Moving my husband to Canada while in process

[ambgri]

I'm Canadian, my husband is American, I have a green card and we've been living in Florida for a little over a year. We both decided that we want to move to Canada, so we sent everything he needed to get a PR card. I thought it only took a few months for someone to get a PR card so I went looking through the website again last night and now i'm so confused, I have no idea how long it's going to take and i'm getting stressed out because we planned on moving to Canada in early December. I want to know if it's possible for him to still move there while it's in process?

 

[scylla]

Did he apply for a PR card? Or did you file an application to sponsor him as a permanent resident? Before he can qualify for a PR card, you must first sponsor him as a permanent resident. If you sent a PR CARD application - that was unfortunately the wrong thing to do. Do you remember what application forms you complete, how much you paid in fees and where you sent the application? This will help to verify that you submitted the right application.

As for moving to Canada, for now, all your husband can technically do is visit. However if you have in fact applied to sponsor him for permanent residency - then he should be able to enter Canada as a tourist and wait out the processing of his application from within Canada.

If you submitted the application within the last month or so, he definitely won't have PR status by December. The processing will take longer than that by several months.

 

[ambgri]

I guess I filed for him to be a permanent resident. We started this back in May. I sponsored him and I have already gotten a letter in the mail a couple months ago saying I was accepted to be his sponsor. I paid over $1000 in fees and I filled out these applications: [IMM 5491] [IMM 1344][IMM 5481][IMM 5409][IMM 5540][IMM 5476] [IMM 0008] [IMM 0008DEP] [IMM 5669] [IMM 5406] [IMM 5490] [IMM 5476][IMM 3910]. I'm pretty sure that was them, they sent back our application once because we missed a signature, so I think we have everything right so far. We sent it to Ontario.

 

[scylla]

OK - good. You definitely did the right thing.

The processing times can be found here:

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/times/perm-fc.asp

You have to add the 27 days it takes for step 1 (which you have already completed), to the processing times listed here for stage 2:

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/times/perm/fc-spouses.asp

The stage 2 processing times represent how long it took CIC to complete the processing for 80% of applications. This means that many get through faster than the posted time - some substantially faster. However I still think it's unlikely you'll be done by December since you applied in May.

 

[ambgri]

Thank you for your reply, so it would be okay for him to move to Canada with me in December still, and wait there until he gets his processing done? We would be driving, so at the Canadian border is there anything I should bring or are they going to already know from his name that his application is in process? Sorry with all the questions, I just don't want us to drive all that way and him being denied entry into Canada.