My American Girlfriend wants to come to Canada, we live in border towns and want to keep jobs.

[Josh N]

Hi everyone,
Seeking advice for a Windsor-Detroit cross-border couple (both 27, working as RNs). My girlfriend is a US Citizen (Detroit), and I am a Canadian Citizen (Windsor). We are trying to navigate a "catch-22" with our families and IRCC.
The Situation:
My girlfriend's family looks down on us getting engaged or married until we have lived together for a significant period, and she would prefer to actually live together first. However, we obviously can’t legally live together in Canada without PR or work status. We both want to keep our current jobs in our respective countries.
Option 1: Is a Conjugal Application Feasible?
Because of the immigration barriers to legally living together, we want to know if a Conjugal Partner application is realistic for a US-Canada couple.

• Has anyone at our age (27) successfully used this argument for a US partner, or will IRCC just tell us to get a civil marriage regardless of the family consequences?

Option 2: The "Commuter" Common-Law & OWP Strategy
If Conjugal isn't feasible, our backup is for her to live in Windsor as a Visitor for 12 months to establish common-law status, while commuting to Detroit 3x a week for her nursing shifts.

• The 12-Month Rule: If she sleeps in Windsor but crosses to Detroit 3x a week for work, does IRCC accept this as "continuous cohabitation"?
• The OWP Strategy: Under the current policy (extended to Dec 2026), she can apply for an Open Work Permit once we hit the 12-month mark and get the Acknowledgment of Receipt (AOR) for the PR file.
• The Commute: Has any nurse had issues with CBSA when crossing 3+ times a week while technically "living" in Windsor as a visitor? We want to be honest about "Dual Intent" (visiting to establish common-law), but we're worried about being turned away at the tunnel.

If all else fails, I'm sure I can convince her to get legally married to streamline the process, but I'm trying my best to make her as comfortable as possible.
We’re trying to respect our families' wishes while following the law. If any cross-border healthcare workers have dealt with this religious/family dynamic, we’d love to hear how you handled it.

 

[armoured]

1. What immigration barrier? The barrier is that you don't want to get married yet. Don't kid yourselves, it's not going to fool anyone, least of all IRCC. (Her parents? You're both adults, right?)
2. It's not realistic for her to commute while 'visiting' - eventually the CBSA will twig to fact she's trying to live here while commuting to work in USA.

In your case, legal marriage is the route. One or both of you can stay with each other quite a lot by commuting back and forth to each other, but it'll be visiting each other - and for the time being the best you can do to 'live together' until you decide you're ready.

I'm sure you'll hear different opinions and even options on this, but they're fraught with a lot of issues, including serious possibility that you'll waste a year or more and still get stuck with her not getting let back in or your application seriously delayed or even conceivably denied (until deficiencies - like not being married - get corrected).

So I repeat: don't kid yourselves with fanciful scenarios for how to deal with immigration in your case without getting married.

 

[scylla]

Hi everyone,
Seeking advice for a Windsor-Detroit cross-border couple (both 27, working as RNs). My girlfriend is a US Citizen (Detroit), and I am a Canadian Citizen (Windsor). We are trying to navigate a "catch-22" with our families and IRCC.
The Situation:
My girlfriend's family looks down on us getting engaged or married until we have lived together for a significant period, and she would prefer to actually live together first. However, we obviously can’t legally live together in Canada without PR or work status. We both want to keep our current jobs in our respective countries.
Option 1: Is a Conjugal Application Feasible?
Because of the immigration barriers to legally living together, we want to know if a Conjugal Partner application is realistic for a US-Canada couple.

• Has anyone at our age (27) successfully used this argument for a US partner, or will IRCC just tell us to get a civil marriage regardless of the family consequences?

Option 2: The "Commuter" Common-Law & OWP Strategy
If Conjugal isn't feasible, our backup is for her to live in Windsor as a Visitor for 12 months to establish common-law status, while commuting to Detroit 3x a week for her nursing shifts.

• The 12-Month Rule: If she sleeps in Windsor but crosses to Detroit 3x a week for work, does IRCC accept this as "continuous cohabitation"?
• The OWP Strategy: Under the current policy (extended to Dec 2026), she can apply for an Open Work Permit once we hit the 12-month mark and get the Acknowledgment of Receipt (AOR) for the PR file.
• The Commute: Has any nurse had issues with CBSA when crossing 3+ times a week while technically "living" in Windsor as a visitor? We want to be honest about "Dual Intent" (visiting to establish common-law), but we're worried about being turned away at the tunnel.

If all else fails, I'm sure I can convince her to get legally married to streamline the process, but I'm trying my best to make her as comfortable as possible.
We’re trying to respect our families' wishes while following the law. If any cross-border healthcare workers have dealt with this religious/family dynamic, we’d love to hear how you handled it.

Neither is realistic.

1) No, not at all realistic. You face no real immigration barriers that would qualify you for conjugal. It would be extremely easy for you to either get married or become common law.
2) This is also not realistic. A visitor visa does not allow her to live in Canada. Commuting multiple times a week is the behaviour of a resident and not visitor. Sooner or later she will run into issues at the border, likely a denied entry into Canada.

Get married and have her remain in the US while you sponsor her for PR. Once she has PR, she will be able to live in Canada and easily commute to a job in the US daily if she wants to.