Looking For Advice

[Louts]

Hello, all!

I'd just like to say that this forum has been incredibly informative and comforting in a lot of ways now that I'm seriously considering moving to Canada to be with my fiancee. I still have a lot of questions and concerns and I was hoping someone could help guide me in the right direction.

My first concern is the fact that we aren't married yet, though we have been engaged going on 2 years now. The reason we haven't gone through with it yet is simply due to convenience and change in circumstance. Our original plan was to get married next year in October and live in the U.S. However, we've recently decided that in the long run it would be better to live in Canada. As such, we were considering doing a simple ceremony at the courthouse in order to make ourselves official and worry about a big celebration later so we could get the ball rolling for me to move to Canada as soon as possible.

I worry that this would look bad on my application. Doubly so because I'm currently visiting him in Canada and coming through the border I had some problems because they thought I might stay illegally and gave me a document stating I have to be out by a certain date. I was told this in itself isn't a big deal or a mark against me, but while at the border I did mention to the customs fellow that we planned to be married in October of next year (and this was indeed still the plan at the time.) My concern is that if we were to go to the courthouse and simply get it over with so that we can start filing the paperwork that it will give us problems during the application process. Is there something we should or should not do? Would I be in trouble with immigration/customs if we decided to get married now?

I apologize for the long post, there are just a lot of things that go into this situation and I have no idea how they look at these facts. Any help that can be provided would be most appreciated!

 

[Louts]

I should also add that I don't expect to stay in Canada during this visit simply because we've gotten married. I would still be applying while living in the States. I'm just worried that the sudden change in plans would reflect badly upon us even though it's a legit change of heart with real reasons.

 

[steaky]

Is your fiancee a Canadian Citizen or PR?

 

[Louts]

He's a Canadian citizen.

 

[chelley]

I don't think when you get married will impact your application if you have strong enough evidence of your relationship before the wedding...

as far as the entry visa you received, if you want to stay in canada, you will need to apply for an extension before that day, ( i believe if you have the application already filed, you can cite that as a reason to wait it out... Do a bit more research here! there are many on this board who can give the best advise on how to get this approved pretty easily)...

I don't think you need to worry about what you told the border agent either, on the odd chance that they did record it, you are always entitled to change your mind about when you want to marry and dual intent is acceptable within the PR world... (thus the ability to apply for a visitors visa while waiting out a PR application... they know your intent is not to leave when they grant you the visa, but they can and do)...

hope that helps some

 

[Canooknic]

My partner & I had the same query, but decided not to get married just for the forms and we are now going to wait until we get to Canada and start planning the wedding then. We thought it would be a good excuse to get all our friends/family over to see us too !!

 

[chelley]

keep in mind that they also love to see pics of "formal" get togethers to celebrate the relationship... if you can even just have a nice dinner for your family/friends (or do 2 if they are too far apart to get together) to celebrate your marriage then that would help them tick off that box....

or maybe if you have the cash now you can elope to one of those "weddingmoons".... some nice packages for fairly cheap, many have photographers and some pics included, so you can have a small private ceremony, but still have nice pictures to remember it by... and show immigration.... (this is the way our wedding was done.. just the two of us in the cliffs of Negril, Jamaica our ceremony and pictures were gorgeous and all and all it cost under 3000CAD)

however you do it, as the pp poster said, don't just get it over with so quickly for the paperwork if a special wedding is something you've been looking forward to... there are other ways to make it special that needn't take a ton of time or money... just a little thinking outside the box