American husband denied entry into Canada

[CanadianCountryWife]

I am going to try and keep emotion out of this but if I'm being honest I am a complete wreck.

My husband came to Canada in September of 2016. The plan was to start his PR as soon as we could but there were hurdles. When he came over I was pregnant. Our hurdles.

1- we had had a wedding but were not yet legally married. His divorce was taking longer than anticipated.
2- September 30th I lost my job, ended up getting fired for being pregnant (this was its own mess)
3- November 7th his divorce is finalized
4- end of November I end up in hospital for a week
5- Wisconsin has a 6 month waiting period before you can remarry
6- March 25th our son is born - I'm on mat leave without a job and can't sponsor
7- July my husband applies for an extension on his visa
8 - Nov 6 I go back to work
9 - Nov 2 we get marriage licence
10- Nov 13 we recieve letter denying his extension
11- Nov 14 we meet with immigration lawyer who recommends leaving the country and coming back, being honest about what we are doing (leaving and coming back to reestablish status)
12 - Nov 16 we get married at city Hall

Friday night we left with our 8 month old son and went to Pittsburgh for the weekend to spend time with our best friend who is also my sons God father.

Sunday we start heading home. Get to the Buffalo crossing at 3:10. Obviously get pulled into immigration. By 5:00pm no one had spoken to us. After 2 hours of being there my husband gets called into an office.

Everything about the conversation is negative. Officer reiterates that we procrastinated. At this point my husband thinks he's going to be denied. We wait. Officer asks if we have solimization of marriage and my sons birth certificate. I give him these items and he leaves. After another hour he calls my husband back in. Explains he will not be allowed into Canada but doesn't deny him. Gives us a return to USA slip.

Never once did he talk to me. My family was just split up for no good reason. The PR paperwork is filled out on my computer. We were just waiting for our marriage certificate which in Canada takes up to 10 weeks to process.

I am now in canada alone with my 2 children and my husband is staying with a friend in Pittsburgh. I want him home, I need him home. I am a wreck.

 

[scylla]

I'm sorry for your situation.

Unfortunately you were given bad advice by the lawyer. Re-entry is never guaranteed and it would have been better for your husband to remain in Canada and apply for restoration once the PR application was submitted. Given how long your husband has been in Canada, it does look like he was attempting to live here as a visitor which is generally frowned upon by CBSA/CIC (they see it as an abuse of the visitor visa privilege). Generally speaking, we advise people here to avoid border runs since the outcome is very unpredictable. The good news is that your husband was not issued an exclusion order.

I would focus on getting the PR application submitted as soon as you can (which is sounds like you're ready to do). Make sure you're submitting an outland rather than inland application. Note that the marriage certificate doesn't always take 10 weeks. Apply for it now and include a letter requesting urgent processing since you require this document for a PR application. Many people here (myself included) have received our certificates in a week or two.

I'm not sure I would recommend your husband try to re-enter Canada again until he is able to demonstrate some sort of ties to the US. Can he get a job in Pittsburgh? Can he find a place to rent or perhaps pay some small amount in rent where he's staying now and sign a short term rental agreement? If he wants to try re-entering Canada again before he has any of this, make sure you tell him not to argue if it looks like he's going to be refused again. Time to time we do see exclusion orders issued to Americans (these are one year bans from re-entering Canada). He needs to avoid getting one of these.

BTW: You don't need to have a job to sponsor a spouse. There is no minimum income requirement. You just can't be on social assistance / welfare. EI and maternity benefits are not classified as social assistance and you can sponsor while on either of these.

 

[scylla]

Just to add to my comment above - if you have been living together in Canada since September 2016, then you were common law as of September of this year and could have also sponsored him through this stream rather than getting married. That's still an option if you have the common law proof required (i.e. proof of cohabitation from September 2016 to September 2017).

You could have actually gotten married as soon as his divorce was finalized. Wisconsin laws are immaterial since you would have been marrying in Canada. But that's water under the bridge at this point...