BIOLOGICAL FATHER SPONSORSHIP

[zuda3000]

My girlfriend has been in Canada since December 2007, coming from Africa. When she left we didn't know she was pregnant. Our son is now turning 2 this year. I plan to live with her thus we are trying to find out how i can join her in Canada. Thank you in advance.

 

[Leon]

What is the status of your girlfriend in Canada? Is she a PR or a temporary worker or student?

Having a child together is irrelevant. If she can sponsor you at all, it would have to be because you are partners. If you have not been living together for the past two years, you will not qualify to apply as common law partners so that leaves getting married. If there are good reasons preventing you from getting married, you can try applying as conjugal partners but apparently that is hard to get approved, really only for people who can not qualify as common law by living together and can not get married.

If she is PR and you are her spouse, she can sponsor you for PR. If she's a temporary worker in a skilled position or a student, you could apply for your visa to join her and you could apply for an open work permit as her spouse.

 

[zuda3000]

Thanks Leon. She has a student visa. How is marriage possible when she's there and i'm in Africa? We always planned on getting married yet i wouldn't want it to seem to be a marriage of convenience.

 

[Leon]

In order for you to get a work permit based on being her partner, you have to qualify as her partner. If you had lived together for 12 months or more before she left, you would have been considered a common law husband and had been able to go with her at the time but even if that was the case, now that you have not lived together for the last 2 years, I don't think you could qualify for that anymore. I don't assume she mentioned you either as her common law on her student visa application.

This leaves one option for you to apply as her partner and that is to get married. If you get a tourist visa to visit her, you can get married in Canada. If you don't, she would have to come to you.

If you don't want to get married, you would have to qualify for your own visa to get to Canada, student visa or work permit.

There is no biological father sponsorship available for a girlfriend on a student visa and a minor child. If your child is born in Canada, he can sponsor you when he becomes 18 years old and has enough income to prove that he can support you but that is a long time to wait.

I think you should start by applying for a visit visa to go visit her. If you get married while in Canada, you can apply to extend your visa to match her study visa and you can apply for a work permit based on her visa as well.

 

[zuda3000]

Again thanks a ton for the insight.the tourist visa makes sense.i'm sorry to keep piling up questions.supposing it doesn't materialise and she comes here and we get married,what are the odds of us applyin for a visas?i'm stating this as a worst case scenario of course.

 

[Leon]

If she comes to you to marry you, she can of course go back to her studies. You would have to apply for your visa. You would have to show strong ties to your country to show that you will not overstay in Canada when your visas expire. If immigration believes you, they will let you in. Some embassies are more difficult with this than others.