I need help.

[IslaScottish]

I'm currently in Canada visiting my boyrfriend of three years and I'm supposed to be here for two months. We've just found out that I'm pregnant and I don't want to have to be shipped back home without him.
What can I do to stay here? I don't currently have a visa so I'm stuck and need advice as I have no idea of who to turn to.
Please help me.
Thanks.

 

[scylla]

Are you and your boyfriend common law? (Common law = have lived together for a minimum of one full year.) If not, is your relationship serious enough that you're considering marriage?

 

[cililoca]

You guys can get the results from your pregnancy and attach with documents to apply for a visitors visa... You can either keep extending your visa until you complete a year living together or get married and start immigration. Either way you should check if your province covers your medical in case you stay... Congratulations on your baby!

 

[Hnhkrk]

First things first: Decide the course that you want to take.

You can either decided to apply for PR through being common-law partners, or through being spouses.

If you choose common-law, you will have to be living together for a year and sharing bills, leases, bank accounts, etc. in order to prove your relationship to the CIC. You will also have to apply for a Vistor's Visa Extension. If you are from the USA, this will not be a problem. Especially if you explain that you are pregnant. After a year of living in Canada, you can apply for PR through sponsorship and wait. You will not have any health insurance and your will be unable to work until you get PR.

If you choose marriage (which is what I suggest) you would found out the process of getting married in the Province you live in (I know about Quebec/Montreal if you have questions), gather all of the proof you can of your relationship (the pregnancy will give you a lot of points. ) and send in the application for sponsorship and PR. Once again, you will not have healthcare until PR is approved but applying for spousal sponsorship is going to be much faster.

Cilioca is right though, you need to make sure that you have healthcare coverage in the province that you're in. Applying as Common-law partners typically takes more time and is much harder to prove than if you were to do it as spouses, but if you're not necessarily ready to marry each other I do not suggest it. Your sponsor will be responsible for you for 3 years after PR is approved, and it can cause a lot of problems if you do not stay together.

 

[sakamath]

First of all, you would have to "extend" your stay in Canada:
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/visit/extend-stay.asp

Are you coming from a 'visa-exempt' country? If so, it would be easier to get an extension. Once you have extension of stay, that would give you some breathing space to focus more on your family than on being sent back.

 

[IslaScottish]

Thankyou for all your help, guys. I will need to have a serious discussion about all these points with my boyfriend.
We can't apply for common law as we've only been living together for periods of 3/4 weeks at a time over the past three years (there's a lot of things back home, work commitments and pets that I can't leave for too long).
I'm a British citizen from Scotland so I am from a visa exempt country.
Marriage has been discussed many times but we will need to have further discussion on the matter.
Everyone's opinion is welcome!
And thank you for your congratulations.

 

[robrod]

Congratulations!.
You should consider how expensive it is to have a baby delivered in this country without medical coverage. A couple from Australia got billed for a cool 1 million dollars in Vancouver, it was all over the news.
Some have gone through midwives, but what if there are complications?. Such was the plan for my wife (to deliver at home in a birthpool through her midwife) but ended up delivering in the hospital. Lucky for us, she was the sponsor and Canadian citizen...
Best of luck,
Rob.

 

[caledonia]

I was sort of in the same situation with regards to health care. I am living in canada (from Ireland) with my canadian husband and in the process of PR. I had outstayed my visitors visa already by the time I found out I was pregnant so had no health care. I contacted a midwife and happened to get one (it can be quite difficult) and all of the costs are covered,- bloodwork, ultrasounds, delivery (and I had an epidural). If you google midwives in your province you should find the info pretty fast. Im in Ontario and I would imagine its pretty similar in others (although I cant say for sure) I dont know if this would be best course of action but what I would do is apply for an extension of your visitors visa and hopefully they will grant you an extension past your due date. Having a midwife was wonderful and they are fully trained to deal with any complication! you can give birth in a hospital with a midwife like I did if you were concerned about this!

 

[calgaryimmigration]

hi IslaScottish!
congratulations to ur baby!
attach the pregnancy test result to the documents and apply for visa extension.
u need to complete one year of living together before u can apply for immigration.