Bringing American GF to Canada

[canadianwoman]

The Operating Manual O2 can be found here:
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/manuals/op/op02-eng.pdf
Note one quote: "Non-cohabitation for purely personal or economic reasons (i.e., did not want to give up a job or studies) does not normally qualify as a sufficient impediment, but should be assessed on a case-by-case basis."

 

[BeShoo]

So we have 2 options basically: 1) get married and apply 2) bring her here for 6 months, apply for an extended visa and after a year apply?

Those are the easiest and most straightforward options, but I'm going to disagree with the others that a conjugal partnership application is absolutely impossible in your situation. The regulations and manuals are full of hedging like "expected to," "mainly," "usually," "not normally," and "might."

You haven't given enough information here for me to say whether you are in a qualifying relationship, but you are not automatically disqualified just cause your partner is American. However, the outcome depends on the judgement of the visa officer who reviews your case and how they will interpret the regulations and procedures. You are going to have to argue a strong case, as if you were a lawyer in court trying to persuade a jury, and if you get an unsympathetic officer, you might have to appeal, which can take considerable time. If you are willing to gamble about $1500 in application and medical fees and about a year (more or less) of time, you might try the conjugal route if you have a relationship that qualifies.

If you need to appeal, there will be legal fees and it could take 2 to 3 years, though they are trying to get many cases cleared in a year. It's possible that you still could fail.

They do not want you to ruin your credit rating or declare bankruptcy -- they want you to get married. They don't want you to "visit" for a year, either, though they routinely approve such visits to people preparing PR applications.

There is a lot more I would like to say, but that's all I have time for at the moment. I know of two Canadian-American couples who were approved in a conjugal partnership, but one of those couple had to appeal. When I get time, I will try to explain why they were usual case that were successful.

 

[silky28]

Those are the easiest and most straightforward options, but I'm going to disagree with the others that a conjugal partnership application is absolutely impossible in your situation. The regulations and manuals are full of hedging like "expected to," "mainly," "usually," "not normally," and "might."

You haven't given enough information here for me to say whether you are in a qualifying relationship, but you are not automatically disqualified just cause your partner is American. However, the outcome depends on the judgement of the visa officer who reviews your case and how they will interpret the regulations and procedures. You are going to have to argue a strong case, as if you were a lawyer in court trying to persuade a jury, and if you get an unsympathetic officer, you might have to appeal, which can take considerable time. If you are willing to gamble about $1500 in application and medical fees and about a year (more or less) of time, you might try the conjugal route if you have a relationship that qualifies.

If you need to appeal, there will be legal fees and it could take 2 to 3 years, though they are trying to get many cases cleared in a year. It's possible that you still could fail.

They do not want you to ruin your credit rating or declare bankruptcy -- they want you to get married. They don't want you to "visit" for a year, either, though they routinely approve such visits to people preparing PR applications.

There is a lot more I would like to say, but that's all I have time for at the moment. I know of two Canadian-American couples who were approved in a conjugal partnership, but one of those couple had to appeal. When I get time, I will try to explain why they were usual case that were successful.

Thanks,

My mother used to work for the IRB and has a good friend who is an immigration consultant. She has organized a meeting with him for me.

I don't know what else I can say about the relationship. It's going on 6 years in November. We have been in limbo with my PhD applications because I applied to UK and Canadian schools. Since we didn't know where I would be studying were put off immigration thoughts. I was accepted to UK schools but I am 90% sure I will stay in Canada...it's like a $90,000/year swing! We have never spent more than 3 weeks together at one time; I visit her for 2-3 weeks roughly 4-5 times per year and she comes here for 2-3 weeks about 4 times per year. We have only 1 joint bank account, a savings account for the baby.

 

[Rob_TO]

And it is not that we do not want to get married, or are not read per se, but she will nut rush a marriage because she got married or because she wants to move here. She will only do it organically.

Sorry to say but this will be a huge red flag to CIC if you were considering a conjugal application. You have been together for 5 years and have a 1.5 yr old child together, and neither of you are opposed to marriage in general, so it would be very hard to convince CIC you are "rushing" anything if you were to get married now.

You could just to a simple courtroom marriage to get registered on paper, which would be fine in your case considering you have a child together and a very long relationship. Then do the "real" wedding ceremony with all your friends/family any time in the future when you're ready.

A conjugal app "may" have a chance with a sympathetic visa officer and/or going through appeals process, if both of you were strictly opposed to marriage in general and were never planning on getting married but would only live as a common-law couple your entire lives. This is what a visa officer will grill your partner on in an interview. As soon as it's learned you both eventually want to get married but just not now... IMO any conjugal app doesn't stand a chance.

 

[BeShoo]

Sorry to say but this will be a huge red flag to CIC if you were considering a conjugal application. You have been together for 5 years and have a 1.5 yr old child together, and neither of you are opposed to marriage in general, so it would be very hard to convince CIC you are "rushing" anything if you were to get married now.

This is one place where I agree with Rob_TO. If getting married now would be "rushing" things, you've got problems. Remember that a permanent resident is "permanent." You need to prove that your relationship is permanent. You're not going to get permanent residency based on a temporary relationship.

I still don't have time to write what I'd like to, but I will point out this particular section of the processing manual:

"Interdependent – physically, emotionally, financially, socially
The two individuals in a conjugal relationship are interdependent – they have combined their
affairs both economically and socially. The assessment of whether two individuals are in a
conjugal relationship should focus on evidence of interdependency."

You will need to provide evidence that you two are interdependent in all those dimensions, or at least most of them. The way you describe your relationship almost sounds like divorced parents who have visitation rights to their children. Maybe not quite, but almost. You do want to avoid giving that impression. It sounds like the only economic ties you have to each other is joint custody of a bank account that actually belongs to the baby. That doesn't suggest that you have "combined you affairs" financially in the way a married couple would be expected to do.

I think the amount of time you have spent together is a point in your favour. Hopefully, you have been living together and sleeping together during those times. So that's about 2 aspects out of a dozen or so, one okay, and the other not so good.

I promise I will try to write more, hopefully sometime tomorrow.