

[rgvinson777]

Firstly, I assume that you are going to get married. Otherwise you don't qualify for 'Family Class Sponshorship Visa." Secondly, if you get married prior to your visit to the States, the Border Officers will more that likely deny the re-entry of your spouse. Application pending or not. If the border agents suspect that your girlfriend intends to remain in Canada, they will not let her in! Although it is legal to apply for permanent residence from within Canada, it is illegal to enter Canada under false pretenses.

Once a person has received a PR Visa, that person is required to be in Canada for two years out of five. I've never heard of the "being with a Canadian" qualifier. Whatever you do, you should be reading the info on the CIC website before you do it.

Best Wishes!

 

[Gdaymate]

JEC

You are correct - if your girlfriend accompanies you outside of Canada those days count towards her residency obligations.

Once PR is finalised your girlfriend should receive her PR card within 4 weeks or so. If you want to travel before then you can apply for a Travel Document (Permanent Resident Abroad - IMM 5524).

And no, you don't need to be married to qualify for Family Class Sponsorship as that includes "common-law and conjugal partners".

Hope that helps.

 

[tamee]

remember also, if you file inland application, you can not leave canada or it will void your pr application and you will have to start over, also if you are common law (living together 1 year) then you do qualify for PR.once the PR is finalized and she gets her card then she can come and go as often as she pleases.its actually faster if you apply from outside of canada, it only takes about 3-6 months depending on how complicated your case is, inside applications take around a year, so if you file inland then she wont be able to visit her family at least for that long, hope this helps.

 

[JEC]

Thank you for your information.
I have been reading the CIC website inside and out. That's how I knew about leaving with a Canadian qualifies. So assuming that we are going to apply Inland, cause we have been living in Canada for longer than a year. Gdaymate, when you say: Once PR is finalised your girlfriend should receive her PR card within 4 weeks or so. If you want to travel before then you can apply for a Travel Document (Permanent Resident Abroad - IMM 5524). I know once we get that card we can kinda go and come as we please, but will they accept the Travel Document while the papers are processing. They said that it will take 6-8 months for the papers to get processed. Will we get the PR card after that 6-8 months? Also Tamee is saying that we cannot leave Canada or it will Void the PR application. So I'm getting confused on what is considered processing and what is considered finalized.

 

[tamee]

processing is before she is finalized, finalized is when the visa office abroad(for outland) or vegreville (inland) says please give us your passports to stamp.the pr card gday is talking about is after your case has been processed and approved and they stamp your passport, then a card is mailed to you, i am not so familiar with inland as i am outland, i filed outland,and i dont know about travel document, but i do know that if you are filing inland application, then your wife can not leave canada until its finished or it will void your application.

 

[JEC]

ok that cleared it up. Thank you for your help with the explaination of the processing and stuff. If anyone else can help with the Travel document that would be great. Does everyone have to go through an interview?

 

[tamee]

interview for the PR application- not everyone, only those that didnt convince cic that their relationship was longlasting and genuine.oh and i think certain countries might always have to have one but not the USA

 

[Gdaymate]

Re the Travel Document

I was suggesting this as an option if you needed to travel in the month or so between PR being finalised and receiving the actual PR card. Unfortunately its not available to you during the PR processing.

Sorry I can't be of more help on that one.

 

[JEC]

That was all really good information. Thank you