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I'm a Canadian citizen who wants to marry his American girlfriend with the intention that she move to Canada. Should we do it here, or in the USA? Is it ok for here to "visit" while we're processing the sponsorship papers or is it better for her to stay in the USA until she can officially move here?
It doesn't matter where the marriage ceremony takes place.She can come to Canada to visit but if the officer at the border thinks she will overstay her visit she may not be allowed in.She can remain in Canada while her application is being processed. Even if she is without status immigration will process this application because it is a spousal application.But she will not be able to work in Canada.And if the application is made from Canada it can take up to two years to get processed.If she applies from the States it will likely be done in half the time.As well, if she applies from Canada there is no right of appeal if she is denied for some reason.If she applies from the US there is.I hope that helps.Debra Thal (username) :It doesn't matter where the marriage ceremony takes place.She can come to Canada to visit but if the officer at the border thinks she will overstay her visit she may not be allowed in.She can remain in Canada while her application is being processed. Even if she is without status immigration will process this application because it is a spousal application.But she will not be able to work in Canada.And if the application is made from Canada it can take up to two years to get processed.If she applies from the States it will likely be done in half the time.As well, if she applies from Canada there is no right of appeal if she is denied for some reason.If she applies from the US there is.I hope that helps.
First, I want to apologize for the extended delay in responding. There seems to be some kind of issue with the web based chat client and it took several days to get IT support to acknowledge the problem and then even longer to have something done about it.You say it doesn't matter where we get married, but I've looked at the marriage license forms for both Ontario and Deleware, and there's nowhere to specify country in the permanent residence: Ontario asks for province and postal code, and Deleware asks for State and Zip. Given that I live in Canada and she lives in the US, how are we supposed to fill in these forms?I'm also confused when you say it could take up to two years to process. The Canada immigration website estimates 38 days to process at the Mississauga Office, and between 4 and 10 months from the Buffalo office. Am I not reading these numbers correctly?Thank you!
You just use your information when applying for the licence in Ontario but actually even if both of you were from the US there would be no problem.There are no residency requirements for marrying in Canada.Those numbers are way off.Please provide me with the link and I will see what they are talking about.
So it's ok to put my address as her permanent address on the application? It won't cause any problems with immigration?Here's the times that immigration Canada gives:http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/times/canada/process-in.asp#sponsorshiphttp://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/times/international/05-fc-spouses.asp#west
If you are living in the US then use that address. If you are living in Canada use that one.This has nothing to do with immigration and they are completely different branches of separate governments.http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/times/canada/process-in.asp#sponsorshipThis is the time for processing your sponsorship application. It's the first step. That's when you get approved as a sponsor.You have to read "Note 1".
Oh, I see, the time periods are the two steps which must then be added together, pushing the timeline to 6-12 months or so (if applying from Buffalo)So just one final question that I'm not understanding: if this is just for sponsorship application, how long after that untl she can actually move here and apply for work?
She can't necessarily move here until it's completed. They may not let her in as she can only come as a visitor until she gets her PR status.She cannot work even if she can come here until about a month before she gets her status.She will get what is called approval in principle and once she gets that she can work.It's usually much faster and much simpler to apply when is she out of Canada.
Experience: Lawyer
thanks for clearng up some fears we had.