In a relationship and trying to move to Canada HELP!

[gus_gs]

Hi!

Im from Mexico, and my girlfriend is Canadian. We’ve been living together in Mexico for the last 11 months, and she’s been staying here as a traveler (She’s worried she hasn’t declared that she’s living here to the Canadian government).
We want to move to Canada and work there, and I would like have a work visa to be able to do that.
I’m an engineer with about 2 years experience. I don’t have a job offer yet.

1)I think I should apply for an open work permit, ¿right?
2)Do I need a job offer?
3)Do I need a Labour Market Impact Assessment? or am I excluded for being part of the NAFTA international Agreement?
4)Should we apply as common-law? We’ve only been apart for 4 weeks in the past 11 months (our only real proof are pictures, plane tickets, landlord letter, etc)
5)Would that make the visa easier to get?

Really appreciate the help!

*Edit: The longest continuos period of time we've been apart is 3 weeks.

 

[scylla]

1) You don't qualify for an open work permit.
2) You need both a job offer and approved LMIA to qualify to apply for a CLOSED work permit.
3) See above.
4) You must live together continuously for a minimum of 12 full months in order for her to be able to sponsor you for PR as her common law partner. Generally speaking, breaks of more than three weeks are regarded as a break in continuous cohabitation and you have to start counting the year again from scratch. A one month break in cohabitation is pretty long. Ultimately it will be up to the officer who processes your application to decide if this means you have broken continuous cohabitation or not. However applying with a four week break is definitely risky. Ideally you should have 12 full months of continuous cohabitation.
5) Getting married will mean that your girlfriend will be able to sponsor you for PR immediately.