Work on Residency while in Canada?

[Arcas]

My daughter and her father, (my significant other,) are Canadian citizens. I am an American, and I have a son from a different relationship who lives with me, but his father is also Canadian.

I am in the US, and I want to know the steps I have to take to be with my daughter and other half as soon as I can. I have to be able to enroll my son in school as well. I've seen many things about working on residency from inside Canada, but I thought it wasn't legal to stay too long, and do I need some sort of legal standing to put my son in school?

Any help I could get on this matter would be greatly appreciated. My daughter is 10, and I haven't been able to be with her since she was 3.

 

[bigredmoose]

My daughter and her father, (my significant other,) are Canadian citizens. I am an American, and I have a son from a different relationship who lives with me, but his father is also Canadian.

I am in the US, and I want to know the steps I have to take to be with my daughter and other half as soon as I can. I have to be able to enroll my son in school as well. I've seen many things about working on residency from inside Canada, but I thought it wasn't legal to stay too long, and do I need some sort of legal standing to put my son in school?

Any help I could get on this matter would be greatly appreciated. My daughter is 10, and I haven't been able to be with her since she was 3.

In a perfect world, your "significant other" would sponsor you to become a permanent resident, as long as you're married or in a common-law relationship. If those don't apply, you'll have to immigrate under a different program.

A couple of questions regarding the kids, as they will be a wrinkle:

1)Does your daughter have some kind of citizenship document, like a Canadian passport or birth certificate?

2)Same question, but for your son?

3)For your son, will you have his father's permission to leave the US?

As for schooling, you'd have to check the relevant school board's policy on immigrants. Some will accept students without status, some won't.

Being American you're allowed to visit for up to 6 months at a time. During that time, you are not allowed to work, you're not eligible for government health care and you are expected to leave at the end. If you turn up at the border without some kind of immigration status, you can expect to be denied entry.

 

[Alurra71]

My daughter and her father, (my significant other,) are Canadian citizens. I am an American, and I have a son from a different relationship who lives with me, but his father is also Canadian.

I am in the US, and I want to know the steps I have to take to be with my daughter and other half as soon as I can. I have to be able to enroll my son in school as well. I've seen many things about working on residency from inside Canada, but I thought it wasn't legal to stay too long, and do I need some sort of legal standing to put my son in school?

Any help I could get on this matter would be greatly appreciated. My daughter is 10, and I haven't been able to be with her since she was 3.

OK. Let me see if I can answer some of your questions here or at least give you a direction to look ....

Your son, his father is Canadian. Was his father born in Canada? If yes, then your son may also be a Canadian citizen and all you SHOULD need to get his citizenship would be his birth certificate and a copy of his fathers information to prove relationship. That would end your need to figure out how to enroll your son as he would be Canadian.

You, yourself, as an American can 'visit' with your spouse for up to 6 months at a time legally, as long as your passport isn't stamped with a date that you must leave by, when you arrive. Have you ever lived with your SO for 12 consecutive months or more? If you have, then you may qualify to begin a common law sponsorship application now, while you are still in the US. This would give you a PR status and allow you to live and/or work in Canada in roughly 8 -10 months, based on other US applications processed recently. If you have not lived with your SO then you will either need to come and stay with him for 12 consecutive months in order to be sponsored as common law, or you would need to get married and apply sooner.

As stated previously, you can 'visit' in Canada for up to 6 months, unless otherwise stated, and just before you 6 months is up you can send in an application to extend your stay and then ask for more time to 'explore' your relationship. Most extensions of these types are fairly routine for CIC and are given out relatively easily, especially for US citizens. That would allow you to remain in Canada, but you would not be able to work or study in this time frame while you wait.

The status of your son will need to be determined one way or another, because when you are sponsored by your SO either your son will be included in the application as an immigrant, or he would only need be included as your dependent (already Canadian citizen).

I suggest you take the time to read the first post in this section of forum by Leon. While slightly outdated for time frames and such, it's a wealth of invaluable knowledge that has gotten many of us through all the hurdles.

Best of luck to you.

 

[Arcas]

My daughter was born in the US and now lives in Canada as a citizen with my boyfriend. We are not married, but that could change if it helps the process.

I am in the US with my son. He only has an American birth certificate, and his father's name isn't on it. His father is in the picture, however, and we are on good terms. His father is Canadian, born and raised so obviously he would give his permission to leave the US. My son and I are in the US. Everyone else is in Canada.

 

[Arcas]

Oh, and we have lived together for over a year at various times.

 

[Ponga]

My daughter was born in the US and now lives in Canada as a citizen with my boyfriend. We are not married, but that could change if it helps the process.

I am in the US with my son. He only has an American birth certificate, and his father's name isn't on it. His father is in the picture, however, and we are on good terms. His father is Canadian, born and raised so obviously he would give his permission to leave the US. My son and I are in the US. Everyone else is in Canada.

Without your son's father being shown on his birth certificate, it will be difficult to prove his paternity without a DNA test.

As far as proving Common-Law...how long has it been since you cohabited with him? It will certainly be easier for you to get married, if it's really what you want to do, since it greatly reduces the amount of relationship proof that you have to include, versus a Common-Law sponsorship!

Good luck!

 

[bigredmoose]

My daughter was born in the US and now lives in Canada as a citizen with my boyfriend. We are not married, but that could change if it helps the process.

I am in the US with my son. He only has an American birth certificate, and his father's name isn't on it. His father is in the picture, however, and we are on good terms. His father is Canadian, born and raised so obviously he would give his permission to leave the US. My son and I are in the US. Everyone else is in Canada.

Here's my advice.

Marry your BF. Doesn't matter where, doesn't have to big. Just make it genuine, have family there, have a reception or dinner after, take pictures, tell your friends about it, etc etc etc.

Make sure your son and daughter have proof of citizenship (citizenship card and passport). I agree they should be citizens due to their fathers, but you'd want to be able to prove it.

Once you're married, have your BF apply to sponsor you OUTLAND (not inland!) for Permanent Residency. The process doesn't take long for Americans and once you have it you can live and work in Canada and use the health care system (there might be a waiting period of 3 months).

You won't need permission from the father for your son to immigrate to Canada; the boy is Canadian and can just show up. However, when it comes time for you to move, you're going to want written permission from the dad to travel across the border. I think the risk is extremely low that the border guards are going to think you're abducting him (beacuse you're his mother and the fact that he's Canadian), but why risk it?

Let us know if you have any other questions, and to the others here, I'm curious what you all think.

 

[Arcas]

Thank you all very much for your responses so far! It's greatly comforting.

My two primary things I have to deal with then seem to be getting my son a Canadian birth certificate and getting married/having my bf put in an app to sponsor me?

For the first, does anyone know what I would need? Would my passport or other ID, my son's American birth certificate and both his father (with his own IDs) and myself present be sufficient?

And if he had a Canadian birth certificate, would I be able to put him in school despite not having residency yet myself? In Canada, it's unlikely that his father will live in the school district closest to me. In fact, he's likely to live a couple hours away.

 

[Ponga]

I really think that your son's father will need proof that he in fact is the father...which is why I mentioned a DNA test. Otherwise, any Canadian citizen could `claim' to be the father of a child, right?

I'm not in any way doubting what you've told us, but I do believe that he will have to prove this.

 

[Arcas]

As long as it's not difficult to get a paternity test, that won't be an issue.

My son's last name is also that of his father, not mine, if that helps in any way.

 

[Ponga]

As long as it's not difficult to get a paternity test, that won't be an issue.

My son's last name is also that of his father, not mine, if that helps in any way.

It shouldn't be difficult to get a paternity test.

Having the same last name probably doesn't help much at all.

I suggest giving a few more members here a chance to offer their opinions, before doing anything...just in case I'm over-thinking this.