jbb_25 said:
Hello everybody, I am Brazilian and I am in Canada as a tourist, I came here because me and my boyfriend are getting married, what do we need to start the process? Also what does he need to "sponsor" me under marriage? How long time does it take? Do I receive an open work permit then? If we marry inside Canada, am I good to stay here until the process is done anyways?
Thank you,
Hi there,
I'm also Brazilian, married to a Canadian waiting in Canada (with tourist visa) for my sponsorship process. We got married on July 2015 and applied our family sponsorship on January 2016.
As was already mentioned here you have two options to apply, Inland and Outland. My husband and I decided to apply outland because its faster. When we first visit a legal assistant to start our process an Inland process were taking about between 16-24 months (based on CIC website), I'm not sure how long it can be now, that is why we decided to go outland (6-9 months based on CIC website).
Inland you can apply for your work permit after 2-4 months to work while waiting, If Im not wrong but as someone mentioned here, you can't leave the country. Outland you will receive all your documents (sin number, healthy care) only when the process is over. So its totally up to your husband and you about what will be better for you two. In my case, my husband and I decided to do outland because I was scared about what could happen during our process because in 16-24 months is a loooong time and my family is not here, he often go to vacations, I didn't want to be "stuck" here in Canada for that long waiting. Outland you can still wait here with him as long as you have a valid tourist visa (I already extended mine twice. First time when we first applied and now while I'm still waiting for CIC decision.), do not let your visa expire otherwise you will need to leave the country as you can't remain without status while in process. We paid $100 for the visa extension and we applied online so its wasn't hard.
You won't need much doc/forms from him in order to be able to sponsor you. The biggest part of information will be yours. From him you will need his Income Tax from the previous year, a employment letter, his birth certificate copies or/and Canadian passport and he needs to fill two forms (if I still remember everything! Lol). One form about his family and the second forms about his background information (if he was married before. His previous employment and bla bla bla). You can go to CIC website to see all the forms.
Are you inquiring a lawyer/legal assistant to help you? We end up being able to find a legal assistant from a community center around our house that helped us with everything we needed related to our sponsorship for free of charge. She was amazing!!!! Very knowledge and helpful. We filled most of our forms together at home, it wasn't that hard and took to her to revise everything and she also assisted us in her office with the parts we didn't know. We didn't have money to pay a a lawyer. They can charge you plenty of money for that. The forms isn't hard plus that CIC explains pretty much every question but I would recommend you to have someone taking a look in your application before sending it as some questions can be trick. You can definitely message me if you would like to try the legal assistant that helped us. She is so kinda is just hard to get a appointment with her as she is always full booked so I would recommend you to contact in advance.
Take as much pictures as possible, letter from friends/family, vacations tickets if you guys have been anywhere together, and everything else you need.
Message me private If you would like. I won't mind helping you. This forum here have been helping me a lot
All the best.
