I am an American citizen by birth living in Washington State and have been dating a Canada citizen by birth who lives in B.C for two years. We are trying to live together with the end goal of me moving to Canada to live with him. He spoke to an immigration lawyer about our options and I do not qualify for any work related immigration as I’ve just began a career in my field of human services out of college. He mentioned we could live together in a border town in Canada and have me cross everyday to continue working in Washington and build up our 1year common law status so he can sponser me. My question is how can I do this legally? He said as long as I leave and come back everyday my 6 month visitation resets and we shouldn’t have issue, but if I’m technically visiting how can we build our common law legally? How can we live together for a year to build our common law status? Could we do it the opposite way and have him live in Washington and commute to Canada? Thank you!
Can an American live in Canada and still work in America?
- Thread starter milo16
- Start date
The short answer is that it's not really possible to commute daily. You won't be able to do this until you are a Canadian permanent resident (or your partner has a U.S. green card). You can try to do it for a short time, but sooner or later CBSA will get upset and tell you that you have to stop and potentially deny you entry into Canada. Commuting daily isn't the behaviour of a visitor - it's viewed as an abuse of the visitor privilege.
It would be another thing if you came to Canada as a visitor and didn't commute daily (but remain in Canada). You could then apply to extend your status once you're close to the six month period to get another six months in Canada and achieve common law. This is how many people do it. But again, this would only work without the commuting for work.
This sort of "border hopping" is likely doomed to eventually fall apart. CBSA are not big fans of people "living" in Canada as a visitor. Every border crossing is an opportunity for them to refuse entry. As for the crossings "resetting" the clock... Nah.
I've known a couple people who have done this, but the CBSA, once they catch wind of it, could put an exclusion on your passport, IE deny you entry for x-amount of time (which would defeat the purpose of what you're trying to do, no?). Your best option, which is what we were told by CBSA after trying to do something similar (oops), is get married then apply for PR spousal sponsorship outland.