Need help with flagpole and spouse open work permit

[langzzz]

Hey guys, I want to share my bad experiences with two times flagpoles in Windsor. It's a sad story, and I need your suggestions

My boyfriend and I are common-law partners. He is a student of UWindsor, and I came to Canada with him in August as a visitor.

On Sep 29, I went to Flagpole to apply for SOWP, which failed. The officer said he couldn't find my upfront medical exam in the system, and he suggested I come back one month later. After that, I applied for SOWP online immediately.

Today, on Jan 5, I still have no updates from IRCC, and my visitor visa has almost expired. So I went to Flagpole again. But I failed again, and the officer copied all my support documents as a record and said I CAN NOT do flagpole again!

The officer I met today was so rude; I think he just doesn't want to issue me a work permit. Firstly, he questioned about our relationship and why there was a month gap that we didn't live together. Then, he returned and said my name shouldn't be on the one-year lease agreement cause I could only stay for six months as a visitor. I said we need this to prove we live together, that's important to common-law partners! Then he said it is illegal, and he doesn't believe I will go back to my country cause I don't have a house in my country! He said I’m trying to stay in Canada permanently, and he doesn't believe our documents.

Anyway, he had many questions about my case, and he didn't care about our explanations.

So, guys, I need help with the questions below

- will those two flagpole failures affect my online application?
- my boyfriend and I will get married next week. I will upload this through Weform after that. Will this help me get the SOWP?
- if the IRCC refuses my application, can I apply for a visitor record then? Since my visit status will expire then, I stayed for more than 6 months.

Looking forward to your advices!

 

[langzzz]

Personally speaking, I will suggest common-law partners don't go to the flagpole for OWP because, from my experience, the officers there do not all know details about common-law partners’ OWP applications.

 

[canuck78]

Hey guys, I want to share my bad experiences with two times flagpoles in Windsor. It's a sad story, and I need your suggestions

My boyfriend and I are common-law partners. He is a student of UWindsor, and I came to Canada with him in August as a visitor.

On Sep 29, I went to Flagpole to apply for SOWP, which failed. The officer said he couldn't find my upfront medical exam in the system, and he suggested I come back one month later. After that, I applied for SOWP online immediately.

Today, on Jan 5, I still have no updates from IRCC, and my visitor visa has almost expired. So I went to Flagpole again. But I failed again, and the officer copied all my support documents as a record and said I CAN NOT do flagpole again!

The officer I met today was so rude; I think he just doesn't want to issue me a work permit. Firstly, he questioned about our relationship and why there was a month gap that we didn't live together. Then, he returned and said my name shouldn't be on the one-year lease agreement cause I could only stay for six months as a visitor. I said we need this to prove we live together, that's important to common-law partners! Then he said it is illegal, and he doesn't believe I will go back to my country cause I don't have a house in my country! He said I’m trying to stay in Canada permanently, and he doesn't believe our documents.

Anyway, he had many questions about my case, and he didn't care about our explanations.

So, guys, I need help with the questions below

- will those two flagpole failures affect my online application?
- my boyfriend and I will get married next week. I will upload this through Weform after that. Will this help me get the SOWP?
- if the IRCC refuses my application, can I apply for a visitor record then? Since my visit status will expire then, I stayed for more than 6 months.

Looking forward to your advices!

Are from a visa exempt country or did you require a TRV to visit Canada. If not from a visa exempt country you should not qualify for flagpoling.

Common law partners and spouses are not guaranteed SOWP so nobody can predict whether you will be approved. When applying for a study permit it asks whether your family will be accompanying you. You should have applied to join your common law partner when he applied for history permit and arrived on an SOWP which does allow you to live in Canada. Border officials aren’t known to be friendly but they did bring up valid points. You seem to have come to Canada with the intention of moving to Canada. If you had wanted to move to Canada with your common law partner you should have applied for an SOWP. By coming on a TRV with the intention of living in Canada you were abusing your visitor status. No matter what you have to attempt to extend your status as a visitor because you don’t want to lose status. Nobody can say whether it will be approved. It’s impossible to tell whether your ability to stay in Canada will be impacted by you interactions with border agents. It will depend a lot on your what information they left on your file about your abusing the conditions of your visitor status and having no ties to your home country. They may have also flagged your file. What type of degree is your common law partner doing? A court wedding will mean that you will get married but will any family be able to attend? Is this type of wedding planning typical culturally? Getting married for visa purposes especially after your previous attempts to secure an SOWP can be problematic because it appears that you are getting married to secure a visa/permit. If you are common law and have proof that you have already lived together for a continuous year before coming to Canada should be enough proof. Spouses of international students aren’t guaranteed an SOWP. How much savings you can show will also have an impact on the SOWP approval.

 

[langzzz]

Are from a visa exempt country or did you require a TRV to visit Canada.

I did applied TRV to visit Canada.

 

[canuck78]

I did applied TRV to visit Canada.

You used to not qualify for SOWP application through flagpoling if you were from a non-visa exempt country and you were in Canada as a visitor. It looks like CBSA and IRCC has updated this so at some borders applying for an SOWP as a visitor may be possible. In general IRCC does not want people to flagpole and wants people to apply online because the border agents are already busy doing their own job and helping people secure permits takes away from their primary job which is protecting the border. They also aren’t extremely knowledgeable when it comes to immigration compared to visa officers. This is why at any borders flagpoling is often limited to certain days and hours and there are often a limit of how many people can flagpole per day. Best of luck

 

[canuck78]

I did applied TRV to visit Canada.

Needing a TRV vs ETA was for determining if you qualified to flagpole. On your other thread people have brought up a good point did you an your partner declare that you were common law in your TRV application and his study permit application. If common law status exists in you home country or something similar did you declare this in your home country passport? Declaring you were common law when applying for the SP and TRV would provide another piece of evidence for proof that you are common law but also consistency in your claim that your are common law. If you didn’t declare that you were common law this could have affected your TRV application. If it was clear that you were in a common law relationship with an international student and you have no job or property (assume that you had quit your job if you traveled for a month before coming to a Canada) there is a good chance your TRV would have been denied because you would have been told it was the wrong visa/permit. Essentially when spouses apply to visit when it is clear they want to live in Canada their TRV is often denied because they should be applying for an SOWP even if they don’t want to work.

 

[langzzz]

Needing a TRV vs ETA was for determining if you qualified to flagpole. On your other thread people have brought up a good point did you an your partner declare that you were common law in your TRV application and his study permit application. If common law status exists in you home country or something similar did you declare this in your home country passport? Declaring you were common law when applying for the SP and TRV would provide another piece of evidence for proof that you are common law but also consistency in your claim that your are common law. If you didn’t declare that you were common law this could have affected your TRV application. If it was clear that you were in a common law relationship with an international student and you have no job or property (assume that you had quit your job if you traveled for a month before coming to Canada) there is a good chance your TRV would have been denied because you would have been told it was the wrong visa/permit. Essentially when spouses apply to visit when it is clear they want to live in Canada their TRV is often denied because they should be applying for an SOWP even if they don’t want to work.

Thank you for your response!
Yes, we both declared as common low partner before applying for TRV and student permit. And I applied for TRV before he started his visa application. We provided a common law declaration form (imm5409e) on visa application (trv/sp/soap) and flagpole. But the officer said this means nothing……
And there are no ‘common-law partners’ in my country.
when I applied for a TRV, I said I just wanted to travel around and is super easy cause I do have a lot of visitor visas from other countries. Then my boyfriend applied for SP after a few months. When I came to Canada, the border at the airport asked me how long I would stay here cuz I didn't have a return flight. I said I was here to accompany my boyfriend, taking care of him for a while. So I thought it was reasonable I wanted to stay longer after a while stayed here, people can change, right? And there are a lot of couples from my country who do the same as me. They usually said applying for a SOWP from Canada of Flagpole is much easier than outside Canada……and they succeeded.
I think the key problem is the common law partners. When we did the declaration form, there was an important proof which was a “ joint signed lease agreement “. So we thought that’s the most important one for CML partners. Then after arriving in Canada, we still signed a lease together…… now I know that is a big mistake!

 

[langzzz]

Are from a visa exempt country or did you require a TRV to visit Canada. If you are not from a visa exempt country, you should not qualify for flagpoling.

Common law partners and spouses are not guaranteed SOWP so nobody can predict whether you will be approved. When applying for a study permit it asks whether your family will be accompanying you. You should have applied to join your common law partner when he applied for history permit and arrived on an SOWP which does allow you to live in Canada. Border officials aren’t known to be friendly but they did bring up valid points. You seem to have come to Canada with the intention of moving to Canada. If you had wanted to move to Canada with your common law partner you should have applied for an SOWP. By coming on a TRV with the intention of living in Canada you were abusing your visitor status. No matter what you have to attempt to extend your status as a visitor because you don’t want to lose status. Nobody can say whether it will be approved. It’s impossible to tell whether your ability to stay in Canada will be impacted by you interactions with border agents. It will depend a lot on your what information they left on your file about your abusing the conditions of your visitor status and having no ties to your home country. They may have also flagged your file. What type of degree is your common law partner doing? A court wedding will mean that you will get married but will any family be able to attend? Is this type of wedding planning typical culturally? Getting married for visa purposes especially after your previous attempts to secure an SOWP can be problematic because it appears that you are getting married to secure a visa/permit. If you are common law and have proof that you have already lived together for a continuous year before coming to Canada should be enough proof. Spouses of international students aren’t guaranteed an SOWP. How much savings you can show will also have an impact on the SOWP approval.

Thank you so much!
After wedding I will upload our relationship through webform and I will also provide my assets certificate together, I hope they will review it……
Cuz we don't have many friends here, so there will be simply wedding vows in the city hall. Our parents will not come. And we plan a traditional one after we back to our country (after he finishes his study).
We are not getting married for immigrant purposes, he proposed to me last year.
But yeah, my case really sounds weird…… we do have the intention of immigration, and our plan is for my boyfriend to do the Ohip after graduation. He is a master's student of Windsor in mechanical stream. If my status expires, I will back to my country and wait for him to take me with the PR application.