Spousal Sponsorship while on Student Visa in Quebec

[brandontaylor4]

Hello! I'm a U.S. citizen, marrying a Quebecois in August of 2013. We are both currently enrolled in university (mine's in Michigan, USA; his is in Montreal, QC). In about a year, I want to transfer to his university. I know that I must get acceptance, obtain a Certificat de sélection du Québec, and a student visa.

After (hopefully) getting there via student visa, we'd like to begin the Spousal Sponsorship process from within Canada. For this, I know I need to apply for another CSQ (sent along with the Quebec Undertaking application) after the initial assessment of our federal application is approved. After that, I'll probably have to go through a medical exam, police clearances, etc.

During this time, I'll be living with him in Laval, QC.

So my questions:
1) Is what I described above accurate and possible?
2) Will I receive a newly revised CSQ with student and family-class sponsorship codes, or will I simply have two different CSQs?
3) If I apply as a transfer student, will my student visa be valid until my graduation, or must be be renewed annually?
4) If you have ANY tips, advice, etc., it would be MUCH appreciated.

 

[frege]

Hello! I'm a U.S. citizen, marrying a Quebecois in August of 2013. We are both currently enrolled in university (mine's in Michigan, USA; his is in Montreal, QC). In about a year, I want to transfer to his university. I know that I must get acceptance, obtain a Certificat de sélection du Québec, and a student visa.

After (hopefully) getting there via student visa, we'd like to begin the Spousal Sponsorship process from within Canada. For this, I know I need to apply for another CSQ (sent along with the Quebec Undertaking application) after the initial assessment of our federal application is approved. After that, I'll probably have to go through a medical exam, police clearances, etc.

During this time, I'll be living with him in Laval, QC.

So my questions:
1) Is what I described above accurate and possible?
2) Will I receive a newly revised CSQ with student and family-class sponsorship codes, or will I simply have two different CSQs?
3) If I apply as a transfer student, will my student visa be valid until my graduation, or must be be renewed annually?
4) If you have ANY tips, advice, etc., it would be MUCH appreciated.

By "transferring", do you mean becoming a regular student of the university in Quebec? Or being an exchange student, getting credit that would be used at your university in Michigan? If you mean the first of these two, then you'll be paying your tuition straight to the Quebec university. Tuition for foreign students is about $11,000 a year, and for Quebec students $2,300 (although universities manage to tack on a bunch of fees, so in practice it's often closer to $3,000). You'll be considered a Quebec student if, by the last day of classes in the term, you:
1) have become a PR in any way (outland or inland); or
2) have received approval in principle (Stage 1 of the inland process) plus a CSQ - this also authorizes you to obtain a study permit.

Case 2) is often hard to find out about from university websites, because it sort of becomes buried in the fine print, so to speak.

Getting PR through the outland process takes about 8 to 15 months for a U.S. citizen. (Check this on the CPP-Ottawa thread.) Inland takes 10-20 months, but approval in principle takes less time. CIC posts a length of 6 months for approval in principle, as a sort of upper limit (80% of files take less time), but by posting in the appropriate thread, you may get a better estimate of how long it takes for most people. After approval in principle, it takes about an additional month to get a CSQ.

Applying inland requires you to be living with your spouse in Canada throughout the process. Outland has no restrictions.

Once you've been accepted by a Quebec university, the process ought to be relatively quick and easy to obtain a study permit.

All in all, I think your best plan might be to apply outland immediately after you get married. If you don't get PR in time, then apply for a CAQ and a study permit. (By the way, a CAQ is for studying or other temporary admission, a CSQ for immigrating.) One application won't affect the other, and if you become a PR by the end of the term, you pay Quebec tuition.

If you start thinking about your application now, you may have it ready to submit by August or September. You can send police clearances after you've applied if you don't already have them when you apply.. Normally, you do the medical before applying, but this doesn't take long.