Best way to proceed: Extend my girlfriend's visitor status beyond 6 mo

[Krallopian]

Long story short, my GF has been visiting me here and helping me with day to day life due to muscular dystrophy, and we have been planning on extending her stay to have had lived together for one year, and then apply to have her stay here under common-law status.

My plan has been: At the end of her first 6 months, send an extension request for another 6 months, then apply for common-law. But now that the crunch is on (July 10 is the end of the first 6 mo) I realize my plan has been flawed: If I apply TODAY for 6 months, it doesn't put us to the full year, so I will need to apply for a longer period. She is am American citizen and came up here from living with her father in California. She has most of her belongings there still as she hasn't "moved" here, but does live with me.

My primary concern is how to explain this to the IRCC without them saying, "I don't believe she will leave" because really our plan is to apply to have her stay here, but ONCE she has been granted an extension. She does not have a job, I support her financially and my parents have backed that they will support us if we need it. I just asked work for a raise so I could provide a more impressive salary to the IRCC to show that I am willing and able to support us. Again though, my main concern is, do I write a letter, "Hello, I am the boyfriend and I solemnly swear to support her during her visit, our plan is to have cohabitated for one year then apply for common-law stay" or will they simply say, "I we do not believe she will leave at the end of her stay?" At which point, do I leave that out, because to me that is misrepresentation...

My GF helps me with groceries, dishes, picking stuff up off of the ground, or helping me up from a fall, etc.. without her here I cannot live on my own, and I am worried about saying this as well in our application because I feel they will see it as, "She is there as a nurse" which of course she isn't, it's just her being a loving girlfriend. I went down to California in December to see her for a week, then we applied to have her come to Canada under the extended family and friends application, which was granted for 6 months. We are so stressed, and I haven't been sleeping for weeks due to worry that our application will land on the desk of an IRCC agent that is having a bad day.

I plan on us having her application submitted as per usual, but under "funds available for stay" I have no idea what to put, so I figure I'll put $6000 as it's the same as me giving her $1000/mo while she is here, and then including a letter with me explaining, "We are in love, please let us stay together longer, I will continue support her. Due to COVID19 restrictions we haven't been able to go out and explore the way we planned, so now that we both have received our shots, I would like to take her on road trips around Ontario during the summer on the weekends, show her Canada, and then at the end of our visit I plan on driving her down to California on a long road trip to visit with her family!" etc... like, where do I draw the line on this letter!?

 

[Krallopian]

I found the search function after writing this, I see that this has been a common question over the years. I found a lot of useful - albeit conflicting - advice, so I will leave it as this: Based on my description above, does anyone have any helpful advice for us? With my girlfriend visiting here, our quality of life has improved 10 fold, and the risk of losing this because of some poorly-worded document, scares the heck out of us!

 

[canuck78]

Long story short, my GF has been visiting me here and helping me with day to day life due to muscular dystrophy, and we have been planning on extending her stay to have had lived together for one year, and then apply to have her stay here under common-law status.

My plan has been: At the end of her first 6 months, send an extension request for another 6 months, then apply for common-law. But now that the crunch is on (July 10 is the end of the first 6 mo) I realize my plan has been flawed: If I apply TODAY for 6 months, it doesn't put us to the full year, so I will need to apply for a longer period. She is am American citizen and came up here from living with her father in California. She has most of her belongings there still as she hasn't "moved" here, but does live with me.

My primary concern is how to explain this to the IRCC without them saying, "I don't believe she will leave" because really our plan is to apply to have her stay here, but ONCE she has been granted an extension. She does not have a job, I support her financially and my parents have backed that they will support us if we need it. I just asked work for a raise so I could provide a more impressive salary to the IRCC to show that I am willing and able to support us. Again though, my main concern is, do I write a letter, "Hello, I am the boyfriend and I solemnly swear to support her during her visit, our plan is to have cohabitated for one year then apply for common-law stay" or will they simply say, "I we do not believe she will leave at the end of her stay?" At which point, do I leave that out, because to me that is misrepresentation...

My GF helps me with groceries, dishes, picking stuff up off of the ground, or helping me up from a fall, etc.. without her here I cannot live on my own, and I am worried about saying this as well in our application because I feel they will see it as, "She is there as a nurse" which of course she isn't, it's just her being a loving girlfriend. I went down to California in December to see her for a week, then we applied to have her come to Canada under the extended family and friends application, which was granted for 6 months. We are so stressed, and I haven't been sleeping for weeks due to worry that our application will land on the desk of an IRCC agent that is having a bad day.

I plan on us having her application submitted as per usual, but under "funds available for stay" I have no idea what to put, so I figure I'll put $6000 as it's the same as me giving her $1000/mo while she is here, and then including a letter with me explaining, "We are in love, please let us stay together longer, I will continue support her. Due to COVID19 restrictions we haven't been able to go out and explore the way we planned, so now that we both have received our shots, I would like to take her on road trips around Ontario during the summer on the weekends, show her Canada, and then at the end of our visit I plan on driving her down to California on a long road trip to visit with her family!" etc... like, where do I draw the line on this letter!?

Would not include that she is doing a job that a Canadian could be paid for an is acting more like a PSW. Explain that she is visiting in the hopes that you’ll apply for sponsorship after 1 year. Would make sure you collect proof that you have been living together for a year. Utility bills, phone bills, bank records, lease with both your names on it, etc. Make sure they have either of your names (or both) and have the date on them. The proof should start from the beginning of the one year period and throughout the 1 year. In terms of funds if she doesn’t have much funds and is not working the 1K transferred monthly will need to be explained. May be better to provide your savings account statement and provide proof that you are able to support her from your full-time job and savings. Hopefully she has funds to at least buy a flight and get home if she changes her mind.

 

[Krallopian]

Thanks for your feedback! As for the PSW side of things, I see what you are saying. It's tricky, in order to visit the first time from America she had to fill out paperwork to get access to travel here, on there she mentioned, "My boyfriend has moved into a new place, and I want to help him with his day to day as a loving girlfriend would, please allow me to visit to help take care of him." It was granted, and she has been here since.

As for her name on lease, bills, etc.. that part confuses the heck out of me! She is here to VISIT, not to LIVE, but because she is cohabitating, within a year of that we can apply to have her sponsored as common-law. Yet as a visitor, I would never put her on the lease (it was signed before she came to visit anyway) and has no bills, because I take care of all of the expenses. So it's a catch 22 from what I can see.

I have written this letter just now in an attempt to organize my thoughts:


Dear IRCC,

My name is *************, I am a citizen of Canada. I humbly ask that you accept this letter of invitation to extend the visitor's status for my girlfriend of over a year and a half, *************. I am currently living in ******** , Ontario while dealing with the daily struggles of muscular dystrophy and ******** has been great with helping me live independently during her visit by helping me up from random falls, picking up groceries from the ground when delivered to my door, helping with laundry etc, and all together immensely improving my quality of life.

******** is not currently employed and started her visit when she arrived here to Canada on January 10, 2021. We had just missed spending her birthday, New Year's Eve, and Christmas together due to travel restrictions in place by the COVID-19 pandemic. Our plan this spring 2021 was to travel and enjoy/explore the beauty of Canada via road trips around Ontario and beyond to Alberta and Quebec to visit friends and family. Of course, due to the lockdowns/travel restrictions we haven't been able to do any of this yet and it has been put off until later on in the year. We have remained indoors aside from the occasional drive to the dentist or to get our vaccine shots, or a local drive on any given Sunday.

I have taken full responsibility for all her expenses such as her airfare ticket to/from Canada, accommodation (she has been staying with me), travel within Canada, doctors and dentist appointments, food and all other necessities for the duration of her visit with me. I am employed by a gaming company based in Germany called ******** for two years now, and to further show that I have been and will be able to continue supporting ******** and myself, I have asked for a raise and the company was very happy to provide me with one (2000 Euros a month up to the new 2800 Euros a month!) to help show support for me with this application. I have even put together a little computer-gaming rig/nook for her so we can play video games together online with our friends and family. My parents - whom I lived with due to my muscular dystrophy before moving out on my own again last year - live less than an hour north of me, and have been completely supportive of our relationship and have sworn to offer any financial support to the both of us a safety net/backup during ******** visit if we need it for any reason what-so-ever.

We want to extend ******** visitor's status so that we may travel together across Canada together this summer and fall and so that we can finally spend Christmas and New Years with each other, so that she can continue to love and support me living on my own until the start of the new year. Unsure of future travel restrictions we do not want to risk being unable to travel resulting in us again, alone, on the holidays. I hope to start the new year off right: Celebrate our time together by taking a road trip across Canada and down to California to return ******** to her home with her family in ********.

We are aware of and respect the Canadian visitor's status and I offer my personal guarantee that my girlfriend's visit to Canada will not exceed her visitor's status expiration date. Please see all attached support documents for this application.

PERSONAL INFORMATION:
Complete name: *************
Date of Birth: *************
Address: *************
Contact number: *************
Email: *************
Job Title: ************* (salary ~$50,000, I invoice 2800 Euros monthly so yearly salary fluctuates slightly due to exchange rates)

Thank you very much for your time and I am really looking forward to the approval of my girlfriend's application.

Sincerely,
- *************

 

[canuck78]

Thanks for your feedback! As for the PSW side of things, I see what you are saying. It's tricky, in order to visit the first time from America she had to fill out paperwork to get access to travel here, on there she mentioned, "My boyfriend has moved into a new place, and I want to help him with his day to day as a loving girlfriend would, please allow me to visit to help take care of him." It was granted, and she has been here since.

As for her name on lease, bills, etc.. that part confuses the heck out of me! She is here to VISIT, not to LIVE, but because she is cohabitating, within a year of that we can apply to have her sponsored as common-law. Yet as a visitor, I would never put her on the lease (it was signed before she came to visit anyway) and has no bills, because I take care of all of the expenses. So it's a catch 22 from what I can see.

I have written this letter just now in an attempt to organize my thoughts:


Dear IRCC,

My name is *************, I am a citizen of Canada. I humbly ask that you accept this letter of invitation to extend the visitor's status for my girlfriend of over a year and a half, *************. I am currently living in ******** , Ontario while dealing with the daily struggles of muscular dystrophy and ******** has been great with helping me live independently during her visit by helping me up from random falls, picking up groceries from the ground when delivered to my door, helping with laundry etc, and all together immensely improving my quality of life.

******** is not currently employed and started her visit when she arrived here to Canada on January 10, 2021. We had just missed spending her birthday, New Year's Eve, and Christmas together due to travel restrictions in place by the COVID-19 pandemic. Our plan this spring 2021 was to travel and enjoy/explore the beauty of Canada via road trips around Ontario and beyond to Alberta and Quebec to visit friends and family. Of course, due to the lockdowns/travel restrictions we haven't been able to do any of this yet and it has been put off until later on in the year. We have remained indoors aside from the occasional drive to the dentist or to get our vaccine shots, or a local drive on any given Sunday.

I have taken full responsibility for all her expenses such as her airfare ticket to/from Canada, accommodation (she has been staying with me), travel within Canada, doctors and dentist appointments, food and all other necessities for the duration of her visit with me. I am employed by a gaming company based in Germany called ******** for two years now, and to further show that I have been and will be able to continue supporting ******** and myself, I have asked for a raise and the company was very happy to provide me with one (2000 Euros a month up to the new 2800 Euros a month!) to help show support for me with this application. I have even put together a little computer-gaming rig/nook for her so we can play video games together online with our friends and family. My parents - whom I lived with due to my muscular dystrophy before moving out on my own again last year - live less than an hour north of me, and have been completely supportive of our relationship and have sworn to offer any financial support to the both of us a safety net/backup during ******** visit if we need it for any reason what-so-ever.

We want to extend ******** visitor's status so that we may travel together across Canada together this summer and fall and so that we can finally spend Christmas and New Years with each other, so that she can continue to love and support me living on my own until the start of the new year. Unsure of future travel restrictions we do not want to risk being unable to travel resulting in us again, alone, on the holidays. I hope to start the new year off right: Celebrate our time together by taking a road trip across Canada and down to California to return ******** to her home with her family in ********.

We are aware of and respect the Canadian visitor's status and I offer my personal guarantee that my girlfriend's visit to Canada will not exceed her visitor's status expiration date. Please see all attached support documents for this application.

PERSONAL INFORMATION:
Complete name: *************
Date of Birth: *************
Address: *************
Contact number: *************
Email: *************
Job Title: ************* (salary ~$50,000, I invoice 2800 Euros monthly so yearly salary fluctuates slightly due to exchange rates)

Thank you very much for your time and I am really looking forward to the approval of my girlfriend's application.

Sincerely,
- *************

Have you set up a corporation? Do you have an account in Canada which allows your employer to pay you in Euros? Do you have a large amount of savings available since 50k needs to support 2 people and you have plans to spend a lot of time travelling.

Would suggest eliminating anything referring to your spouse working like a PSW/cleaner. You can state that you want to continue supporting your spouse as he adjusts to living outside his family home and because he is more vulnerable to covid he has to limit who who can help with everyday tasks. Being able to have his gf with him has provided a lot of emotional support or else he would have had to isolate by himself for long periods of time.

Most of the letters Involve travelling. In general Canada isn’t encouraging people to travel a lot and throughout many provinces as we are still in a pandemic Your plans to leave Canada and travel to the US is also a bad idea once you started inland spousal sponsorship. There is a small risk that she may get denied entry at the POE.

 

[Krallopian]

Thank you again! To be clear, the travel is dependant on pandemic/border closures easing. We are not planning on "vacationing" so much as taking road trips with stops at gas stations and sleeping in the vehicle as we have in the past. I understand your point about Canada not encouraging people to travel though, it's exactly why the two of us have basically been locked inside my condo since January!

I feel like saying, "I am more vulnerable to COVID so I try to limit who can help me" is just pandering, and trying too hard to sound needy, which is wrong imo.

As for the savings, no I do not - but like most people, I live for my paycheque, so when I have the money available, I will go for a road trip. It's not like we are looking to spend $3000 every month, we simply want to get out and explore from within the car! I have driven across Canada many times myself and it's incredibly affordable.

As for the use of my corporation for tax reasons etc, is any of that necessary for a letter of invitation that I am supplying as, "an extra" to this application? Originally I assumed I could say, "I am the BF, she is living with me, I will take care of her" and sign it. But upon further reading I've learned there's more to say in these sorts of things! Added to this will be a letter from my parents saying they will support us if we have any needs, and a letter from my employer saying, "We love working with him, and we pay him, and he has 12 months more on contract with us, he's not going anywhere!" etc.. all very big signs of support for my gf's stay here.

We just want to spend time together, and no do the flights back and forth between USA and Canada - especially with how the USA has been handling the pandemic.

 

[Krallopian]

I have made all sorts of changes to the letter based on your feedback, you provided extremely valuable insight to my wording etc, thank you very much! I am significantly more confident that I have something that explains the nature of why we want to extend her visit here, all while staying within the bounds of acceptable/reasonable.

 

[scylla]

I have made all sorts of changes to the letter based on your feedback, you provided extremely valuable insight to my wording etc, thank you very much! I am significantly more confident that I have something that explains the nature of why we want to extend her visit here, all while staying within the bounds of acceptable/reasonable.

You're way overthinking this and your letter has far too many details. Providing too much information can work against you. Most of what you've put in this letter is unnecessary and potentially problematic.

Eliminate everything related to your GF helping you due to your condition. This sounds like working without authorization. Eliminate everything regarding travel. Eliminate the multiple sentences about your job and how your employer feels about you. Eliminate the bit that says you used to live with your parents.

Shorten the letter way down to a few sentences. Simply ask for the extension because you and your girlfriend and working towards having one year of continuous cohabitation so that you can sponsor her for PR as your common law partner. Say that you will continue to financially support her during her stay in Canada. The end.

 

[Krallopian]

You're way overthinking this and your letter has far too many details. Providing too much information can work against you. Most of what you've put in this letter is unnecessary and potentially problematic.

Eliminate everything related to your GF helping you due to your condition. This sounds like working without authorization. Eliminate everything regarding travel. Eliminate the multiple sentences about your job and how your employer feels about you. Eliminate the bit that says you used to live with your parents.

Shorten the letter way down to a few sentences. Simply ask for the extension because you and your girlfriend and working towards having one year of continuous cohabitation so that you can sponsor her for PR as your common law partner. Say that you will continue to financially support her during her stay in Canada. The end.

See, here is the conflicting information again! I read through countless threads on this forum and reddit where people say, "ADD NOTHING" and others, "EXPLAIN EVERYTHING" uh yi yi.

As I said above, my original plan was, "We want to stay together for a year, then apply for common-law sponsorship, I am taking care of her during her stay." but after reading countless threads and success posts of people who wrote as much and more than I did, I ended up feeling it was better to describe the how's and why's of it all, rather than not! Freakin' roller-coaster of emotions today lemme tell ya.

 

[scylla]

Thank you again! To be clear, the travel is dependant on pandemic/border closures easing. We are not planning on "vacationing" so much as taking road trips with stops at gas stations and sleeping in the vehicle as we have in the past. I understand your point about Canada not encouraging people to travel though, it's exactly why the two of us have basically been locked inside my condo since January!

I feel like saying, "I am more vulnerable to COVID so I try to limit who can help me" is just pandering, and trying too hard to sound needy, which is wrong imo.

As for the savings, no I do not - but like most people, I live for my paycheque, so when I have the money available, I will go for a road trip. It's not like we are looking to spend $3000 every month, we simply want to get out and explore from within the car! I have driven across Canada many times myself and it's incredibly affordable.

As for the use of my corporation for tax reasons etc, is any of that necessary for a letter of invitation that I am supplying as, "an extra" to this application? Originally I assumed I could say, "I am the BF, she is living with me, I will take care of her" and sign it. But upon further reading I've learned there's more to say in these sorts of things! Added to this will be a letter from my parents saying they will support us if we have any needs, and a letter from my employer saying, "We love working with him, and we pay him, and he has 12 months more on contract with us, he's not going anywhere!" etc.. all very big signs of support for my gf's stay here.

We just want to spend time together, and no do the flights back and forth between USA and Canada - especially with how the USA has been handling the pandemic.

For the letter from your employer, get a standard employment letter. This should state how long you've been working for them, your salary, and how much time you have left on your contract. This is what a normal employment letter looks like and what IRCC will be expecting. Don't have them add stuff that says how much they love you or anything like that. That's not normal. Anything not normal creates the risk you may attract IRCC's attention in the wrong way. Just stick with the basics and don't overthink this.

Extensions are extremely easily approved for individuals who want to live together to become common law.

 

[scylla]

See, here is the conflicting information again! I read through countless threads on this forum and reddit where people say, "ADD NOTHING" and others, "EXPLAIN EVERYTHING" uh yi yi.

As I said above, my original plan was, "We want to stay together for a year, then apply for common-law sponsorship, I am taking care of her during her stay." but after reading countless threads and success posts of people who wrote as much and more than I did, I ended up feeling it was better to describe the how's and why's of it all, rather than not! Freakin' roller-coaster of emotions today lemme tell ya.

I think you may be confusing two different things - applying for the extension and sponsoring her for PR. When it comes to the PR application, yes, you definitely want a detailed that explains your relationship - more detailed than what you've provided above. For the TRV extension, keep it simple. You absolutely want to stay away from saying that she helps you.

 

[Krallopian]

I think you may be confusing two different things - applying for the extension and sponsoring her for PR. When it comes to the PR application, yes, you definitely want a detailed that explains your relationship - more detailed than what you've provided above. For the TRV extension, keep it simple. You absolutely want to stay away from saying that she helps you.

Thank you, and your apparent authority on the subject oozes confidence to me, so I appreciate the hell out of it! I guess I have been reading way too much about every option out there and have certainly confused the two applications.

My confusion still comes from: If I say, "I want to extend her stay, so she can live here" doesn't that go AGAINST extending her stay? I agree it is the right thing to do, "We want to extend her stay so we can apply for PR" but it seems silly to say that, although I guess the rules are, "You must be here one year before you can apply" and this is the only way to make it happen.

It's all so bloody scary to have our lives in the hands of someone else like this.

Thank you scylla

 

[scylla]

Thank you, and your apparent authority on the subject oozes confidence to me, so I appreciate the hell out of it! I guess I have been reading way too much about every option out there and have certainly confused the two applications.

My confusion still comes from: If I say, "I want to extend her stay, so she can live here" doesn't that go AGAINST extending her stay? I agree it is the right thing to do, "We want to extend her stay so we can apply for PR" but it seems silly to say that, although I guess the rules are, "You must be here one year before you can apply" and this is the only way to make it happen.

It's all so bloody scary to have our lives in the hands of someone else like this.

Thank you scylla

IRCC is fine with extensions being requested since the couple are working towards common law and a PR application. It's very rare these extensions are refused.

 

[Krallopian]

IRCC is fine with extensions being requested since the couple are working towards common law and a PR application. It's very rare these extensions are refused.

This feels better based on what you've said! Thank you again

"Dear IRCC,

My name is **********, I am a Canadian citizen currently living in ********, Ontario and Jennifer *******, my girlfriend, has been staying with me in my home during her visit.

I have been happily employed for over two years now by a game-design company and as such I have assumed full financial responsibility for Jennifer’s airfare ticket to/from Canada, accommodations (she has been staying with me), any travel within Canada such as doctors and dentist appointments, buying food and all other necessities for the duration of her visit with me.

My parents who live only an hour’s drive north of us have sworn to offer financial support to the both of us a safety net/backup if we need it for any reason whatsoever during Jennifer's visit.

We want to extend Jennifer's visitor's status because we are working towards having one year of continuous cohabitation so that I can sponsor her for PR as my common law partner starting January 10, 2022.

Sincerely,
"

 

[Krallopian]

I guess now the only concern I have is that it's more than 6 months away, when applying I know that there is a "are you applying for 6 months or more than 6 months option" and I think that's because when you're not from America you have to have some sort of health exam or something but because she's from America I guess that doesn't apply to her. So I'll just pick over 6 months, should I pick until her date or should I pick a few months beyond that, this is the last unknown right now for me. I see lots of people applying for a year or 8 months. I guess with my letter, it makes sense to apply for at least 8.