Hi all. My fiancé is on AISH and I’m an American citizen. I’m almost done with my bachelors degree and I have a work from home job in the USA. We want to be able to live together completely for me to get permanent residency and be with him. I’m trying to avoid quick marriage since I want an actual big wedding in the future. The problem is he is on AISH, and AISH qualifies common law immediately upon living together which would make it difficult applying for sponsorship when AISH has different common law requiremenrs. Also, his apartment requires anyone living together to be on the lease after one month. But I can’t be on the lease if I’m not a PR. So that’s where I’m stuck. I know I can be here for 6 months but the lease part gets murky and how would the renewal work after 6 months?
I suppose if we had to get married quickly and wedding it out later we could. But I’m really confused on how to proceed as our situation seems so different from everyone on Reddit. I could apply for a job in Canada for a work permit but that’s also hard to get from what I’m seeing. Any advice?
I would recommend you speak with his support person / counselor regarding the rules for AISH and having a non-PR / non-citizen live in the accommodations. This really isn't an immigration question and you'll be subject to the rules of the assistance program. I would say it's important you sort this out first. These programs do often have very specific rules regarding who can live with you and what that means in terms of qualifying for the benefit you're receiving. So sort this out first to make sure you don't do anything that might negatively impact your fiance's support since I assume it's important that he continue to qualify for this benefit.
From an immigration perspective, it is quite easy to extend your stay in Canada after the six months.
Does your fiance work? If not, my two cents is to have a quick wedding and then have him sponsor you for PR while you remain in the US and work. While there are technically no minimum income requirements to sponsor a spouse / common law partner, we do see refusals here from time to time in situations where the sponsoring partner is on disability payments and the person being sponsored doesn't work. The reason being that IRCC gets concerned that the person being sponsored will end up on social assistance once they arrive in Canada. You want to avoid this and show you are working - again, this is assuming your partner doesn't work. If your partner does in fact work, then this won't be an issue.
You can explore getting a work permit in Canada. This is typically quite difficult as you've determined. You need to start by securing a job offer in Canada from a Canadian employer. Then, unless you qualify under an exemption, your employer needs to obtain an approved LMIA which is quite a long and expensive process. It's generally quite difficult to find employers who are willing to go through this process. However this will somewhat depend on your field and how specialized it is (and how much in demand in Canada) and also any work experience.
EDIT: For the work from home job you have now, if your company allows, then it would be possible for you to continue working in this job from Canada without a work permit as long as the company has no Canadian customers / clients. If the company has Canadian customers / clients, then you need a work permit.
