20 month wait for outland spousal sponsorship, need advice!

[OrangeMapleIsHome]

Hi, my wife and I sent our application in about 4 months ago and just got confirmation that it has been received, and we noticed that the processing time has increased to 20 months. We are currently separated, I(Canadian citizen) am in Canada and my wife(American citizen and principal applicant) is in the US with family, but we don't want to wait a year and 8 months to live together.

We are hoping to move her up here while waiting for a decision to be made on her application, and just keep extending her stay as a visitor every 6 months, would this work? Is there any reason(outside of obvious reasons) that the government would not allow this? We have a long travel with her stuff, and really, really don't want to get turned around at the border...

Thanks for any advice!

 

[scylla]

Hi, my wife and I sent our application in about 4 months ago and just got confirmation that it has been received, and we noticed that the processing time has increased to 20 months. We are currently separated, I(Canadian citizen) am in Canada and my wife(American citizen and principal applicant) is in the US with family, but we don't want to wait a year and 8 months to live together.

We are hoping to move her up here while waiting for a decision to be made on her application, and just keep extending her stay as a visitor every 6 months, would this work? Is there any reason(outside of obvious reasons) that the government would not allow this? We have a long travel with her stuff, and really, really don't want to get turned around at the border...

Thanks for any advice!

All of this sounds feasible, except the part about her coming with all of her stuff. She can't bring in all of her personal belongings until she actually has PR. Two risks with trying to bring all of it now: (1) you should expect that she will be charged duties / taxes on what she imports [she can avoid this if she waits until PR is approved before bringing her stuff here]; (2) increases the changes of issues at the border since it will be clear she is moving here before she is allowed to do so. While entry refusals / 1 year exclusion orders for Americans are extremely rare, there is some risk of this if you try to bring everything she owns to Canada now.

She can come to Canada as planned. However she should limit what she brings to a couple of suitcases, put the rest in storage (or leave with family), and bring it in once PR is approved.

 

[z1nk1nk]

Hi, my wife and I sent our application in about 4 months ago and just got confirmation that it has been received, and we noticed that the processing time has increased to 20 months. We are currently separated, I(Canadian citizen) am in Canada and my wife(American citizen and principal applicant) is in the US with family, but we don't want to wait a year and 8 months to live together.

We are hoping to move her up here while waiting for a decision to be made on her application, and just keep extending her stay as a visitor every 6 months, would this work? Is there any reason(outside of obvious reasons) that the government would not allow this? We have a long travel with her stuff, and really, really don't want to get turned around at the border...

Thanks for any advice!

It is 20 months including all the applications from 2020-2021. You have nothing to worry about. People in our march 2022 group have started getting AOR. Stay patient and don't worth.

 

[OrangeMapleIsHome]

All of this sounds feasible, except the part about her coming with all of her stuff. She can't bring in all of her personal belongings until she actually has PR. Two risks with trying to bring all of it now: (1) you should expect that she will be charged duties / taxes on what she imports [she can avoid this if she waits until PR is approved before bringing her stuff here]; (2) increases the changes of issues at the border since it will be clear she is moving here before she is allowed to do so. While entry refusals / 1 year exclusion orders for Americans are extremely rare, there is some risk of this if you try to bring everything she owns to Canada now.

She can come to Canada as planned. However she should limit what she brings to a couple of suitcases, put the rest in storage (or leave with family), and bring it in once PR is approved.

Thank you for this. This is kind of what I had felt, and we have somewhere to keep her things until we receive a decision on our application. I guess my only worry then is that we are bringing her vehicle and her dogs, which have to come here as her parents won't keep them while she is in Canada. Would they charge taxes on her vehicle? Sorry if that's a dumb question.

 

[OrangeMapleIsHome]

It is 20 months including all the applications from 2020-2021. You have nothing to worry about. People in our march 2022 group have started getting AOR. Stay patient and don't worth.

Oh that's awesome! So does that mean it could be much sooner than 20 months? This would be a deciding factor in us postponing our plans until we receive a decision on our application..

 

[scylla]

Thank you for this. This is kind of what I had felt, and we have somewhere to keep her things until we receive a decision on our application. I guess my only worry then is that we are bringing her vehicle and her dogs, which have to come here as her parents won't keep them while she is in Canada. Would they charge taxes on her vehicle? Sorry if that's a dumb question.

For her dogs, you need to check appropriate vaccinations, etc. Also, some provinces may still have breed restrictions in place.

I can't comment on the car. Hopefully someone else can.

 

[OrangeMapleIsHome]

For her dogs, you need to check appropriate vaccinations, etc. Also, some provinces may still have breed restrictions in place.

I can't comment on the car. Hopefully someone else can.

Thank you for this! I will look into the vehicle issue..

 

[MJSPARV]

Thank you for this! I will look into the vehicle issue..

I think it's not a problem when she enters as visitor, but rather being sure the car gets included on a list of goods to be imported when she gets her copr but before she lands. How that works if she gets her PR while in Canada and if she has a virtual landing done, I don't know.

In terms of bringing it with her, an American entering as a visitor for six months by car doesn't pay some sort of import fee on the car. The car is not being imported but rather being used by a visitor with the understanding that the person, and thus that person's vehicle will comply with the terms of being a visitor, which includes leaving when the visitor period is up. I would be sure that the registration and any inspection required by her state are up to date and extend as far as possible so she doesn't end up driving with expired tags if she gets an extension on her visitor status.

One final point that's more general, when she comes she should absolutely not say anything about her coming to move to Canada. At the border crossing she needs to be clear to the officer that she is VISITING you. It's fine to mention her PR is in progress (and they likely can see that when they run her passport) just be clear she's visiting only at this time. Think of "move" being a four letter word when she's at the border crossing. Btw, since they don't usually stamp passports for US citizens, she might want to ask for a stamp since she has an open application with IRCC. They will stamp if you tell them you want it stamped for that reason.

 

[z1nk1nk]

Oh that's awesome! So does that mean it could be much sooner than 20 months? This would be a deciding factor in us postponing our plans until we receive a decision on our application..

Did you get an AOR? If yes, it will be much much sooner than 20 months.

 

[OrangeMapleIsHome]

Did you get an AOR? If yes, it will be much much sooner than 20 months.

I believe so, I received an email stating that our application has been received on 01/24/2022, but I received that email just this month on April 6, it has an application number. Is this an AOR? Is there any way to estimate how long it may take using this information?

 

[z1nk1nk]

I believe so, I received an email stating that our application has been received on 01/24/2022, but I received that email just this month on April 6, it has an application number. Is this an AOR? Is there any way to estimate how long it may take using this information?

No AOR means something like approval of reception (meaning your documents are good to go and nothing missing) But I believe it is accepted. When did you exactly send it?

 

[OrangeMapleIsHome]

Oh I see, I believe I sent it on January 12, 2022

 

[OrangeMapleIsHome]

I think it's not a problem when she enters as visitor, but rather being sure the car gets included on a list of goods to be imported when she gets her copr but before she lands. How that works if she gets her PR while in Canada and if she has a virtual landing done, I don't know.

In terms of bringing it with her, an American entering as a visitor for six months by car doesn't pay some sort of import fee on the car. The car is not being imported but rather being used by a visitor with the understanding that the person, and thus that person's vehicle will comply with the terms of being a visitor, which includes leaving when the visitor period is up. I would be sure that the registration and any inspection required by her state are up to date and extend as far as possible so she doesn't end up driving with expired tags if she gets an extension on her visitor status.

One final point that's more general, when she comes she should absolutely not say anything about her coming to move to Canada. At the border crossing she needs to be clear to the officer that she is VISITING you. It's fine to mention her PR is in progress (and they likely can see that when they run her passport) just be clear she's visiting only at this time. Think of "move" being a four letter word when she's at the border crossing. Btw, since they don't usually stamp passports for US citizens, she might want to ask for a stamp since she has an open application with IRCC. They will stamp if you tell them you want it stamped for that reason.

Thanks you for all this information!

 

[z1nk1nk]

Oh I see, I believe I sent it on January 12, 2022

Yes I believe you got an AOR. Try searching linking with application number in the search results. I don't know how to do it exactly I havent gotten an AOR yet. You should be able to link it, if not it takes a week max before you can.

 

[MJSPARV]

I believe so, I received an email stating that our application has been received on 01/24/2022, but I received that email just this month on April 6, it has an application number. Is this an AOR? Is there any way to estimate how long it may take using this information?

If you have an application number you have AOR