My wife is a Canadian citizen and my son and I are in the process of applying for permanent resident status in Canada through her. We all currently live in the U.S. and my 4 yr old son and I are U.S. citizens.
What are our options for traveling to Canada in the interim? Are we able to cross the border to Canada and wait there to get our approval for permanent residency, as long as we don't stay over 6 months?
Thanks in advance!
Have you sent in your paperwork? Is your son from your wife or previous relationship? It really is up to a border agent. They will want to see if you are trying to get across to stay, potentially illegally staying. If they see for example, a car full of personal belongings, they might be more apt to say no, you cannot cross. What we ended up doing was, myself going back to Canada first , rented a uhaul and took most of the stuff and I declared it at the border. My husband was the driver and was only on vacation, which he gave them proof that he was still employed and living at the address we had in US. Once I was "home" and set in Canada, we applied for his spousal paperwork. Once fees were paid and Immigration received his paperwork and gave us file numbers, then he travelled over the border to stay for the six months. We had everything ready at the border. A complete duplicate package of the paperwork, fees paid, the letter from IRCC with file numbers, bank account statement with living allowance/travel funds, which was lots, and a written detail of his departure plans after the six months were up. Since he planned to stay, the border agent was just adamant that one month before the six months were up, to file a visitor extension, so he could stay another six months. (which was an easy file, and 100 bucks). He was truthful in all the questions they asked. He was at the border about hour and a half while they checked all the details, then let him through with an official document with a IRCC travel number and info on the next steps if time runs out. Our spousal paperwork has JUST been finished this week and his PR card is on the way. We DID have to file another visitor extension because he would have had to leave on Dec 6th again (though we know he would have been accepted again and not actually have to leave). We are applying to have those fees returned since we don't need the extension now that we have his CoRP. SOOO moral of the story.. have ALLLL your ducks in a row, with proof, and details and you have a good posibility to get in. We really do believe without all that info for them, he wouldn't have been let across. (this was also driving across, which can be trickier than flying)
