Confused About Options

[lemonturtle]

Hey there!

I'm a Canadian Citizen by birth and the person I've been seeing online for some time now has fallen into a tight predicament.

He is from Myanmar (Burma) and has been living in the States for quite some time now. In this time, recently his visa has expired while he was trying to find a way to be able to stay in the States. I've done some looking but couldn't find much about a foreigner living in the states trying to possibly come into Canada.

We've been looking for any possible way to move him here but have been running into mostly just closed doors.

Unfortunately due to not being able to continue affording it for some time he had to stop and could not complete his degree, and I am set for school in the fall.

I'm now incredibly worried because he desperately doesn't want to go back home due to some complicated issues and we're trying every way possible to find a good legal way for him to possibly enter Canada.

 

[scylla]

If he wants to enter Canada immediately - then the only options are a tourist visa, work visa (provided he can find an employer in Canada), or a study visa (provided he can be accepted by a school in Canada and is able to afford the foreign tuition fees). The bad news is that without status in the US, there's really zero chance he'll be approved for any of these. To be approved, he would need to show he has no plans on remaining in Canada long term. This will be effectively impossible to prove if he's stopped his studies in the US, is now out of status in the US, and can't show any real ties to his home country.

Long term you could sponsor him for permanent residency as your partner once you are either married or common law (common law means you have lived together for a minimum of one full year). However it sounds like you are still a long way away from this as you have an online relationship only. Note that you want to be careful about rushing into marriage since immigration may then believe your relationship isn't genuine. You'd want to spent time together first (ideally over a number of separate visits) before getting married and sponsoring him.

Long story short, I don't think he has any realistic options for entering Canada immediately.

 

[Ponga]

Sorry to hear about his situation, but I'm afraid that I don't have any brilliant ideas.

The only way that you could sponsor him to become a Permanent Resident of Canada, would be to get married and apply for spousal sponsorship.

Even then, with him now having lost his legal status in the U.S., that would, at the very least, be a red flag to CIC (Citizenship and Immigration Canada) and could be seen as simply a marriage of convenience for immigration purposes.


Depending on his skills set, he might get lucky enough to find an employer in Canada that would be willing to go through the arduous LMO (Labour Market Opinion) process to hire him.

Good luck to you both!

 

[scylla]

Depending on his skills set, he might get lucky enough to find an employer in Canada that would be willing to go through the arduous LMO (Labour Market Opinion) process to hire him.

He's out of status in the US. Even if he finds an employer and that employer is able to obtain an LMIA (LMOs have been replaced by LMIAs) - CIC won't approve the work permit.

 

[Ponga]

Ah...That makes perfect sense.

 

[scylla]

Just to add...

He should make sure he leaves the US before he hits the six month mark of being out of status. The US is far less forgiving than Canada about overstays. If he overstays six months, he will be automatically given a three year ban from re-entering the US as soon as he leaves. If he overstays a year or more, it's an automatic 10 year ban.

 

[lemonturtle]

Thank you.
This is relatively close to what I originally thought might be the case when I discused it with him

I'm aware of the 6 month leeway there.
I have a sister who was in the states 6 months over her alloted time but she was living with her fiancee and ended up marrying and getting her green card a short while later.

Though this situation is completely different I understand.

I have no intention of marrying him at this time due to know I no that it would just be a flag to CIC anyways.

My trip to go there thus summer had been canceled due to unforseen circumstances.
At this time we are trying to find any legal way that he can stay in the states if he has no options of coming to Canada.

But thank you for the help and confirming some things I had thought myself