US citizen looking for answers

[Signingbunny]

Hello, this is my first post, I have been reading this forum on and off for several months now.

So here it is:::

I am currently in Canada, I came to Canada in January. I have been living with my boyfriend since then. I have spent time in the past here in Canada, last year for over a month, and then he has gone to the USA the past 3 summers to spend them with me, after we meet at a USA University. I have a visitor record now and we go back and fort to the USA but reside in Canada together. My visitor record expires in July.

We are trying to decide what is the best way for me to stay here.

Because I am not a perminent resident I cant get a job, and would like to, he has a good paying job that he has been at for over 5 years. His parents also love me and have been helping support me financially since arriving too

We are discussing what are the options as to I can stay here with him. We have discussed getting married, and we want kids. But before we go there we want to know the pros and cons of these actions to me being able to stay here. Also, if we had a baby, and it was born in Canada how would that impact my application (pros and cons).

I also went to the immigration newcommers assocciation near me and they told me to do an out-of country application if we do get married. Then they told me that after my boyfriend (would be husband) gets told he the paperwork that his application was accepted for review that I could go ahead and apply for a work visa (thus being about 3 months into the process). If this was true, it would help us out.

We are thinking of adding me as a dependent through his work for insurance, but we dont know if I have to already be married or not before hand.

My boyfriend and I are very, linear people and want the information in black and white, if at all possible. We like to know all the facts before we decide things.


My another question is that he is deaf, so if he has to do an interview, will they provide him with an interpreter, and what if the interpreter was not good and therefore did not interpret the answers correctly? How would this impact the application?


I know there is several questions posted here, but any correct information will be of help.

 

[CharlieD10]

1. Read Leon's first post in thread at the top of this forum, it is a fairly straightforward explanation of the spousal sponsorship process.

2. You may qualify as common-law partners if you can prove a year's continuous cohabitation, otherwise you have to wait until you are married to be sponsored as his spouse.

3. The usual recommendation for Americans and other visa-exempt spouses is to apply Outland (via the consulate in their country) as the processing time is shorter than that for Inland. This being the case, you would not be eligible to apply for an Open Work Permit, but chances are your case could be finalized and you could be a PR via the Outland method before you qualified for approval at stage one of Inland processing, when you would be eligible for a work permit (11 months at minimum). Outland applicants cannot apply for open work permits. However, if you can find a willing employer who wants to hire you, they can apply for a Labour Market Opinion (essentially an agreement from the relevant Canadian authority that they cannot find a suitable Canadian candidate and may hire you, a foreign national) and if it is approved you could get a work permit approved for that job.

4. Your spouse must meet eligibility requirements to be a sponsor, however it is unlikely he will be interviewed (this is a paper process), so his being Deaf will not impact that.

5. Having a child does not improve your chances of being approved, nor does it speed up your processing.

 

[YorkFactory]

Please say you have documentation of all of these previous visits. It will make it much easier to prove the length of your relationship.

If you can't live together in a common-law relationship for a year, marriage is probably the most realistic solution.

Having a Canadian child will not speed up your application or increase the likelihood that it will be approved. In fact, if you're still in Canada as a visitor, having a child could be rather expensive, as you would not be covered by a provincial health insurance plan.

Unless your application is complicated, there's probably no point in applying for a work permit separately from your PR application. Americans tend to get processed pretty quickly on outland applications.

My guess is that if you don't qualify as common-law, his insurance company probably doesn't consider you to be an eligible family member, but that's something you would have to slog through their paperwork to find out.

 

[Signingbunny]

We did not document these visits, at the time, we did not think about what we might need when we started everything. But we can prove that we met, at the university, because we were taking classes together and we did group projects together which has our name on it together from 2008. We have pictures of us together on most all of our trips. Also, of us at our graduation in May of 2010.

I also have postcards that we sent to eachother, when we went on individual trips.

We are also, trying to find proof that we talk to eachother. The big problem there is because he is Deaf we use text messaging and skype. So, any record that we have of us talking every day together before January is only saved back to March of last year.

 

[Signingbunny]

Ok, when I went to the newcommers office, they said that it takes about 2 years for me to get a PR. This is because it would take my boyfriend (husband) about 8 months to get his application filed to be a sponser, then they would look through my application to become a PR for about 12 months. This would be a total of 20 months at least.

Since we were planing on doing out-of-country, does it actually mean that both applications are processed concurently not sequentially, thus being faster due to the fact that I am from USA.

It would be good news if it is concurrently.

 

[YorkFactory]

Pictures together, trip itineraries or airline tickets, stamps in your passports, and things like that are pretty useful. Did you send each other e-mails?

They told you two years? They're probably not used to dealing with Americans. From the time I sent in my application to the time I received an e-mail saying they wanted my passport so they could put a PR visa in it was just under two months. Granted, we had pretty much everything squared away (criminal background checks, medical exam, proof of our relationship, proof of fee payment, and everything else they asked for) when I mailed the application; it really helps avoid delays if you have everything they ask for.

The application to sponsor and the application for permanent residence are evaluated sequentially, and it doesn't really make sense to continue with the latter if the former is not approved (even though it is technically possible to continue your application for permanent residence if the sponsorship is turned down, it is unlikely to succeed). Buffalo has a pretty quick turnaround for straightforward cases, and two years would be an unusually long time.

 

[Leon]

Ok, when I went to the newcommers office, they said that it takes about 2 years for me to get a PR. This is because it would take my boyfriend (husband) about 8 months to get his application filed to be a sponser, then they would look through my application to become a PR for about 12 months. This would be a total of 20 months at least.

2 years might be true for inland but not for outland.

Inland: You apply to Vegreville and they take around 11 months to give you first stage approval (and open work permit if you applied for it). Then your application goes to your local office where you live and they will give you a landing appointment to get your PR which takes another 8 months, see http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/times/perm-fc.asp However, a condition of inland is that you live in Canada so if you leave to go and study or work before you are bored sitting at home or even if you leave and for some reason can't return, you would lose your application.

Outland: You apply to Mississauga and they take around 55 days, see http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/times/perm-fc.asp to approve your partner as your sponsor. He can not be on social assistance and not in active bankruptcy. Then your file goes to Buffalo and 80% of cases there have been processed by 11 months, see http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/times/perm/fc-spouses.asp#west but the average is probably more like 6-7 months.

Hence outland is probably going to be faster than even inland first stage approval.

 

[Signingbunny]

Ok. So i got the time line thing down, and if I am processing for out-of-country I cannot apply for job and such... Thanks for all for helping clear that up.

Now my question is;
We have been are concidering marriage for a while, we think this is what we want to do anyway, but if I want to stay and work, (my profession requires me to be a PR before I can get a job) we might do this sooner then if we were both Canadians or both Americans. (We are both people that dont like to rush into things with out full thought, information, and deciding on something 100% before doing.)

SO....
Is it better to get married in Canada or USA?

How soon after would we send the application off? Wait a month so that it looks like its not a rush or fraud. Or does it not really matter.


In the mean time I am planning on extending my visitor stay, and asking for a six month extention for my visitor record, just to be safe (currently expires in July). BUT.... If I go back to the USA for 1 month and then come back, and then go through customs and get a visitor record, this will start the process to 6 months initial and then extending for 6 months? OR is best to just extend it the first time.
We are concerned about January 2013 (like I said, we both tend to think of things in advance).


Thanks again for your help so far!

 

[CharlieD10]

1. Doesn't matter.

2. Doesn't matter.

3. Leaving the country cancels a visitor record and returning means a new start to the clock. If you do the extension before the current one expires in July, you can ask for a year, mention you are planning to get married and preparing an application for PR, it sometimes helps them approve the extended time if you mention your forward plans, sometimes they give you the time so you can get yourself squared away. Just make sure you submit all the necessary documents and fees.

 

[Signingbunny]

Thanks for your answers.

My other question, I have read else where that when we have children, they will be dual citizens, because I would still have USA citizenship, and then their father would be Canadian. Then I read that when I get my PR and if I have them in Canada then they would be only Canadian citizenship.

Finally (for now), Where would be the best place to get a medical and the criminal records done? Will I have to go to USA to have these done? I have never had a criminal record, but I have had a few medical problems and then my parents have both had serious medical conditions come up. How will my parent's medical history influence my application?

 

[CharlieD10]

1. No matter where your children are born, they will inherit your citizenship too. Becoming a Canadian PR does not mean surrendering your rights and responsibilities as a US citizen.

2. You may have them done at any Designated Medical Practitioner (DMP) close to you, doesn't matter if it's US or Canada. Your FBI record can only be submitted to the FBI. See the following links:
DMP - http://www.cic.gc.ca/dmp-md/medical.aspx

FBI check: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/security/police-cert/north-america/united-states.asp

 

[Leon]

If your child is born in Canada, you would just have to register it for US citizenship, see http://travel.state.gov/law/family_issues/birth/birth_593.html and then it would have both.

It is quite similar if the child was born in the US to a US and Canadian parent. Then the Canadian parent would have to register the child for Canadian citizenship.

 

[YorkFactory]

Just as there are exceptions to Canadian citizenship by descent (namely, that if you obtained your Canadian citizenship only because one of your parents was Canadian, you cannot pass citizenship to your children that way), there are exceptions to U.S. citizenship by descent too.

In order for one American parent to pass U.S. citizenship to a child not born in the U.S., the parents must be married, the American parent must be a U.S. citizen at the time the child is born, and the American parent must have lived in the U.S. for at least five years, two of them after their 14th birthday. My guess is that Signingbunny has lived in the U.S. long enough for those all to be true, but to say that U.S. citizenship is always passed on to your children isn't quite true.

 

[parker24]

I just wanted to put some of my two cents in

I'm sponsoring my husband from the USA and I'm hearing impaired. I too had worries about it, but was assured by a local consultant that it wouldn't be an issue so I doubt it will be an issue for your husband either!

Everything everyone said is true. And if you can get a copy of the skype chats, that would be good proof. A lot of people add phone bills to their application, but if you provide an explanation saying that your husband/boyfriend is deaf then that would work in place of something like that.

Your parent's medical issues aren't really looked at from my understanding. My husband has eye problems, the doctor said that it's fine. I have a friend who's husband had a very obvious thyroid problem and he was granted PR. They just want to make sure that you won't be a drain to the health system. I think it's if you will be taking up over 5 grand a month for your medical expenses. But I think a senior member can give you the exact details on that.

Welcome to the wonderful confusing world of immigration! haha

 

[CharlieD10]

Spouses are excessive medical demand exempt, so your health issues will not make you inadmissible.