Getting married soon - Spouse vs Common Law visa?

[can2018?]

Hi everyone,

I've been searching high and low for an answer to this question. I've lived in Canada a few times (I'm British) and will be marrying my Canadian fiancé in December this year, in the U.K.

We are quite desperate to come back to Canada as soon as we can, and want to start the visa app process.

I wanted to ask - is it worth us starting the application now as common laws and update them that we've wed after the date?

We are happy to go to town hall and legally marry this month if it helps the application process (and just have December as a celebration).

ANY help at all would be so helpful - it's really confusing us and we just want to start out application

Thanks so much,

 

[WeegieInOttawa]

Hello and welcome (one Brit to another!)

Might sound like a silly question but you guys do qualify for common law? You don't mention in your post if you're currently living together/have lived together for 12 months no breaks.

It will take a while to pull the app together but I certainly wouldn't "wait" until December just so you can apply under spousal. If you applied common law say start of August you COULD technically be approved and have PR by January (who knows though right!?).

 

[can2018?]

Thanks so much for replying so quickly!

Yes we have been living together (both here and in Canada for a year) since 2013 so no problems there.

Thanks for the advice, I wanted to check as I'd read applications can go faster if you're a spouse.

Appreciate it!
Calvin