Sponsoring an Australian

[Rach55]

Hello,

My boyfriend is an Australian citizen and I am a Canadian citizen. We are currently living in Australia (I am here on a working holiday visa) but we are planning to move to Canada in April 2014.

He currently has a 2 year holiday visa that expires in April 2014 (we lived in Canada for a year prior to moving to Australia).

I would like to sponsor him but we are getting very confused on the process. Are we able apply for the visa (common law) while we are both in Australia or do both of us (or at least me) need to be in Canada when submitting the application?

Is he able able to also re-apply for his holiday visa as a back up in case the common law visa has still not been approved/rejected by the time we are ready to go to Canada in April?

Also, is the cost ($1040), just a one time cost or is it $1040 for him plus $1040 for me?

Hope to hear from somebody soon.

Thank you!

 

[wowsers]

Because you are a Canadian citizen you can sponsor although living outside Canada but you have to sign an undertaking to return to Canada if the visa is granted and also to prove your intention to return. Incidentally 'boyfriends' as such cannot be sponsored but you can sponsor a common law partner. You will need to prove, in particular by production of appropriate documents, that you are in a genuine common law relationship. So you do not have to be in Canada to submit the application. The cost is one total sum of $1040, but that represents $75 for your own application to sponsor and two further sums, one of $475 which is payable immediately and a further sum of $490 which can be paid later, those two sums being payable by the applicant (your boyfriend). I cannot answer your question concerning the holiday visa: I do not know the answer to that. It seems to me that you have a lot of reading to do before applying. Start by reading the first post by Leon on this site and then get an application package (which you can download) and pay particular attention to the Guide IMM 3900. Dont expect a visa by April next year: that timescale is unrealistic. Most applicants seem to take a couple of months to get their application together before submitting it and there is then a very long wait for the visa: the current timescale for Sydney, Australia, is 11 months.

 

[Rob_TO]

I would like to sponsor him but we are getting very confused on the process. Are we able apply for the visa (common law) while we are both in Australia or do both of us (or at least me) need to be in Canada when submitting the application?

As long as you can prove 12 months of continuous cohabitation, then you can apply immediately from Australia (or as long as it takes to gather all your info and put the application together).

Is he able able to also re-apply for his holiday visa as a back up in case the common law visa has still not been approved/rejected by the time we are ready to go to Canada in April?

As far as I know, you are able to apply for any other visa you want to visit or stay in Canada, and all are done independent from the outland PR application. The 2 should not interfere with each other. When he eventually gets approved and does his landing in Canada as a PR, it will automatically void any other temporary visas or permits he has at the time.