Canadian Marrying an American wanting to live in Canada Please Help

[sz9921]

I am 30 Canadian, I own my own business and am financially very well off and secure. I went on a cruise in Feb of his year and met and fell in love with an American from Utah who was prior to coming to Canada married and a stay at home dad, he does not qualify for a work visa. He is currently going thru a divorce which will take 90 days to process and then we want to get married. Having never dealt with Canada immigration before when we came we knew he coud stay for six months so we didnt book a return flight home and when he came thru immigration they gave him a hard time until we pinned down that he would leave my may 17 having arrived on April 20, then they questioned him for an hour on where he was going who he was seeing his finanacesand what he had to go back home to and stapled a paper to his passport stating he could not work or go to school in Canada and he had to be out by the 17th. We ended up going back to Utah April 27 and I am back in Canada and he is staying for another week to sort his stuff out.
Please advise what our options are; we are terrified that he will be denied entry into Canada to come and visit me. Immigration doesnt appear to like to hear were dating. How does a spousal or engagement visa work and how long does this really take and can he stay with me in Canada thru the process. We know that immigration will scrutinize closely based on the fact that we will have been married within 6 months of knowing each other. We want to make sure that we make no mistakes and risk anything with the immigration process.

Any advice that anyone has would be very much appreciated.

 

[Leon]

There is no engagement visa in Canada. He can only visit if he is allowed in, making sure he brings a return ticket. Better if he has a job in the US so he can prove to the border he has a reason to go back.

After you get married, you can apply to sponsor him for PR. That will not really change the situation with him visiting. Once he is in Canada, if he has a passport stamp or some paperwork that states when he entered, he can apply to extend his visitor status.

 

[Feaky Snucker]

After you pay for the application, it helps a lot. The same thing happened to my husband once - he'd been visiting me and our visit was cut short - his mom died and he had to fly back for the funeral - the day after his birthday. He only had a one way ticket coming back and got a total cow of a border guard, who actually said 'you can't just go stay on someone's couch for a few months. There's nothing to do.' Um... it's called visiting... but I digress.

In that month he was allowed in, we got married. He had to leave on our wedding night and we didn't see each other for 10 months because we didn't want to jeopardize the application. Turns out, if you pay the fee of application, and have a return ticket, as well as copy of application receipt, you can visit. It's like back up if they start grilling him - you're not trying to jump the border, you're doing it legitimately, and you have a return ticket. It should be fine - it was for my husband. We're applying outland though - if yours does it from inland, that's not possible.