Help Please, Trying to get My Fiancée to Canada

[Khraih]

My fiancée and I aren't very sure on what to do now, any help is appreciated! I am a 19 year old Canadian citizen and in June 2013 I met my fiancée online. She is also 19 but is from Oregon USA. We met in person October 2013 and have been engaged since. We saw each other quite a few times through the winter as we are only about 10-12 hours drive apart. Up until two weeks ago we spent a full 6 months living together, both in Canada and the US, mostly from understanding Border officers letting us through. We've spent the last year not knowing what to do but still making it work. We're still young and had no idea about any of this when we met, but we will do whatever it takes!
The plan is and has been for both of us to live in Canada, but right now the problem is I don't think I'm fully able to support her with a sponsorship visa. I've only been 19 for a month and just started working in the last few months. I am self employed repairing vintage musical instruments, which makes a fair amount of money but I understand I need to show my income of the last 12 months before we can do the sponsorship papers, does that mean we need to wait a year before we can even start? Or do we need to wait until tax season this year or the next?
On one of the border crossings an officer said to be eligible to sponsor I need to make at least an $18000 yearly income specific to the town I live in. I haven't made that much yet but could it be possible I can show I made that much in the next few months for this years taxes? Of course that's if I can make $15000 by then. I'm not really sure how that part of the sponsorship papers works.
Also my mom owns and runs a small cafe/restaurant, but no one works for her besides family, though she really does need to hire someone else. She has met my fiancée and thinks she is definitely perfect for the job, and even gave my fiancée a job offer. If she can get a positive LMIA and my fiancée gets a work permit that would give us time to actually stay together in the same spot without being apart, and also enough time for me to sponsor her in a year or so when I am fully able to. But would it be bad if when I go to sponsor her they see she was working with my mom at the restaurant?

So anyways, we have kind of used up all our visitor stays and are apart until we can start working on real paperwork. But we don't know what to do next and we really need to be together to actually start our life as we've been stuck in a loop this whole year.
Sorry for the long post, but if anyone can give us any advice on our situation that would be great!

 

[Alurra71]

Well, for one, you won't be able to sponsor your fiance until either:

1. She is not your fiance but your wife

2. You have lived together for one full year (365 consecutive days with no breaks) to become common law.

The odds that your mother will be able to get a positive LMIA in a cafe/restaurant field is going to be slim to none, so don't bet on that one.

You don't have to have a specific amount of money to sponsor a spouse or common law partner. What you need to prove though is that you won't be going on welfare when your spouse receives her PR.

You haven't really used up all your visitor time. So long as neither one of you are staying in the other country for more time than you spend in your home country you can cross back and forth. If you wanted to go visit her for a couple weeks then return back to Canada and then she were to come visit you for a couple weeks then return back to the USA, you could very likely do this every other month or so without drawing to much attention to yourselves.

Of course, if you have a way to support your fiance financially, and she is able to cross into Canada, she can always file for a visitor extension (costs roughly $100) and remain in Canada with you so long as her extensions are approved. Many folks use this method in order to become common law. She would not be able to work unless she did get a job with a positive LMIA and she would also not be able bring all her belongings with her, however, this might give you both time to explore your relationship some more to decide if it is going to be a long term deal.

I suggest you begin your search by reading the very first post located here: http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/spousal-sponsorship-t46995.0.html This will give you some very valuable information. The timelines for how long everything takes is outdated, however, the gist of the data is still in tact and gives you a very thorough overview of what needs to be done and how.

Best of luck to you.