Questions about Spousal sponsorship, PR and open work permit. Please help.

[GiantDwarf]

Me and my girlfriend are planning to get married as soon as we get together and the borders open. We are in a very fresh but committed relationship and want to spend our lives together. She's Canadian, I'm from Europe. She's now in Canada and I'm in Europe, desperate to get to her. Now we are of course looking for ways to first get together because of Covid situation and secondly looking for the future and us being able to live together without me being forced to move away because of immigration laws. Now I'm looking into spousal sponsorhip and a lot of it seems very confusing because of ¸the ammount of information given on govermental and other websites. I'll explain how I understand the proccess and you can help me correct me if I'm wrong.

My plan is to get married either in Canada or in my country, then I will finally be able to enter Canada and I will start living with her. We will also apply for inland spousal sponsorhip. I want to eventualy become a permanent resident of Canada and be able to work there and contribute to our finances therefore I need permanent residence and open work permit. Do I apply for permanent residence with spousal sponsorhip? Is it even possible to do it with such a fresh marriage? I saw there is a possibility to apply for open work permit while waiting for PR to proccess. Again my question is if the short duration of the marriage can be a problem as I know Canada is wary of marriage frauds and this could seem like it because it's short. Another question I have is if she sponsors me, does she have to directly pay money to the goverment or just have enough monthly income to sponsor me?

I tried to answer all this questions on my own but just can't seem to find proper information that wouldn't be confusing. Thank you very much for your help.

 

[bian07]

A short marriage isnt a problem, a lot of people apply directly after marrying. A short relationship in general can be a huge red flag tho, like dating for 2 months and then marrying will cause suspicions

 

[GiantDwarf]

It's not that short, we're together six months which is probably still short. Is there a way to prove them our relationship is legit and we're not looking for marriage fraud but want to be together because of love?

 

[bian07]

The sponsorship requires you to show proof its legit anyway.

Considering you're from europe you might have the chance to participate in a IEC program, so you could actually live in canada on a temporary work permit first for a year or so and then apply for sponsorship. They have the program on pause right now but it would certainly strengthen your case.

 

[GiantDwarf]

I already applied for this program and my application is now on pause because of covid. Thank you for all your help.

 

[GiantDwarf]

Does anybody have any more information on my first post? Thank you.

 

[Qwertypod]

A short marriage is not a problem - it's the 6 month relationship that might be a red flag, as others have pointed out. You might have to work harder to provide necessary proofs of a genuine relationship/marriage (I assume you have read through proof requirements for this). If you apply inland along with an OWP application, you can expect to get a work permit within 5-6 months (I don't know how much covid will affect this when you apply) - as long as you are in status when you apply and your application does not get returned.

Your girlfriend will have to pay the necessary fees for sponsorship - she will also have to show that you two have enough money to sustain yourselves without social assistance. There is no minimum requirement for spousal sponsorship, though.

 

[canuck78]

How much time have you spent together in person? On hoe many separate visits?