Questions about immigration and sponsorship

[Protz]

I semi-recently started a thread asking a few questions about me immigrating from the USA to Canada, however, my girlfriend and I have been talking plus coming up with some questions. She's Canadian and I am American. She is 17 and I am 19. Anyways, please if you guys (and gals) could help me with answers as detailed as possible or supply links and whatnot, that would be amazing. I have read over the CIC website a billion times and I am thinking about hiring an immigration lawyer, not sure if that would help.

Questions:

1. The rule on common law is that you'd need to be living with the person for twelve months, but an American passport entitles the person to only be in the country for six months so how is that possible?

2. After marrying my girlfriend next year, am I able to live in the country while filing for spousal sponsorship (with my then wife) or would I need to reside in the USA?

3. If I was to move to Montana, the closest US state to Calgary, would that conflict with my application or be suspicious at all and ruin my chances of getting into the country at all?

4. I spoke to an immigration lawyer very briefly via e-mail and he had told me that a spousal sponsorship could take approximately two years and end up with me living in Canada indefinitely, is this true?

5. Would hiring an immigration lawyer be worth doing? Assume that I have the funds to do this, would it actually pay off or would I be better to just avoid?

I will update this post or comment if I have any questions, feel free to ask me questions. Her and I will be hounding this post 24/7 looking for answers. Thank you so much

 

[andrew-brit]

I semi-recently started a thread asking a few questions about me immigrating from the USA to Canada, however, my girlfriend and I have been talking plus coming up with some questions. She's Canadian and I am American. She is 17 and I am 19. Anyways, please if you guys (and gals) could help me with answers as detailed as possible or supply links and whatnot, that would be amazing. I have read over the CIC website a billion times and I am thinking about hiring an immigration lawyer, not sure if that would help.

Questions:

1. The rule on common law is that you'd need to be living with the person for twelve months, but an American passport entitles the person to only be in the country for six months so how is that possible?

2. After marrying my girlfriend next year, am I able to live in the country while filing for spousal sponsorship (with my then wife) or would I need to reside in the USA?

3. If I was to move to Montana, the closest US state to Calgary, would that conflict with my application or be suspicious at all and ruin my chances of getting into the country at all?

4. I spoke to an immigration lawyer very briefly via e-mail and he had told me that a spousal sponsorship could take approximately two years and end up with me living in Canada indefinitely, is this true?

5. Would hiring an immigration lawyer be worth doing? Assume that I have the funds to do this, would it actually pay off or would I be better to just avoid?

I will update this post or comment if I have any questions, feel free to ask me questions. Her and I will be hounding this post 24/7 looking for answers. Thank you so much

1. You can extend your stay for longer than 6 months. You can do so online. It costs $100 and takes about a month to process. See here for more info.

2. You can choose whether to live in Canada with your wife or you can return to the USA and wait there while your application is processed. It is not a requirement for you to live with your wife during the process. Again though, if you can afford not to be in the states (where presumably you could/do work) then you can stay in Canada as a visitor and wait to be approved.

3. I do not believe living in Montana would affect your application. I presume this is so your spouse is closer to you? As long as you pass your medical, no criminal record etc then CIC should not care where you live in the states.

4. This 'immigration lawyer' is referring to an inland application. Submitting an inland application means you have to stay in Canada indefinitely while it is processed and it takes about 2 years (although you can get a work permit after 4 months if you apply inland, you do not get a work permit if you apply outland). However, if you apply outland you can live in Canada and if the need arises you can leave Canada and this will not affect your application. Leaving Canada with an inland application in process means it could be denied/refused. The processing time for straight forward US applicants is 6/7 months, so it just depends on if you want to get working ASAP (4 months for work permit via inland) or full PR (6/7 months via outland)

5. All the information you need is on the CIC website, and the members on this forum are here to help you. The forms are very daunting at first, but give yourself enough time, go through everything several times, have friends read your completed forms, etc. You do not need a lawyer and in my opinion it is a waste of money.

 

[blueangel371115]

i agree. Don't apply inland , as in your case it wouldn't really be an option. To that end, don't hire a lawyer. They tend to get people to apply inland even though it's actually a really bad option for them. Also, some of them are not very good and don't have accurate info and are expensive. You'll likely get better advice here and it's free.

 

[Protz]

1. You can extend your stay for longer than 6 months. You can do so online. It costs $100 and takes about a month to process. See here for more info.

2. You can choose whether to live in Canada with your wife or you can return to the USA and wait there while your application is processed. It is not a requirement for you to live with your wife during the process. Again though, if you can afford not to be in the states (where presumably you could/do work) then you can stay in Canada as a visitor and wait to be approved.

3. I do not believe living in Montana would affect your application. I presume this is so your spouse is closer to you? As long as you pass your medical, no criminal record etc then CIC should not care where you live in the states.

4. This 'immigration lawyer' is referring to an inland application. Submitting an inland application means you have to stay in Canada indefinitely while it is processed and it takes about 2 years (although you can get a work permit after 4 months if you apply inland, you do not get a work permit if you apply outland). However, if you apply outland you can live in Canada and if the need arises you can leave Canada and this will not affect your application. Leaving Canada with an inland application in process means it could be denied/refused. The processing time for straight forward US applicants is 6/7 months, so it just depends on if you want to get working ASAP (4 months for work permit via inland) or full PR (6/7 months via outland)

5. All the information you need is on the CIC website, and the members on this forum are here to help you. The forms are very daunting at first, but give yourself enough time, go through everything several times, have friends read your completed forms, etc. You do not need a lawyer and in my opinion it is a waste of money.

So, if I was to apply inland, I couldn't work for four months, but I could live there and rent property? So I would have to get a temp residency in order to live there both inland and outland methods or is it something else? Also, with inland, I'm free to go wherever in Canada correct? With inland, I'm not allowed to even go to say an expo or something like that for a weekend in California? I would need to stay in Canada for the two years of processing?

i agree. Don't apply inland , as in your case it wouldn't really be an option. To that end, don't hire a lawyer. They tend to get people to apply inland even though it's actually a really bad option for them. Also, some of them are not very good and don't have accurate info and are expensive. You'll likely get better advice here and it's free.

So, it's not an option for me to apply inland anyways, only applying outland is what I'm applicable to do?

 

[andrew-brit]

So, if I was to apply inland, I couldn't work for four months, but I could live there and rent property? So I would have to get a temp residency in order to live there both inland and outland methods or is it something else? Also, with inland, I'm free to go wherever in Canada correct? With inland, I'm not allowed to even go to say an expo or something like that for a weekend in California? I would need to stay in Canada for the two years of processing?

The four months is the estimated time for CIC to grant inland applicants a work permit, but this is a new scheme and it is too early to say how long it will actually take.

If you apply inland and during the processing time you leave Canada, you may not get back in to Canada which effectively ends your application.

 

[Panamai]

I didn't even apply for extensions to get common-law status. We just timed our visits to my family in the US so I would only be in Canada for 6 months at a time. As long as the two of you don't have any extended separation periods, it will still count. We always travelled together, so no problems.

 

[jamsham12]

I didn't even apply for extensions to get common-law status. We just timed our visits to my family in the US so I would only be in Canada for 6 months at a time. As long as the two of you don't have any extended separation periods, it will still count. We always travelled together, so no problems.

\

:-X damn the letters have to be notarized, holy omg, i overlooked this step. uh oh but i do have the statutory of common-law notarized i wonder if they will overlook the letters not being notarized.O.O

 

[blueangel371115]

So, if I was to apply inland, I couldn't work for four months, but I could live there and rent property? So I would have to get a temp residency in order to live there both inland and outland methods or is it something else? Also, with inland, I'm free to go wherever in Canada correct? With inland, I'm not allowed to even go to say an expo or something like that for a weekend in California? I would need to stay in Canada for the two years of processing?

So, it's not an option for me to apply inland anyways, only applying outland is what I'm applicable to do?

Actually, you can apply inland legally. But if you're planning going to Montana, you couldn't as you are advised to remain in Canada throughout. So if you are seriously planning on remaining outside the country at any point during the next two years, then inland isn't really an option for you. But Americans are generally discouraged from applying inland as we don't need visas to enter so it's easy to travel home and return than countries that require visas and also it takes around 6-8 months for an outland application compared to 2+ years inland.

 

[Protz]

But if I was to apply inland, I would be allowed to rent property right? And I would also need a temp residence no matter which method right?

 

[blueangel371115]

But if I was to apply inland, I would be allowed to rent property right? And I would also need a temp residence no matter which method right?

Not sure. You could visit your sponsor but since you aren't supposed to be 'residing' ( read living) in Canada, that's iffy. That's not saying that your sponsor can't have their own place and you can't be on the lease. But to be safe, I wouldn't get something in just your name. More senior members can add to that.