Australian under 30 with Canadian common-law spouse: Which visa?

[will_89]

Hi guys,

I am a 26yo Australian and my partner (unmarried) is from Ontario and a Canadian citizen. We have been together for 5+ years. My partner moved back to Canada this month but I have stayed in Aus to finish with work (as an ecologist) until I fly to meet her in Canada in December. Our plan is for me to be able to work and live in Canada, and eventually gain permanent residency/citizenship.

Which visa should we apply for? Perhaps the International Experience Canada working permit then apply for spouse visa once I'm there? Can you work on a spouse visa while it is int he process of being approved?

Cheers,
Will

 

[Leon]

Hi guys,

I am a 26yo Australian and my partner (unmarried) is from Ontario and a Canadian citizen. We have been together for 5+ years. My partner moved back to Canada this month but I have stayed in Aus to finish with work (as an ecologist) until I fly to meet her in Canada in December. Our plan is for me to be able to work and live in Canada, and eventually gain permanent residency/citizenship.

Which visa should we apply for? Perhaps the International Experience Canada working permit then apply for spouse visa once I'm there? Can you work on a spouse visa while it is int he process of being approved?

Cheers,
Will

IEC is probably full for 2016 already but if you are not going until December, you might as well apply for 2017. As far as I know, you have to enter with the IEC visa to validate it so you could do that by taking your visa to the US border and coming back to Canada.

Your partner would have two options to sponsor you for PR, inland and outland. Outland through Australia, she could actually start now and actually better because you are common law and should not have long time spent apart. The processing time for outland through Australia is currently 10 months.

Inland, she would have to wait until you are in Canada and then you have spent at least 4 months apart as well as inland takes over 2 years to process although you can get an open work permit after 4. I think I would recommend applying for outland right away and you coming over on an IEC visa if you can get one.

 

[Bs65]

As of today the Australian IEC quota which is unlimited is still open for new applications and chances are still shown as positive http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/work/iec/selections.asp?country=au&cat=wh Plus assuming you are aware that if you get an offer of an IEC permit you not only have 12 months from the invite to land so December should work if applying now and once landed you get a 2 year open work permit. And as previous poster said get the outland common law PR sponsorship application going plus the IEC.

Check this out as well similar situation and recommendation still is an outland application
http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/currently-on-iec-applying-for-sponsored-pr-and-owp-do-i-have-to-apply-to-stay-t442070.0.html

 

[will_89]

Thanks for the information. That's a huge help.

Are there any issues applying for the outland parnter visa while applying for the IEC visa? In other words, can you have two applications being processed at the same time?

Cheers,
Will

 

[canuck_in_uk]

In other words, can you have two applications being processed at the same time?

Yes, the 2 apps can be processed at the same time without issue.

 

[will_89]

Fantastic! Thanks again for the help everyone.