Hi, i am a Canadian citizen and my husband is an American citizen. He came to Canada January 2010 on a visitors visa and we got married February 2010. We wanted to get him Permanent Residence but never started the application because at the time we thought it was a lot more difficult then it actually is. When he came here i was unemployed and living off an inheritance i had gotten when i turned 18. I have a almost 3 year old son(13 months old when my husband arrived in Canada)who now knows my husband to be his father, his actual father is not in his life at all. Anyways, at the time we just kept extending his visitors visa and never actually started the Permanent Residence application as a previously stated. Around May 2011 his visa had expired and we were going through financial problems because i was unable to find a job so we did not extend his visitors visa. Obviously he was in Canada illegally until he was found and removed at the beginning of August 2011. There was a fire in the complex that i live in and he ran around and knocked on doors to get people out of their units as i called 911. When the detectives wanted a video interview from my husband because he was an important witness my husband cooperated fully. After taking my husband to the police station and getting the video interview they wanted they told my husband that they knew he was not a citizen and that his visa had expired and they were calling immigration. He was held in a jail cell at the police station over night and then moved to our local immigration office the next morning where the immigration officer spoke with both of us and said that an exclusion order was being issued and that they were going to take him back the the United States. They would not let us get him his own plane ticket, there was no other option, they were removing him. He was held there until later that day when he was transported to the boarder by armed officers in the back of a secured van where he was hand cuffed, the hand cuffs were attached to a chain then went around his waist and then attached to shackles that were around his ankles. They took him across the boarder after holding him in a cell for sometime and told him that from there he had to take care of himself. My husband has no criminal record what so ever, he only overstayed a visitors visa and they left him in New York with no way to get to Florida(where he is originally from). I am currently 19 weeks pregnant and we were really hoping to get him back here in time for the baby to be born. My son that is almost 3 has been traumatized by this whole situation thinking that daddy went poof out of nowhere. I have spoken to a few different lawyers and they keep telling me different things. One says that we need to get an ARC and get him a Temporary Resident Permit and that we will not be able to get him Permanent Residence until he is in Canada for 3 years(which i know to be false) but we should be able to get him back here before the baby is born and go from there. The other one says that the chances of him be granted his ARC and a Temporary Resident Permit are unlikely because he overstayed a visitors visa. She says that we have to get him an ARC and file for Permanent Residence and the chance that he is going to be here in time for the baby to be born is very unlikely. They both say that they are going to take the Humanitarian approach to filling out and sending in the application. I am currently on assistance but trying really hard to find a job and i know that i can not sponsor him for Permanent Residency when i am on assistance. Please if there is any advice you can give me about how we should go about getting him back here or how long you think it will take it would be very much appreciated. Thank you.
