Complicated Personal History, please help

[cranberry123]

Hi lovely people,

I've been browsing around this forum, but I've not been able to answer my personal situation. Here's a brief summary my situation.

My wife is Canadian, and I'm from the Netherlands. We got married almost two years ago, but for a long time, we weren't sure where to settle down. During that time we traveled around a fair bit, but spent the majority of our time in Canada. I entered Canada as a visitor and never got asked many questions after I said that I was visiting my wife.

Now, the time has come for me to apply for permanent residency, and I'm overwhelmed by for IMM 5669. My plan is to fly to the Netherlands to send in my application, and then travel back to Canada as a visitor and spend the majority of my time there, while I take occasional work trips to the EU and the USA.

My first question is: Could I run into problems entering and re-entering Canada while my PR is being processed even though I filed the spousal sponsorship paperwork from outside of Canada?

Secondly, my work has always been mostly online, none of which was being paid for by companies based in Canada. However, I did work at three events in Canada in the last three years that I got paid for by an American company. I worked at these events while being in Canada on a tourist visa. Could this be an issue when I'm filling out the paperwork about my travel history? I did pay taxes on these invoices in The Netherlands.

Thirdly, prior to becoming a freelancer in my current field, I got paid cash for writing blogs and marketing articles for a website of a friend of mine. I used this time to travel a lot, and attend some international events for the website I was writing for. During this period (2007-mid2010, right after dropping out of college) I did not pay any taxes, I lived at home with my parents and didn't own much besides my laptop. I guess I was technically considered unemployed, but I never filed for it, nor did I receive any benefits from the Dutch government. I supplemented my income with a bit of poker, which was quite easy back in those days.

My question about this is, how would I phrase/explain this period of my personal history? I did make money, didn't pay taxes and traveled around the world a bit while living with my parents.

Fourthly, (I'm not sure if that's even a word) how do I go about the endless list of places I've traveled to? I must've visited at least 40 countries in the last 10 years for any period ranging from one week to three months. I never lived anywhere else, and since becoming a registered freelancer in mid-2010 I kept traveling for my job. However, I never obtained a work visa but still performed some work during that time. I did pay taxes ever since becoming a freelancer, on all income I received, even on job performed without a work visa.

Thanks a lot for all help!

 

[profiler]

Hi lovely people,

I've been browsing around this forum, but I've not been able to answer my personal situation. Here's a brief summary my situation.

My wife is Canadian, and I'm from the Netherlands. We got married almost two years ago, but for a long time, we weren't sure where to settle down. During that time we traveled around a fair bit, but spent the majority of our time in Canada. I entered Canada as a visitor and never got asked many questions after I said that I was visiting my wife.

Now, the time has come for me to apply for permanent residency, and I'm overwhelmed by for IMM 5669. My plan is to fly to the Netherlands to send in my application, and then travel back to Canada as a visitor and spend the majority of my time there, while I take occasional work trips to the EU and the USA.

My first question is: Could I run into problems entering and re-entering Canada while my PR is being processed even though I filed the spousal sponsorship paperwork from outside of Canada?

Secondly, my work has always been mostly online, none of which was being paid for by companies based in Canada. However, I did work at three events in Canada in the last three years that I got paid for by an American company. I worked at these events while being in Canada on a tourist visa. Could this be an issue when I'm filling out the paperwork about my travel history? I did pay taxes on these invoices in The Netherlands.

Thirdly, prior to becoming a freelancer in my current field, I got paid cash for writing blogs and marketing articles for a website of a friend of mine. I used this time to travel a lot, and attend some international events for the website I was writing for. During this period (2007-mid2010, right after dropping out of college) I did not pay any taxes, I lived at home with my parents and didn't own much besides my laptop. I guess I was technically considered unemployed, but I never filed for it, nor did I receive any benefits from the Dutch government. I supplemented my income with a bit of poker, which was quite easy back in those days.

My question about this is, how would I phrase/explain this period of my personal history? I did make money, didn't pay taxes and traveled around the world a bit while living with my parents.

Fourthly, (I'm not sure if that's even a word) how do I go about the endless list of places I've traveled to? I must've visited at least 40 countries in the last 10 years for any period ranging from one week to three months. I never lived anywhere else, and since becoming a registered freelancer in mid-2010 I kept traveling for my job. However, I never obtained a work visa but still performed some work during that time. I did pay taxes ever since becoming a freelancer, on all income I received, even on job performed without a work visa.

Thanks a lot for all help!

I'll give it a shot. Just my $0.05 here.

1/ should be ok. But you don't have to fly to the Netherlands to file.

2/ they are not checking your income tax history. List as many countries as you can on the paper in order. Then continue on a blank page in the same format as the paper. You will have to explain what you did there (visiting, blogging, poker, what have you).

3/ you lived with your parents while travelling. While I am jealous, it's not a crime, and it makes sense. So you can state unemployed (or whatever you did to pay for your trips).

4/ list them all on subsequent pieces of paper. You're better to list them all.

Best of luck!

 

[scylla]

I'll help with a few questions...

Whether you are allowed into Canada or not is entirely up to the CBSA officer you encounter at the border. Given you are from a visa exempt country - you shouldn't have issues. However the short answer is that there's always some chance you may have issues re-entering if you leave. Consider filing your application from within Canada.

The three events you worked in Canada in the last three years were illegal work. It doesn't matter that you were paid by an American company and it doesn't matter that you paid taxes - still illegal work since you were physically working in Canada. Avoid doing this going forward since it demonstrates a disrespect for Canadian immigration laws.

Generally speaking, you want to ensure you answer all questions truthfully in your PR sponsorship application. As long as you answer truthfully - there's should be any issues.

 

[canuck_in_uk]

However, I did work at three events in Canada in the last three years that I got paid for by an American company. I worked at these events while being in Canada on a tourist visa. Could this be an issue when I'm filling out the paperwork about my travel history? I did pay taxes on these invoices in The Netherlands.

As scylla said, you worked illegally in Canada. It doesn't matter that the company was American or that you paid taxes in your home country. It was illegal work. You must declare this in the application. It will not be a reason for refusal but lying about it would be.

 

[cranberry123]

Thanks for these quick answers. I will answer truthfully about the illegal work. However, this raises more questions. For this job that I had I flew all around the world, sometimes from event to event. How do I document all of this? Obviously everything I did in the EU was completely legal, but there were a few outliers in the USA, Canada, Australia and South-Africa.

Do I have to list every single country I ever visited, for how long and what my purpose of the visit was? Especially in Europe that's very hard, as a citizen of the Netherlands you don't get a stamp in your passport for travel within the EU. I always combined business with pleasure, so there's a ton of overlap on all these trips.

Also: I called an immigration lawyer and they said that it's best to file for PR from my home country, as I wouldn't be able to leave Canada for the duration of my wait time if I were to file from within Canada. How does this work exactly? I'm currently working for a US based company as a contractor, for work I provide online, but sometimes I have to travel to events for them. This is all being arranged properly through the company lawyer, but I don't want ot risk having to stay in Canada for more than a year while I wait for PR.

Thank you!

Thanks again!

 

[canuck_in_uk]

Also: I called an immigration lawyer and they said that it's best to file for PR from my home country, as I wouldn't be able to leave Canada for the duration of my wait time if I were to file from within Canada. How does this work exactly? I'm currently working for a US based company as a contractor, for work I provide online, but sometimes I have to travel to events for them. This is all being arranged properly through the company lawyer, but I don't want ot risk having to stay in Canada for more than a year while I wait for PR.

The lawyer is an idiot. Being in Canada doesn't require you to file inland. It's perfectly fine to apply outland while in Canada.

 

[cranberry123]

The lawyer is an idiot. Being in Canada doesn't require you to file inland. It's perfectly fine to apply outland while in Canada.

Apologies for misunderstanding, but how can I file outland while being physically in Canada? I have a business trip planned in January, and another one in May to renew my six month tourist visa, but I was looking at flights to schedule one to the Netherlands to file for PR from there.

Thank you!

 

[scylla]

Apologies for misunderstanding, but how can I file outland while being physically in Canada?

Thank you!

Easy - you just mail the outland application while you're in Canada. Tons of us here have done this successfully. Any lawyer who tells you that you can't file an outland app. while physically in Canada doesn't know what they are talking about.

 

[profiler]

Apologies for misunderstanding, but how can I file outland while being physically in Canada? I have a business trip planned in January, and another one in May to renew my six month tourist visa, but I was looking at flights to schedule one to the Netherlands to file for PR from there.

Thank you!

There is a slightly different series of paperwork mailed to a different address than inland.

 

[canadianwoman]

You send in the outland forms to the CIC office in Mississauga, Canada. You can be in Canada when you mail these forms, or anywhere else in the world. Or your partner could mail them. You definitely do not have to fly back to the Netherlands to apply outland.

If you apply inland (which has a slightly different set of forms), then you are advised to not leave Canada during the processing time. You can leave Canada - the problem is that if you are not let back in, the application is over. Inland also takes a lot longer than outland.

Since you want to travel while the application is being processed, you should apply outland. Again, you can do that while you are in Canada.