Hi,
I overstayed my tourist visa in Canada by 3-4 months. I’m a US citizen. The reason for overstay is because I had a baby here and if I left it would be hard to keep the family together as my boyfriend could not come to the states with me since he is an EU citizen (he’s here on a work permit) and we are not married.
When my visa was due to expire, I applied for a working holiday visa through the IEC program. I was granted this, however have not activated it yet. I never extended my tourist visa because by the time I realized I could it was after the 30 day limit before my visa was due to expire.
I will be taking a trip to the US for two weeks with my baby. She has a Canadian passport since she is a Canadian citizen. I will attempt to activate my IEC work permit on my way back in to Canada.
What are my chances of getting let back in, especially as I will have my baby with me? Will they be willing to overlook my overstay because of the family hardship it would have created? Please note I have not been working here in Canada, I have been staying at home looking after the baby. The only law broken was that I overstayed. Has anyone dealt with a situation like this? Are there any precautions I can take to help my situation when I come back in?
I will be entirely truthful and am happy to hand my phone and all documents over to the immigration officer. I just don’t want my family to be torn up which is part of the reason I never left to reactivate my tourist visa in the first place.
I feel like if it was a problem they wouldn’t have approved my working holiday visa?