Mistakenly Overstayed on Visitor Visa; Consequences on PR application?

[jdCanadian]

I had a 10 year multiple entry visitor visa to Canada. I admit ignorance is no excuse, but we weren't aware that, despite the visa being valid for 10 years, each visit is supposed to be under 6 months (unless extended at the time of entry by an IO at border). It's strange that nowhere on the visa is this mentioned and nor did the IO inform me of this. I only learnt that I had overstayed for well over a year when I had called CIC about questions we had w.r.t spouse sponsorship (my spouse and I hadn't decided yet which country we wanted to live in). Anyway, I was told I could apply for inland spouse sponsorship, but I decided to leave Canada within a week. My Canadian spouse soon followed.

This was more than 3 years ago and now we're contemplating moving back to Canada, so I have a few questions for those applicants who've overstayed a significant time as I unwittingly did:
1. Did you state this info under previous countries of residence?
2. If so, did you break the duration of stay based on status (eg: 6 months as visitor, rest as "out of status" or as one big chunk)?
3. Has your application been successful?

Thanks in advance.

 

[canuck_in_uk]

This was more than 3 years ago and now we're contemplating moving back to Canada, so I have a few questions for those applicants who've overstayed a significant time as I unwittingly did:
1. Did you state this info under previous countries of residence?
2. If so, did you break the duration of stay based on status (eg: 6 months as visitor, rest as "out of status" or as one big chunk)?
3. Has your application been successful?

You must declare the overstay. It will not have any effect on the sponsorship app.

 

[jdCanadian]

You must declare the overstay. It will not have any effect on the sponsorship app.

Thanks for your reply. Are you speaking from experience?

 

[Miraclejj]

Thanks for your reply. Are you speaking from experience?

It does no matter it will have effort or not on your case, you have to claim the overstay. If you don't claim the overstay, 100% sure that you will be refused with the reason of misrepresentation and will be barred for 5 years to come to Canada.

And believe us that CIC does have your overstayed records. And the following countries share your immigration/visa records with CIC, US, England, Japan, New Zealand and Australia. If you ever overstayed in those countries, CIC will know.

 

[scylla]

The overstay will have zero impact on a PR sponsorship application provided you declare it in your application. You must indicate that you were in Canada without status for the period of time where you lived here without authorization.

The overstay will only harm your application if you fail to declare it. As others have said, this is misrepresentation which will get your application refused. Worst case scenario you'll end up with a five year ban from Canada as well.

Declaring the overstay in your application is a no-brainer since there's no impact to your application (again, provided you declare it).

 

[jdCanadian]

It does no matter it will have effort or not on your case, you have to claim the overstay. If you don't claim the overstay, 100% sure that you will be refused with the reason of misrepresentation and will be barred for 5 years to come to Canada.

And believe us that CIC does have your overstayed records. And the following countries share your immigration/visa records with CIC, US, England, Japan, New Zealand and Australia. If you ever overstayed in those countries, CIC will know.

Sigh. If you're not even aware that Canada doesn't record departures, you should definitely not be fear mongering that Canada has these records. The most recent review on immigration policies identifies the lack of having such records to be the reason why it's difficult to measure the success of improved policies. What you mean is that Canada has the ability to find out, which is not the same thing. Anyway, I asked for people with firsthand experience. I appreciate that you're taking the time to respond, and believe you're being helpful but that's not what I'm looking for here. If you do have firsthand experience, then I'd appreciate you'd share what you did. Cheers.

 

[kcward7]

Sigh. If you're not even aware that Canada doesn't record departures, you should definitely not be fear mongering that Canada has these records. The most recent review on immigration policies identifies the lack of having such records to be the reason why it's difficult to measure the success of improved policies. What you mean is that Canada has the ability to find out, which is not the same thing. Anyway, I asked for people with firsthand experience. I appreciate that you're taking the time to respond, and believe you're being helpful but that's not what I'm looking for here. If you do have firsthand experience, then I'd appreciate you'd share what you did. Cheers.

I am not taking one side or the other here because I don't want to get involved but if you're asking for people to come forward with firsthand experiences of how they approached documenting what CIC considers misrepresentation, this probably isn't the forum.

 

[jdCanadian]

The overstay will have zero impact on a PR sponsorship application provided you declare it in your application. You must indicate that you were in Canada without status for the period of time where you lived here without authorization.

The overstay will only harm your application if you fail to declare it. As others have said, this is misrepresentation which will get your application refused. Worst case scenario you'll end up with a five year ban from Canada as well.

Declaring the overstay in your application is a no-brainer since there's no impact to your application (again, provided you declare it).

Thanks for your reply. Experience or opinion? Not looking for latter. Thanks for the concern, I really do appreciate it, but not looking for anything other than information from people who've submitted an application after overstaying. If it helps everyone breathe easier, I'm not planning to not "declare" it. Thanks.

 

[jdCanadian]

I am not taking one side or the other here because I don't want to get involved but if you're asking for people to come forward with firsthand experiences of how they approached documenting what CIC considers misrepresentation, this probably isn't the forum.

CIC considers overstaying misrepresentation? Because that is what I'm asking for: how they approached documentation of their overstay. I'll reiterate my questions with the hope that it stalls further misinterpretations:

1. Did you state this info under previous countries of residence?
2. If so, did you break the duration of stay based on status (eg: 6 months as visitor, rest as "out of status" or as one big chunk)?
3. Has your application been successful?

 

[scylla]

Sigh. If you're not even aware that Canada doesn't record departures, you should definitely not be fear mongering that Canada has these records. The most recent review on immigration policies identifies the lack of having such records to be the reason why it's difficult to measure the success of improved policies. What you mean is that Canada has the ability to find out, which is not the same thing. Anyway, I asked for people with firsthand experience. I appreciate that you're taking the time to respond, and believe you're being helpful but that's not what I'm looking for here. If you do have firsthand experience, then I'd appreciate you'd share what you did. Cheers.

Big sigh right back at you. We aren't fear mongering. It's a common misconception that CBSA doesn't know when you left Canada. Yes - there's no departure check - but they do have access to airline manifests (and maybe other stuff). If you want a first hand account - here's one. Back in 2010, my American husband was effectively living in Canada as a visitor (this was before he became a PR). He would enter and exit Canada relatively frequently (both to the US as well as overseas - sometimes by plane and other times via a land border when going to the US). I always had some concerns he might have issues re-entering because he was spending the vast majority of his time here. One day when he was re-entering he was called into secondary and CBSA started asking him why he was spending so much time in Canada as a visitor. They then started rhyming off all of the travel he had done over the last six month period. They had everything. When he had arrived, when he had left and where he had gone. It was pretty scary. Luckily they let him in after he was able to prove we had a sponsorship application underway and also because he had a flight out of the country two weeks later (and still had ties to the US).

Very similar thing happened to a friend of mine about three years later. They ended up sitting in secondary for three hours before they were finally let into Canada.

They know more than you think they know. Best to assume they know everything.

EDIT: To give this some context, my husband had about 15 different trips over that six month period. They had everything - regardless of whether it was a flight or land border crossing.

 

[scylla]

CIC considers overstaying misrepresentation? Because that is what I'm asking for: how they approached documentation of their overstay. I'll reiterate my questions with the hope that it stalls further misinterpretations:

The overstay itself isn't misrepresentation. It's if you lie about it (or fail to mention it which CIC equates to lying) in an immigration application.

 

[scylla]

Oh - and for your second question - you would include two separate periods in your history. One for when you were in Canada with valid visitor status. And one for the period where you were in Canada without status. Hope that helps.

 

[jdCanadian]

... Yes - there's no departure check - but they do have access to airline manifests (and maybe other stuff). If you want a first hand account - here's one. Back in 2010, my American husband was effectively living in Canada as a visitor (this was before he became a PR). He would enter and exit Canada relatively frequently (both to the US as well as overseas - sometimes by plane and other times via a land border when going to the US). ....

Sorry, I'm frustrated that despite clearly stating what I'm looking for, I'm getting responses that are so outside of what I'm asking. Anyway, thanks for sharing. Don't want to derail my own thread by having a long discussion about this, but yes, since they have arrival records, I'm not surprised it wasn't hard for them to connect the dots in your husband's case. Again, Canada's very own review states they don't have this information on all immigrants. Anyway, moot point really; my interest isn't in misrepresenting as I've since reiterated twice now in this thread. I understand the faulty misinterpretation but since we've cleared that's not what I'm after, I hope to put this contention to rest. Cheers

 

[jdCanadian]

The overstay itself isn't misrepresentation. It's if you lie about it (or fail to mention it which CIC equates to lying) in an immigration application.

Yes, aware. Was trying to point out that I never asked for tips to misrepresent. Thanks for clarifying anyway, I appreciate it.

 

[jdCanadian]

Oh - and for your second question - you would include two separate periods in your history. One for when you were in Canada with valid visitor status. And one for the period where you were in Canada without status. Hope that helps.

Thanks, that is helpful. Experience or educated guess? Cheers