Help me choose the best sponsorship type for my common-law partner

[phillycheese]

Hello all:

I'm a Canadian citizen and my common law partner is a European citizen from a visa-exempt, ETA country. We have been living in Europe for the past 2 years, and decided that we would like to settle in Canada in the near future. Based on my understanding, I can actually begin putting together the application right now, as a Canadian Citizen outside of Canada, and submit a Family Class sponsorship application (outland). We can then return to Canada once the application is submitted, and in the mean time, she can apply for a visitor record in order to extend her legal visitor status in Canada so we don't have to be apart during the processing time.

On the other hand, we could return to Canada first, then while in Canada, choose the Spousal/common-law partner sponsorship application(inland). I understand that for this option, she would need to maintain legal status to stay in Canada beyond her typical 6 month period as a visitor. Since the Spousal/common-law application takes around a year, we would likely also have to apply for a visitor record in order to extend her legal resident status in Canada. Additionally, she could also apply for an open work permit while her PR application is in processing and she could also maintain her legal resident status this way, so she doesn't get kicked out while we are waiting on the application to be processed.

notes for family class outland app:
- Can leave Canada and travel as we want
- Likely cannot get an open work permit

notes for partner/common law inland app:
- Cannot leave the country until PR approval
- Can apply for open work permit (still takes 4-6 months)

Is my understanding correct so far? If it is, then it seems to make more senseto pick the family class outland PR sponsorship because that way we can still travel and visit friends and family in Europe during the year long processing time.

Any feedback is appreciated, thanks!

 

[canuck78]

Hello all:

I'm a Canadian citizen and my common law partner is a European citizen from a visa-exempt, ETA country. We have been living in Europe for the past 2 years, and decided that we would like to settle in Canada in the near future. Based on my understanding, I can actually begin putting together the application right now, as a Canadian Citizen outside of Canada, and submit a Family Class sponsorship application (outland). We can then return to Canada once the application is submitted, and in the mean time, she can apply for a visitor record in order to extend her legal visitor status in Canada so we don't have to be apart during the processing time.

On the other hand, we could return to Canada first, then while in Canada, choose the Spousal/common-law partner sponsorship application(inland). I understand that for this option, she would need to maintain legal status to stay in Canada beyond her typical 6 month period as a visitor. Since the Spousal/common-law application takes around a year, we would likely also have to apply for a visitor record in order to extend her legal resident status in Canada. Additionally, she could also apply for an open work permit while her PR application is in processing and she could also maintain her legal resident status this way, so she doesn't get kicked out while we are waiting on the application to be processed.

notes for family class outland app:
- Can leave Canada and travel as we want
- Likely cannot get an open work permit

notes for partner/common law inland app:
- Cannot leave the country until PR approval
- Can apply for open work permit (still takes 4-6 months)

Is my understanding correct so far? If it is, then it seems to make more senseto pick the family class outland PR sponsorship because that way we can still travel and visit friends and family in Europe during the year long processing time.

Any feedback is appreciated, thanks!

Processing especially from visa exempt countries may be more like 6 months.

 

[armoured]

I'd do outland for the reasons mentioned. Also, outland applicants can now apply for work permits if in Canada, although processing time not that quick.

 

[phillycheese]

Processing especially from visa exempt countries may be more like 6 months.

Can you clarify? Are you referring to the Open work permit? Or the Spousal PR application from outland?

 

[canuck78]

Can you clarify? Are you referring to the Open work permit? Or the Spousal PR application from outland?

Spousal sponsorship.

 

[AngelBear]

Processing especially from visa exempt countries may be more like 6 months.

May be possible for outland, but not for inland. USA is visa exempt, and I'm an inland applicant and still waiting.

 

[canuck78]

May be possible for outland, but not for inland. USA is visa exempt, and I'm an inland applicant and still waiting.

Forgot this is common law which may take longer to process

 

[Edmegbc]

Processing especially from visa exempt countries may be more like 6 months.

Sitting at 9 months here and from the UK so I wouldnt bank on that timeline

 

[Edmegbc]

Hello all:

I'm a Canadian citizen and my common law partner is a European citizen from a visa-exempt, ETA country. We have been living in Europe for the past 2 years, and decided that we would like to settle in Canada in the near future. Based on my understanding, I can actually begin putting together the application right now, as a Canadian Citizen outside of Canada, and submit a Family Class sponsorship application (outland). We can then return to Canada once the application is submitted, and in the mean time, she can apply for a visitor record in order to extend her legal visitor status in Canada so we don't have to be apart during the processing time.

On the other hand, we could return to Canada first, then while in Canada, choose the Spousal/common-law partner sponsorship application(inland). I understand that for this option, she would need to maintain legal status to stay in Canada beyond her typical 6 month period as a visitor. Since the Spousal/common-law application takes around a year, we would likely also have to apply for a visitor record in order to extend her legal resident status in Canada. Additionally, she could also apply for an open work permit while her PR application is in processing and she could also maintain her legal resident status this way, so she doesn't get kicked out while we are waiting on the application to be processed.

notes for family class outland app:
- Can leave Canada and travel as we want
- Likely cannot get an open work permit

notes for partner/common law inland app:
- Cannot leave the country until PR approval
- Can apply for open work permit (still takes 4-6 months)

Is my understanding correct so far? If it is, then it seems to make more senseto pick the family class outland PR sponsorship because that way we can still travel and visit friends and family in Europe during the year long processing time.

Any feedback is appreciated, thanks!

Ok so I had the exact scenerio - my wife is canadian and was living in the UK.

We decided to apply outland as the ability to travel whilst processing was a big factor - I have a daughter in the US so I didnt want to be able to not see her if something happened.
Our original plan was to wait out PR in the UK - however some personal circumstances meant we moved only 3.5 months into our application timeline - I had to enter as a visitor.

The policy changed last year allowing outland apps to apply for OWP once they are in Canada and living with the sponsor.

I applied for OWP end of April and have just had approval so took 4.5 months (until its in hand) but luckily that was ok finances wise for us.
I didnt have to apply for visitor record extension as I had applied for OWP which gives you maintained status.
Basically, there is ZERO benefit of applying inland now as both streams can apply for OWP and inland is actually intended for people already in canada with other temp status such as IEC or Working Holiday.

If you do decide to do outland (which I would as the sooner you can get the app in the sooner it moves along the process) the one additional bit you will need to include is to show your intent to move back to canada, this was such a grey area for us as there is no real guidelines and its up to each applicant/sponsor to provide enough evidence of the intent to settle back in Canada. This became redundant for us as my wife got a job in Canada and ended up moving back only a few months into our app and before she got sponsor approval. But we had a LOT.

Feel free to ask anything else. We are still in process and its been slow (EU/NATO especially out of London VO) but i will shortly have OWP in hand which means the rest can come at will.

Take a look at my timeline in my signature - will give you an idea of what to expect.

 

[AngelBear]

Forgot this is common law which may take longer to process

Ours isn't common law, but you are correct, it may take a bit longer to process, a bit more to look into.

 

[AngelBear]

Hello all:

I'm a Canadian citizen and my common law partner is a European citizen from a visa-exempt, ETA country. We have been living in Europe for the past 2 years, and decided that we would like to settle in Canada in the near future. Based on my understanding, I can actually begin putting together the application right now, as a Canadian Citizen outside of Canada, and submit a Family Class sponsorship application (outland). We can then return to Canada once the application is submitted, and in the mean time, she can apply for a visitor record in order to extend her legal visitor status in Canada so we don't have to be apart during the processing time.

On the other hand, we could return to Canada first, then while in Canada, choose the Spousal/common-law partner sponsorship application(inland). I understand that for this option, she would need to maintain legal status to stay in Canada beyond her typical 6 month period as a visitor. Since the Spousal/common-law application takes around a year, we would likely also have to apply for a visitor record in order to extend her legal resident status in Canada. Additionally, she could also apply for an open work permit while her PR application is in processing and she could also maintain her legal resident status this way, so she doesn't get kicked out while we are waiting on the application to be processed.

notes for family class outland app:
- Can leave Canada and travel as we want
- Likely cannot get an open work permit

notes for partner/common law inland app:
- Cannot leave the country until PR approval
- Can apply for open work permit (still takes 4-6 months)

Is my understanding correct so far? If it is, then it seems to make more senseto pick the family class outland PR sponsorship because that way we can still travel and visit friends and family in Europe during the year long processing time.

Any feedback is appreciated, thanks!

You are correct, do know with outland, if for any reason that they would want an interview, even if your partner would be in Canada, they will do the interview in the originating country, meaning your partner would have to return to Europe. If you are exceptionally thorough with all your documents, that definitely lessens the chance of an interview, but they definitely look long and hard at common law and want to make sure the relationship is genuine. Make sure to cross your T's and dot your I's. Meaning make sure it's a good case and everything is in order, give them lots of pictures and even letters of relationship proof from friends and family. Have bills, joint bank account, and housing lease in both of your names. Have something to show as proof that you have been living together for at least 12 months. I'm sure you know all of this, as it seems you have been doing your research. It's a long drawn out process, but well worth it in the end.

 

[phillycheese]

Ok so I had the exact scenerio - my wife is canadian and was living in the UK.

We decided to apply outland as the ability to travel whilst processing was a big factor - I have a daughter in the US so I didnt want to be able to not see her if something happened.
Our original plan was to wait out PR in the UK - however some personal circumstances meant we moved only 3.5 months into our application timeline - I had to enter as a visitor.

The policy changed last year allowing outland apps to apply for OWP once they are in Canada and living with the sponsor.

I applied for OWP end of April and have just had approval so took 4.5 months (until its in hand) but luckily that was ok finances wise for us.
I didnt have to apply for visitor record extension as I had applied for OWP which gives you maintained status.
Basically, there is ZERO benefit of applying inland now as both streams can apply for OWP and inland is actually intended for people already in canada with other temp status such as IEC or Working Holiday.

If you do decide to do outland (which I would as the sooner you can get the app in the sooner it moves along the process) the one additional bit you will need to include is to show your intent to move back to canada, this was such a grey area for us as there is no real guidelines and its up to each applicant/sponsor to provide enough evidence of the intent to settle back in Canada. This became redundant for us as my wife got a job in Canada and ended up moving back only a few months into our app and before she got sponsor approval. But we had a LOT.

Feel free to ask anything else. We are still in process and its been slow (EU/NATO especially out of London VO) but i will shortly have OWP in hand which means the rest can come at will.

Take a look at my timeline in my signature - will give you an idea of what to expect.

Hey thanks for sharing your own experience, it's really helpful to see! I have a couple of questions after reading your post and timeline:

- When applying for outland, it sounds like you applied from the UK and then came to Canada as a visitor. Do you happen to know or have heard anything about applying for outland while already in Canada? My partner would come to Canada first (as a regular, eTA visitor), and then while she is here we would submit the application.

- I want to specify that once the OWP has been received, that's what's giving you "maintained legal status" correct? Up until it was approved in August just a couple of days ago you were still considered just a visitor, and if the OWP did not get approved, you would have needed to leave by October 2024 which is 6 months after you first came to Canada with visitor status?

If the Open work permit is also allowed for outland applicants then yeah it sounds like there really is 0 benefit to doing inland. I don't want want to have any anxiety over CBSA giving us any crap for just taking a couple of weeks to vacation together or even visiting people back in Europe once we've come to Canada.

 

[phillycheese]

You are correct, do know with outland, if for any reason that they would want an interview, even if your partner would be in Canada, they will do the interview in the originating country, meaning your partner would have to return to Europe. If you are exceptionally thorough with all your documents, that definitely lessens the chance of an interview, but they definitely look long and hard at common law and want to make sure the relationship is genuine. Make sure to cross your T's and dot your I's. Meaning make sure it's a good case and everything is in order, give them lots of pictures and even letters of relationship proof from friends and family. Have bills, joint bank account, and housing lease in both of your names. Have something to show as proof that you have been living together for at least 12 months. I'm sure you know all of this, as it seems you have been doing your research. It's a long drawn out process, but well worth it in the end.

Great, thanks for this. We don't mind getting legally married first, as marriage is in the plans anyways, and if you think it will give a boost to the immigration process, I'm starting to think we can just do a courthouse wedding first so that we can avoid all the hassle.

 

[AngelBear]

Great, thanks for this. We don't mind getting legally married first, as marriage is in the plans anyways, and if you think it will give a boost to the immigration process, I'm starting to think we can just do a courthouse wedding first so that we can avoid all the hassle.

Getting married would be a big boost, but make sure you have someone with you to take pictures. I'm sure you won't be able to take pictures inside the courthouse, but pictures outside. And have a party afterwards, with lots of pictures with both of you with the guests. IRCC is big on pictures like that. Other ideas for pictures....if you have social media like FBook, and you post about your relationship such as your marriage, take a screenshot.

 

[Edmegbc]

Hey thanks for sharing your own experience, it's really helpful to see! I have a couple of questions after reading your post and timeline:

- When applying for outland, it sounds like you applied from the UK and then came to Canada as a visitor. Do you happen to know or have heard anything about applying for outland while already in Canada? My partner would come to Canada first (as a regular, eTA visitor), and then while she is here we would submit the application.

- I want to specify that once the OWP has been received, that's what's giving you "maintained legal status" correct? Up until it was approved in August just a couple of days ago you were still considered just a visitor, and if the OWP did not get approved, you would have needed to leave by October 2024 which is 6 months after you first came to Canada with visitor status?

If the Open work permit is also allowed for outland applicants then yeah it sounds like there really is 0 benefit to doing inland. I don't want want to have any anxiety over CBSA giving us any crap for just taking a couple of weeks to vacation together or even visiting people back in Europe once we've come to Canada.

I believe its the same situation when you apply outland in canada - for the PA. For the sponsor then obvs there isnt the need to provide proof of intent to return.

no, its once OWP is applied for you have maintained status. And if for some reason the PA doesnt leave the country then just apply online for an extension. If you leave and come back your visitor status resets anyway.

I think if you still have ties to your home country such as family or anything like that then inland is risky. but thats my two cents