Help with visa options

[swordsman]

Hi everyone,
I need advice on the different options that I have with regards to immigrating/working in Canada. I've been reading through the CIC website for a while now, but it's difficult to keep track of all the procedures and what I may or may not be eligible for. My situation is as follows:
- I'm a Dutch citizen, 28 male, currently unemployed, currently residing in the Netherlands.
- I married my Canadian girlfriend last month in Canada.
- My wife, 23, is a fulltime master's student and works parttime in Canada.
- I was in Canada on a Working Holiday Visa for the past year, which expired 3 days ago.

So, drawing on the experiences of people on this forum, what would be the most efficient way to proceed? Obviously, my wife and I are planning on applying for spousal sponsorship. What we're trying to figure out is how to keep our long distance period as short as possible, and the fastest route towards a work permit for me.
Any help/advice is much appreciated, thanks!

 

[COPRQuestion]

Hi everyone,
I need advice on the different options that I have with regards to immigrating/working in Canada. I've been reading through the CIC website for a while now, but it's difficult to keep track of all the procedures and what I may or may not be eligible for. My situation is as follows:
- I'm a Dutch citizen, 28 male, currently unemployed, currently residing in the Netherlands.
- I married my Canadian girlfriend last month in Canada.
- My wife, 23, is a fulltime master's student and works parttime in Canada.
- I was in Canada on a Working Holiday Visa for the past year, which expired 3 days ago.

So, drawing on the experiences of people on this forum, what would be the most efficient way to proceed? Obviously, my wife and I are planning on applying for spousal sponsorship. What we're trying to figure out is how to keep our long distance period as short as possible, and the fastest route towards a work permit for me.
Any help/advice is much appreciated, thanks!

Wow that is a complicated situation, best advice is to go back in time and start again.

Honestly speaking and this is just a personal viewpoint, I would suggest forking out some money for some professional advice. This forum is great for the straightforward case or easy questions but your case isn't exactly straight forward.

If your wife sponsors you she has to prove that she has the income to support you for 36 months, I would double check the minimum income required as I'm not sure what a full time student/part time worker gets paid.

I would also get cracking on putting together all the evidence of your relationship - holidays together, events you've attended, people who know you etc etc.

I don't want to scare you but one thing they are going to look at closely is the fact you got married one month ago and your working visa ran out 3 days ago. I'm not sure what other people will say but just from an outsiders point of view this could look like a marriage of convenience. You need to prove that it isn't.

Just out of interest, if you knew you were getting married and your working visa was running out very soon, why didn't you prepare all the paperwork pre your wedding then submit it as soon as you were married? You might not even have had to move back to the Netherlands.

 

[scylla]

Wow that is a complicated situation, best advice is to go back in time and start again.

Honestly speaking and this is just a personal viewpoint, I would suggest forking out some money for some professional advice. This forum is great for the straightforward case or easy questions but your case isn't exactly straight forward.

If your wife sponsors you she has to prove that she has the income to support you for 36 months, I would double check the minimum income required as I'm not sure what a full time student/part time worker gets paid.

I would also get cracking on putting together all the evidence of your relationship - holidays together, events you've attended, people who know you etc etc.

I don't want to scare you but one thing they are going to look at closely is the fact you got married one month ago and your working visa ran out 3 days ago. I'm not sure what other people will say but just from an outsiders point of view this could look like a marriage of convenience. You need to prove that it isn't.

Just out of interest, if you knew you were getting married and your working visa was running out very soon, why didn't you prepare all the paperwork pre your wedding then submit it as soon as you were married? You might not even have had to move back to the Netherlands.

This is an extremely straight-forward case. No professional advice required. Also - there are no income requirements for spousal sponsorship.

A simple outland spousal sponsorship application is the best option for someone from the Netherlands. Also, the OP will need to apply to restore his status back to visitor to remain in Canada legally. Again, EXTREMELY straight forward - especially given they are married. Very unlikely this is going to be regarded as a marriage of convenience given the OP is from a visa exempt country.

The Family Sponsorship section of the forum is the right place to go for additional advice.

 

[COPRQuestion]

This is an extremely straight-forward case. No professional advice required. Also - there are no income requirements for spousal sponsorship.

A simple outland spousal sponsorship application is the best option for someone from the Netherlands. Also, the OP will need to apply to restore his status back to visitor to remain in Canada legally. Again, EXTREMELY straight forward - especially given they are married. Very unlikely this is going to be regarded as a marriage of convenience given the OP is from a visa exempt country.

The Family Sponsorship section of the forum is the right place to go for additional advice.

Good advice, let me know it goes.

I still believe it's worth getting the evidence together as you've been married for less than 2 years.

Just a question though for scylla though, what makes you so confident on the advise you're giving?

 

[Andynd1uk]

Hi everyone,
I need advice on the different options that I have with regards to immigrating/working in Canada. I've been reading through the CIC website for a while now, but it's difficult to keep track of all the procedures and what I may or may not be eligible for. My situation is as follows:
- I'm a Dutch citizen, 28 male, currently unemployed, currently residing in the Netherlands.
- I married my Canadian girlfriend last month in Canada.
- My wife, 23, is a fulltime master's student and works parttime in Canada.
- I was in Canada on a Working Holiday Visa for the past year, which expired 3 days ago.

So, drawing on the experiences of people on this forum, what would be the most efficient way to proceed? Obviously, my wife and I are planning on applying for spousal sponsorship. What we're trying to figure out is how to keep our long distance period as short as possible, and the fastest route towards a work permit for me.
Any help/advice is much appreciated, thanks!

Hi Swordsman, it seems to me that you're doing everything right. Get your Spousal Sponsorship application in as soon as possible and just await the outcome. Your wife will need to prove to CIC that she can support you in order to be approved as a sponsor but I shouldn't think she'll have any issues. Unfortunately you won't be able to work in Canada until you've been granted permanent residence. The maximum Netherlands processing time is currently set at 13 months so ideally you could be with your wife, living and working in Canada within a year. In the meantime I would suggest you try your best to obtain some kind of paid employment in Holland and visit your wife and have her visit you as much as possible. My wife and I are in the final stages, I'm currently awaiting my COPR but in the 2 years prior to marrying her and in the year since we got married we've managed to see each other for a few weeks every 3-6 months. It's been heart-rendering but even a small amount of time together is better than no time together at all.

I hope everything works out for you, keep us up to date with your progress

 

[swordsman]

Just out of interest, if you knew you were getting married and your working visa was running out very soon, why didn't you prepare all the paperwork pre your wedding then submit it as soon as you were married? You might not even have had to move back to the Netherlands.

We decided kind of last minute to get married last month, the original plan was to do it in 2017. I was aiming to get a Young Professional Visa, but that proved to be extremely hard, so we opted to get married sooner so as to start the spousal sponsorship process earlier. We had a simple civil ceremony, but we'll do a bigger celebration for friends and family next year. But you're right, we should have thought it through a bit better and earlier, might have saved us some time. And no worries about gathering evidence, we have loads .

A simple outland spousal sponsorship application is the best option for someone from the Netherlands. Also, the OP will need to apply to restore his status back to visitor to remain in Canada legally. Again, EXTREMELY straight forward - especially given they are married. Very unlikely this is going to be regarded as a marriage of convenience given the OP is from a visa exempt country.

How do I restore my status back to visitor? I already left the country, my IEC visa has expired, so doesn't it reset automatically? Outland applications are quicker, but what I like about inland applications is that you're granted an OWP. Our initial idea was to the inland application, after which I'd enter Canada as a visitor, wait for my OWP to come in and activate it by flagpoling. Would that be a viable option? By the way, we're settling in Ottawa.

I hope everything works out for you, keep us up to date with your progress

Thanks, will do . Shouldn't be much longer for you before getting your PR then, right? With an inland application you actually are able to work, the downside is just that it takes a lot longer for your PR to come in. But that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make if it means not doing long distance.

 

[COPRQuestion]

Sorry, didn't mean to be nosy. Sounds like you've got everything sorted and across all the details.

Good luck with the whole process I hope you work out a way of getting there ASAP to be with your wife