Hey all,
On April 1st 2017 I came up to Toronto from Florida to begin the immigration process with my partner, who is a Canadian citizen living in Toronto. We explored different avenues of how to pursue immigration so we could be together, and after a consult with an immigration firm, we decided to do as follows:
1. Establish a common law relationship by moving to Canada and living together for 1 year
2. After the 1 year was up, we would be considered common law and he could sponsor me as his common law spouse. We would then submit my PR application.
3. As far as staying in the country, I would technically be a visitor with no status, but I was granted a visitor's record for 6 months and would apply again for another 6 month extension. Because I travel so much, I did not apply for the 6 month extension as I was told there was no need. I leave the country every 1-2 months either to travel with my partner, or go back to the states for family/work.
I was 100% honest with my intentions when I came into the country, and they called my partner to verify the story and make sure he was going to sponsor me. I was sent to Secondary and was given my first visitor's record and a smile with 'good luck and welcome to Canada'. In April 2018, we began assembling my PR application and sent away for my FBI police check. We didn't realize this process took so long. It's September now, and I'm still waiting for the results.
Going in and out of the country often with Nexus, I rarely have issues. I have been stopped a few times, I've explained my story, and they let me back into Canada with no issues.
A couple of months ago, we came back from a trip to Europe and we encountered a passport check at Pearson airport at the ramp coming off the plane (there were issues from that flight from Iceland previously, so they were doing double checks). The ICE officer twisted my words and told me I had been living in Canada illegally for a year. I was detained while he checked the rest of the plane, then later after explanation, he said I should next time say I am living here with dual intent, to avoid hassle/clarification issues.
On Saturday, we took a day trip to Buffalo, NY via car and came back through the border via the rainbow bridge. I was detained again, after saying I was living here with dual intent (the officer said he didn't know what that meant and I was sent to secondary). At this point, I've been living in Canada for 1 year and 5 months. After lengthy explanations, I was told that what we did was sneaky/underhanded and not what the immigration law was meant for. The officer told me that this classification was meant for spouses who had already established common law outside of the country, and were moving back into Canada together, "not for boyfriends and girlfriends to live with each other". She said I could enter the country again this time because I was lucky -- technically now we had established common law, but that I shouldn't have been granted entry the first time in April 2017. Also, we both make good enough money so I wasn't a drain on Canada's resources and what we did wasn't technically illegal. She said the immigration officer in April 2017 must have misunderstood and thought we were already common law, because the true explanation wouldn't have been allowed. We have been upfront about our situation every time we cross the border.
This is the first time we've experienced this "you are outside of the law". Did this officer misinterpret immigration law, or have we and every other officer we've encountered until now? It was our understanding that many people pursue PR this way, when they've met someone out of country. We were coached by our immigration firm that this was just fine, and we were told what information we should be collecting this past year to prove common law cohabitation.
To be told now that we are outside the law is a little disconcerting.
Our forward path at this time is to do everything we can to get the PR application in the mail by tomorrow at the latest, to show "forward progress" as we were warned by this officer. First thing this morning, I was re-fingerprinted and we are this time sending in the police check request to the FBI online, as it's much faster (we didn't know this before, and have been waiting 4.5 months via mail submission). The officer told me the PR application can be submitted without a police check, that can be done later. Is this correct? She also warned us she is putting a note in the computer to not allow me re-entry into Canada without a PR application being submitted. The kicker is, I'm leaving again in two weeks for a short work trip to Thailand which isn't an option to cancel at this point, so I'm worried about re-entry. Hopefully with Nexus it won't be questioned but not something I want to leave to chance.
Obviously we should have known beforehand that the FBI check could take so long, my fault, I should have been ready to submit for PR in April. But, we can't go back in time. Besides that, did we do this the wrong way? Are we really outside of the law?
On April 1st 2017 I came up to Toronto from Florida to begin the immigration process with my partner, who is a Canadian citizen living in Toronto. We explored different avenues of how to pursue immigration so we could be together, and after a consult with an immigration firm, we decided to do as follows:
1. Establish a common law relationship by moving to Canada and living together for 1 year
2. After the 1 year was up, we would be considered common law and he could sponsor me as his common law spouse. We would then submit my PR application.
3. As far as staying in the country, I would technically be a visitor with no status, but I was granted a visitor's record for 6 months and would apply again for another 6 month extension. Because I travel so much, I did not apply for the 6 month extension as I was told there was no need. I leave the country every 1-2 months either to travel with my partner, or go back to the states for family/work.
I was 100% honest with my intentions when I came into the country, and they called my partner to verify the story and make sure he was going to sponsor me. I was sent to Secondary and was given my first visitor's record and a smile with 'good luck and welcome to Canada'. In April 2018, we began assembling my PR application and sent away for my FBI police check. We didn't realize this process took so long. It's September now, and I'm still waiting for the results.
Going in and out of the country often with Nexus, I rarely have issues. I have been stopped a few times, I've explained my story, and they let me back into Canada with no issues.
A couple of months ago, we came back from a trip to Europe and we encountered a passport check at Pearson airport at the ramp coming off the plane (there were issues from that flight from Iceland previously, so they were doing double checks). The ICE officer twisted my words and told me I had been living in Canada illegally for a year. I was detained while he checked the rest of the plane, then later after explanation, he said I should next time say I am living here with dual intent, to avoid hassle/clarification issues.
On Saturday, we took a day trip to Buffalo, NY via car and came back through the border via the rainbow bridge. I was detained again, after saying I was living here with dual intent (the officer said he didn't know what that meant and I was sent to secondary). At this point, I've been living in Canada for 1 year and 5 months. After lengthy explanations, I was told that what we did was sneaky/underhanded and not what the immigration law was meant for. The officer told me that this classification was meant for spouses who had already established common law outside of the country, and were moving back into Canada together, "not for boyfriends and girlfriends to live with each other". She said I could enter the country again this time because I was lucky -- technically now we had established common law, but that I shouldn't have been granted entry the first time in April 2017. Also, we both make good enough money so I wasn't a drain on Canada's resources and what we did wasn't technically illegal. She said the immigration officer in April 2017 must have misunderstood and thought we were already common law, because the true explanation wouldn't have been allowed. We have been upfront about our situation every time we cross the border.
This is the first time we've experienced this "you are outside of the law". Did this officer misinterpret immigration law, or have we and every other officer we've encountered until now? It was our understanding that many people pursue PR this way, when they've met someone out of country. We were coached by our immigration firm that this was just fine, and we were told what information we should be collecting this past year to prove common law cohabitation.
To be told now that we are outside the law is a little disconcerting.
Our forward path at this time is to do everything we can to get the PR application in the mail by tomorrow at the latest, to show "forward progress" as we were warned by this officer. First thing this morning, I was re-fingerprinted and we are this time sending in the police check request to the FBI online, as it's much faster (we didn't know this before, and have been waiting 4.5 months via mail submission). The officer told me the PR application can be submitted without a police check, that can be done later. Is this correct? She also warned us she is putting a note in the computer to not allow me re-entry into Canada without a PR application being submitted. The kicker is, I'm leaving again in two weeks for a short work trip to Thailand which isn't an option to cancel at this point, so I'm worried about re-entry. Hopefully with Nexus it won't be questioned but not something I want to leave to chance.
Obviously we should have known beforehand that the FBI check could take so long, my fault, I should have been ready to submit for PR in April. But, we can't go back in time. Besides that, did we do this the wrong way? Are we really outside of the law?
