Hello all,
I am a British Citizen, 25 years old, with a currently active Visa to work in Canada under the International Experience/Youth Mobility program for 1 year, and would like to extend my stay. My visa expires on the 27th of January 2013, but I returned to England December 8th 2012 because of illness in my family, and am currently still there. I understand that because I was not working in a skilled occupation (i was employed by Walmart), that I am unlikely to receive extension on those grounds alone (even more so because I left my job when I returned).
My girlfriend is a Canadian citizen (from Ottawa, where we would be intending, or at least hoping to stay) and we have been a couple for 3 years and 2 months. The first year and a half we did not live together, but visited and stayed with each other on numerous occasions, the next 6 months she spent in England (as a visitor) staying with me, and of course the previous year I have spent living with her whilst under the youth mobility program.
From what information I have been able to find, I believe that most places in Canada will recognize a couple as common law if they have lived together for a year. Whereas Ontario only recognizes a couple as common law after 3 years, and Quebec doesn't recognize common law at all.
With all this information in mind, does anything within my situation give any kind of push towards being considered for an extension, or indeed a new/different visa altogether? Outside of moving to another province where we would be considered common law, is there anything else we can do? Would the fact we've been a couple for more than 3 years still count as common law in Ontario, or must we have been living together?
As the basis for being classed as common law in other provinces is fairly drastically different, If anybody does have any advice to offer on a similar situation outside of Ontario (such as how we would go about declaring/obtaining common law status for instance!), I would also greatly appreciate it. If it meant being able to live together, we would certainly consider moving to another province, despite all of her family being Ontario based.
Thank you for taking the time to read my post.
Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!
Luke
I am a British Citizen, 25 years old, with a currently active Visa to work in Canada under the International Experience/Youth Mobility program for 1 year, and would like to extend my stay. My visa expires on the 27th of January 2013, but I returned to England December 8th 2012 because of illness in my family, and am currently still there. I understand that because I was not working in a skilled occupation (i was employed by Walmart), that I am unlikely to receive extension on those grounds alone (even more so because I left my job when I returned).
My girlfriend is a Canadian citizen (from Ottawa, where we would be intending, or at least hoping to stay) and we have been a couple for 3 years and 2 months. The first year and a half we did not live together, but visited and stayed with each other on numerous occasions, the next 6 months she spent in England (as a visitor) staying with me, and of course the previous year I have spent living with her whilst under the youth mobility program.
From what information I have been able to find, I believe that most places in Canada will recognize a couple as common law if they have lived together for a year. Whereas Ontario only recognizes a couple as common law after 3 years, and Quebec doesn't recognize common law at all.
With all this information in mind, does anything within my situation give any kind of push towards being considered for an extension, or indeed a new/different visa altogether? Outside of moving to another province where we would be considered common law, is there anything else we can do? Would the fact we've been a couple for more than 3 years still count as common law in Ontario, or must we have been living together?
As the basis for being classed as common law in other provinces is fairly drastically different, If anybody does have any advice to offer on a similar situation outside of Ontario (such as how we would go about declaring/obtaining common law status for instance!), I would also greatly appreciate it. If it meant being able to live together, we would certainly consider moving to another province, despite all of her family being Ontario based.
Thank you for taking the time to read my post.
Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!
Luke