Advantage to Marrying in States or Canada?

[Mort Sinclair]

Hi, folks. My son, an American, just did his soft landing as a PR last month. He will move permanently this summer to Canada and begin graduate school. He and his longterm girlfriend, an American, are now engaged. As for their marriage, they are flexible about getting married in either country. Would there be any advantage to getting married in Canada over the U.S.?

I understand that my son needs to be residing in Canada at the time of the sponsorship, but are there any other issues they should be aware of? They have been living together for 4 years already.

Thanks for your time.

 

[canuck_in_uk]

Hi, folks. My son, an American, just did his soft landing as a PR last month. He will move permanently this summer to Canada and begin graduate school. He and his longterm girlfriend, an American, are now engaged. As for their marriage, they are flexible about getting married in either country. Would there be any advantage to getting married in Canada over the U.S.?

I understand that my son needs to be residing in Canada at the time of the sponsorship, but are there any other issues they should be aware of? They have been living together for 4 years already.

Thanks for your time.

From your previous posts, I'm going to go with the assumption that your son was included in your PR app as a dependent.

Based on that assumption, bad news. You committed misrepresentation in your PR app by including your son. As he had a common-law partner, he did NOT qualify as your dependent and was required to be removed from your app.

As a consequence of this misrepresentation, he will never be able to sponsor his partner. Getting married does not negate the fact that they were already common-law when he immigrated and she is therefore excluded from the Family Class.

If he applied independently for PR and was not your dependent, same result. He committed misrepresentation and she is still excluded.

 

[Mort Sinclair]

No, he was a dependent and did not misrepresent anything. He's under 22 and a college student and completely supported by us. We did not misrepresent anything, and I really object to your tone. She was a college student as well, dependent on her parents who paid for everything. Essentially they were roommates at college in college housing.

 

[PMM]

Hi

No, he was a dependent and did not misrepresent anything. He's under 22 and a college student and completely supported by us. We did not misrepresent anything, and I really object to your tone. She was a college student as well, dependent on her parents who paid for everything. Essentially they were roommates at college in college housing.

1. Don't get your dander up. The only question is whether they have lived together for 1 year or more. If not, there is no misrepresentation. If they, have then they have a real problem.

 

[canuck78]

No, he was a dependent and did not misrepresent anything. He's under 22 and a college student and completely supported by us. We did not misrepresent anything, and I really object to your tone. She was a college student as well, dependent on her parents who paid for everything. Essentially they were roommates at college in college housing.

If they lived together for over a year before you sponsored him he didn’t qualify to be included in your application as a dependent.

 

[Mort Sinclair]

If they lived together for over a year before you sponsored him he didn’t qualify to be included in your application as a dependent.

He was away at college living in a dormitory. That information was on his application. There were other students in the dormitory.

 

[canuck_in_uk]

No, he was a dependent and did not misrepresent anything. He's under 22 and a college student and completely supported by us. We did not misrepresent anything, and I really object to your tone. She was a college student as well, dependent on her parents who paid for everything. Essentially they were roommates at college in college housing.

You did. You said that they lived together for 4 years. That means that they were common-law. The fact that he was under 22 and that they were financially dependent on parents didn't change that.

They will have to declare their address histories in a sponsorship app, so unless they plan on further committing fraud by listing different addresses, IRCC will see that they lived together for 4 years and were therefore common-law.

 

[Mort Sinclair]

You did. You said that they lived together for 4 years. That means that they were common-law. The fact that he was under 22 and that they were financially dependent on parents didn't change that.

They will have to declare their address histories in a sponsorship app, so unless they plan on further committing fraud by listing different addresses, IRCC will see that they lived together for 4 years and were therefore common-law.

College roommates in college housing are not common law anything anywhere--or at least in the U.S. they aren't.

 

[canuck_in_uk]

College roommates in college housing are not common law anything anywhere--or at least in the U.S. they aren't.

You stated in your first post that they had been living together for 4 years. Staying in the same college dorm is not living together or being roommates, so better wording would have helped.

 

[canuck78]

If they shared the same address in a shared apartment style dorm room while dating they may run into difficulty proving they aren’t common law.

 

[Mort Sinclair]

Okay, thanks folks for your replies. I'm all set.

 

[armoured]

Leaving aside the common law question, I don't think it makes much difference whether they get married in Canada or US. About the only issue would be whether notarised copies and apostilles or similar would be needed - you'd just have to check the requirements specific to US.
You will have to be careful about wording - while I'd agree many or most would not consider living in university dorms the same as common law, you may have to explain that. If the address is actually a university residence (dormitory), there may be some leeway.

 

[screech339]

The only advantage to getting married in Canada is that you only need to supply photocopy of marriage certificate. Whereas you would need to certify the US marriage certificate (red seal) and other papers and costs if any required. Just more paperwork to deal with.

 

[keesio]

The only advantage to getting married in Canada is that you only need to supply photocopy of marriage certificate. Whereas you would need to certify the US marriage certificate (red seal) and other papers and costs if any required. Just more paperwork to deal with.

My wife and I got married in the US. I'm pretty sure we just sent in a copy of the marriage certificate.

Note that this was 6 years ago so perhaps rules changed since then.

 

[screech339]

My wife and I got married in the US. I'm pretty sure we just sent in a copy of the marriage certificate.

Note that this was 6 years ago so perhaps rules changed since then.

If you only supplied photocopy of your US marriage certificate then there is no advantage between Canada or US.