Hi,
I am living abroad with my Canadian wife and planning to move back to Canada in the new year to apply for inland sponsorship.
- Does my wife need to declare at the border she is moving back permanently? I believe she does if she wants to declare the goods she is bringing in? In reality we would only have a couple of large suitcases. If she does need to declare she is moving back permanenty at the border, is it better than if I enter as visitor a few days before her, so the border officer won't know about her plans to move back permanently and won't question me coming along with her/asking for proof of ties to home country to let me in as a visitor?
- Similarly, is it better if I buy return tickets so that the border officer won't get suspicious I am planning to stay quite long and won't ask for proof of ties to home country to let me in as a visitor? Or they don't have access to this info from the airline? Also if I buy one way ticket, any risk the airline would refuse me boarding?
I don't think airlines get into this at all anymore.
Arriving: it makes more sense if she is arriving to say returning. Generally CBSA won't make a big deal of it unless the visitor
clearly looks like they are moving forever. If asked, you are helping her settle in, stay will be 'a few or some months' (vague). I would suggest avoiding outright lies - but it's okay to not be certain, eg yes we plan to eventually apply for sponsorship, we know could do inland but not decided, plans to return. Logical reasons not to do like "if I do that I couldn't work while waiting" may be more convincing.
Personally I think CBSA no longer gives a lot of weight to return tickets (because easy to say will buy online later). Only an opinion though, I hven't experienced.
You'll have to decide for yourself whether better to travel separately etc. It might make some difference, but there's relatively little evidence (reports) that CBSA goes out of their way to refuse people at flight arrivals who have valid visitor docs (visa or ETA).
