Admission under Dual Intent for Outland Application

[misslissa]

Hi everyone,

We've been following the board quite a bit while we get our stuff together to apply for my common-law partner's PR under the Family Class and it's been very helpful. We haven't applied quite yet, but we did run into a hiccup recently.

Here's our story, in short form:

-June 2013 - Partner comes to Canada as a Temporary Foreign worker under the skilled class
-June 2013 - Partner starts work at job in Canada
-June 2013 - Partner and I start dating
-end July 2013 - Partner quits work at job due to terrible work conditions and anti-immigrant bullying
-end July 2013 - Partner and I move in together
-2013-2014 - We live together while I work. Partner seeks work, but no interest. We travel back and forth between Canada and the US with no issues
- end 2014 - We begin to start looking into PR under Family Class, as work permit expires in June 2015.

Fast forward to 2015 -
-end Feb 2015 -
We visit the US on a usual trip to do some shopping and pick up some packages from across the border.
We ask for more info about what we should do when partner's work permit expires. They send us into Immigration.
Immigration officer removes partner's work permit: "You aren't working, so the work permit is not valid any longer." They grant a temporary resident visa (visitor's record) for the end of April and tell us to return with proof of funds and proof of our intent to apply for PR.

Today:
We visit the US for my birthday on a non-refundable holiday I had booked before they took away his work permit.
We specifically ask to speak to an immigration officer. The officer simply says "You have the right to stay until April 30th. You can go."
We insist that we wanted a tourist visa based on dual intent, and show our application, missing police certificate and my CRA record, but paid in full, medical completed, as well as proof of funds for my partner to support himself and proof of ties to the UK.
They simply say that they can't issue a visa because we are stating that he intends to remain in Canada as a PR.
We insist that this is indeed dual intent. The officers don't appear to know what this is, and tell us to call CIC, or visit their office.

Anyway, that's the story.
We're pretty confused, because we had figured, from reading other people's experiences on the board, that it would be pretty straightforward to get the visitor's visa under dual intent since we met all the critera from what we could tell.

Any idea of what we may have done wrong? Or any advice on how to go about this?

We want to apply Outland since the processing times are quicker and there's a right of appeal, but from what we understood, lots of people got visitor visas to stay in Canada while the PR was being processed.

Thanks for any advice!

Melissa

 

[scylla]

Dual intent isn't a right and the officer was under no obligation to extend your partner's visit in Canada. Whether a visitor is allowed into Canada and for how long is entirely up to the immigration officer you encounter at the border.

At this point if your partner wants to stay past April 30th - then it would probably be a good idea to submit an extension from within Canada rather than trying a border run. Also, in the future, I would very strong advise again insisting on anything at the border - this is how people end up with exclusion orders.

I would seriously limit your trips to the US (definitely avoid the shopping trips). The more you go back and forth the higher the chance of a real problem.

 

[misslissa]

Thanks you clarified a few things for us.

Yes, we understood that dual intent isn't a right; we were just hoping that, like we though we had read on other posts, that it would be granted at the border.
We wondering if the fact that it was a land crossing and my partner wasn't coming from the UK made a difference. Who knows. They were polite, just not very helpful.
To clarify, we weren't "insistent" in an agressive way; the last thing we want is to cause trouble. We were just trying to understand what we needed and where we could get the help.

On a related note: we looked into applying for an extension to stay online, which looks *fairly* straightforward. My one concern is that his current Temporary Resident Permit now expires at the end of april and they say you should apply 30 days before expiry.
Would he have to leave the country while they made a decision?

Needless to say, this is causing us some stress. We just want to know what our options are for us to be together while we wait for our Outland PR to come through...

Thanks,
Melissa

 

[scylla]

The 30 days for applying for an extension is just a guideline. As along as CIC receives the request before his current status expires, he will be on implied status until they make a decision. No - he doesn't have to leave the country while they make a decision. In fact, he needs to stay in the country to keep the extension application valid.

The reason why the officers didn't answer your questions at the border is because there is no real answer to what you were asking. How long someone is allowed into Canada is entirely at the discretion of the officer - period. No matter what you provide or what you do - the officer is under no obligation to extend your visit - or even let you into Canada. I would avoid that type of questioning at the border in the future. That's not the place to be asking.

 

[fruitball4u]

No advice for you really, just wanted to say that we are twins. I'm American (girl) and came here on a TFW permit as well. Mine also expires in June and I am furiously trying to prepare my PR application so that we can send it off this month. I also need to apply for a visitor visa and am hoping that it'll cover my stay until I am approved.

It's scary, and frustrating! I'm sure you guys are just as eager as we are for all of this to be finished and to not feel like you're holding your breath every time you leave the country.

In fact, I've put myself on Canada lock down until I get PR. I just have no desire to leave and then get that one jerky border guard that decides I can't come back in. No. Ugh, it makes me shudder to think about that happening. So, I'm staying put!

Let me know what happens with your applying for a visitor visa - I'm getting ready to do that as well in the next month or so.

 

[fruitball4u]

Also, one more question - what were their requirements for "proof of funds"? Do you need a certain amount in savings, or just proof that you will be supporting him while he waits?

 

[scylla]

No advice for you really, just wanted to say that we are twins. I'm American (girl) and came here on a TFW permit as well. Mine also expires in June and I am furiously trying to prepare my PR application so that we can send it off this month. I also need to apply for a visitor visa and am hoping that it'll cover my stay until I am approved.

OP's common law partner is from the UK (not US).

 

[misslissa]

From what I understand, you need to provide proof that you have at least $10,000 for a year.

Fortunately, my partner has quite a lot of money in savings, so we printed some bank statements from some of his UK accounts, as well as the money currently in his Canadian account, with transactions showing that he has been wiring money over.

For our PR application, I need to have proof of my employment and earnings anyway. I have a letter from work saying that I am permanent employee and stating what my annual income is. I also called CRA and asked for a printout from my last year's tax. Aaaaaand, because I'm trying to cover everything, I went through our work intranet system and printed out all my pay stubs for the last year.

For Family Class spousal PR, the person being sponsored doesn't need to prove they have money, the person doing the sponsoring has to. It's pretty clear once you start reading and filling out the forms.
Because my partner is retired (and people have a hard time believing that a 40 year old is retired) we want to supply proof of his funds, just in case.

Hope that helps!
Melissa

 

[surleplateau]

fruitball4u,

It sounds like you are currently in Canada on a TFW permit that is expiring soon (assuming with no option to renew? I am unfamiliar with work permits). Correct me if I'm wrong.

So if you are currently in Canada and want to extend your stay to remain in Canada, but you are unable to extend your work (or study permit), you will be (by the sounds of it) applying to Extend your Stay. You can do that online through CIC and it's (generally) quite quick if you are asking for a change of status to visitor from a work/study permit.

Once you apply online, it's okay if CIC takes its time to process your visitor/extension request, because you will fall under "implied status" while your extension request is being processed (this is not the same as implied status that comes with applying Inland with a concurrent OWP application, but if you are American, it's advised by most not to go that route).

If you leave Canada for any reason during this time, your extension request or your actual extension become moot/invalid, and when you attempt to re-enter Canada, it's always as a brand-new entry attempt, brand-new visitor status.

In the online extension request, there's a spot for "Proof of Financial Support" and also "Letter of Explanation." Either upload bank statements showing funds that would cover your stay (approx 1000/month?) AND/OR upload a letter from your partner or someone declaring their willingness to support you financially during your stay, then they should also upload/include bank statements and/or paystub or letter of employment showing their salary or something along those lines (I think tax revenue assessments work too).

Letter of Explanation: I uploaded a 1-page letter by me explaining why I wanted to stay in Canada (filing for PR sponsorship, waiting for background check results, etc). My partner wrote a 1-page letter expressing both financial support and his hope that CIC would let me stay while waiting for my PR app to be processed.

 

[fruitball4u]

Surleplateau,

Wow, thank you for the detailed response! That is so encouraging to hear. You were correct in assuming that I won't be renewing my work permit - I WOULD, but the family I'm sure would not want to spend the increased cost to reapply for an LMIA, which looks like it is necessary to renew. I'm okay with that though. I've got plenty to keep myself occupied for the next eight or nine months, and financially we are fine living on one income (for now, anyway).

We are definitely applying outland - I'd rather not work for a year-ish and then be done with it as opposed to dragging out my PR application over several years. I can only assume that wait times are going up and up with the new pilot program. I'm hoping that more people will apply inland, freeing up the outland people to be approved faster (wishful thinking, eh?).