Best way to sponsor my girlfriend

[nmuntz]

Hello,

I am a Permanent Resident of Canada, landed as a PR in November 2017.
I would like some advice on what's the best way to sponsor my girlfriend so she can move here with me. She is currently living in my home country.

As a PR I understand I can't get married until 6 months after I landed, so I would need to wait until May.
My question is if we marry here in Canada and she enters the country with a tourist visa, will she be allowed to stay in the country legally for the two years that I believe the sponsorship process takes for inland? If yes, will she be allowed to work in the meantime?

If the answer is she can't stay here legally or work while the sponsorship process takes place, then what would you recommend to do instead?

Thanks!

 

[kcward7]

Hello,

I am a Permanent Resident of Canada, landed as a PR in November 2017.
I would like some advice on what's the best way to sponsor my girlfriend so she can move here with me. She is currently living in my home country.

As a PR I understand I can't get married until 6 months after I landed, so I would need to wait until May.
My question is if we marry here in Canada and she enters the country with a tourist visa, will she be allowed to stay in the country legally for the two years that I believe the sponsorship process takes for inland? If yes, will she be allowed to work in the meantime?

If the answer is she can't stay here legally or work while the sponsorship process takes place, then what would you recommend to do instead?

Thanks!

Where did you get information that you can't get married for 6 months?

 

[nmuntz]

Where did you get information that you can't get married for 6 months?

I believe it was the COPR letter that states that as a new PR I cannot change my marital status in the next six months.

 

[Rob_TO]

Hello,

I am a Permanent Resident of Canada, landed as a PR in November 2017.
I would like some advice on what's the best way to sponsor my girlfriend so she can move here with me. She is currently living in my home country.

As a PR I understand I can't get married until 6 months after I landed, so I would need to wait until May.
My question is if we marry here in Canada and she enters the country with a tourist visa, will she be allowed to stay in the country legally for the two years that I believe the sponsorship process takes for inland? If yes, will she be allowed to work in the meantime?

If the answer is she can't stay here legally or work while the sponsorship process takes place, then what would you recommend to do instead?

Thanks!

There is no such "6 month" rule, whatever you read you have misinterpreted.

Have you ever lived together for 12 months, before you landed as a PR??

If she arrives as a visitor you can get married in Canada, then apply inland for her PR. She can also get an Open Work Permit after approx 3-4 months, and can stay inside Canada for duration of processing (around 1 year).

 

[Sulwyn]

To also know if you can sponsor her, we need to know if you lived together for at least a year before you got approved for PR and whether you declared her as your common law partner on your PR app as a non accompanying member. If you haven't declared her on your PR app then you're going to be banned from sponsoring her as your partner and she'll have to find another way to stay in Canada.

 

[nmuntz]

To also know if you can sponsor her, we need to know if you lived together for at least a year before you got approved for PR and whether you declared her as your common law partner on your PR app as a non accompanying member. If you haven't declared her on your PR app then you're going to be banned from sponsoring her as your partner and she'll have to find another way to stay in Canada.

We have not lived together for a year, but we've been together for 4 years.
I understand that restriction would apply if I wanted to sponsor her as a Common-law partner right?
If we get married will we still need to live together for a year?

 

[Sulwyn]

We have not lived together for a year, but we've been together for 4 years.
I understand that would apply if I wanted to sponsor her as a Common-law partner right?
If we get married will we still need to live together for a year?

No you would not need to have lived together for a year if you get married. The question was purely to see if you misrepresented on your own PR app. On your PR app you would have needed to list your partner if you had been common law. Fortunately, since you haven't lived together for a year yet, it means you weren't common law at the time of your app and hence you never mispresented to the IRCC. You can just go ahead and get married whenever and apply for spousal sponsorship. Make sure it's clear in your app that you two hadn't been common law prior to you landing in Canada as a PR.

 

[nmuntz]

No you would not need to have lived together for a year if you get married. The question was purely to see if you misrepresented on your own PR app. On your PR app you would have needed to list your partner if you had been common law. Fortunately, since you haven't lived together for a year yet, it means you weren't common law at the time of your app and hence you never mispresented to the IRCC. You can just go ahead and get married whenever and apply for spousal sponsorship. Make sure it's clear in your app that you two hadn't been common law prior to you landing in Canada as a PR.

Thank you for the information.
Yeah, I didn't put her on my PR application because I wasn't meeting that one requirement of living together so we decided it would be best for me to get the PR first and then sponsor her.
Thanks everyone for the advice, this sounds great!