Can. citizen living in U.S. wants to move back with hubby. Help!

[dlharper]

I am a Canadian citizen with US permanent residency. My husband is a US citizen and we have been married 5 years. We have two kids, one who is "mine" and was born in Canada and the other is ours together and was born here in Tennessee. We have decided we would like to move back to Canada to be with my family and friends. We are wanting to be together if possible while his PR application is being processed, being that we have already lived together 6 years and have minor children that need us both around. I have read up some info on the forums and learned a bit but I am still totally overwhelmed. My problems are a) I currently reside in the US b) we don't want to be separated during this process c) what do we do with all our stuff d) how do we get across the border into BC without raising any red flags or doing anything illegal or that would mess up his ability to get PR... I have many other questions but I guess this is a good start. Wondering should I call CIC and ask them openly about what options we have? And any answers from anyone on here would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! Leanne

 

[scylla]

Unless there's a rush to get here, your best bet would be to submit the paperwork to sponsor your husband and non-Canadian child while you are still living in the US (you can do this as a citizen) - and then continue to live in the US while the paperwork is being processed. Once they are approved and receive their permanent resident visas, you can make your move to Canada without any issues.

 

[dlharper]

Unless there's a rush to get here, your best bet would be to submit the paperwork to sponsor your husband and non-Canadian child while you are still living in the US (you can do this as a citizen) - and then continue to live in the US while the paperwork is being processed. Once they are approved and receive their permanent resident visas, you can make your move to Canada without any issues.

I was under the impression that I have to show proof of being able to support him in Canada on the sponsorship application. How would I do that if I am living in US? Also I didn't think I would have to get PR for our daughter. Isn't she automatically granted Canadian citizenship being the child of a Canadian citizen born abroad?

 

[scylla]

Yes - sorry - you're right about the child. I misread your post and thought the child was your husband's from a previous relationship.

For financial proof, you can show your income from the US (doesn't have to be from Canada). You will also have to demonstrate that you have plans to move to Canada and establish yourselves there once your husband has PR. This can be done through showing property in Canada, bank accounts, rental agreement, a job, statement of your plans to relocate, proof you are job hunting, etc.

 

[awor]

I was under the impression that I have to show proof of being able to support him in Canada on the sponsorship application. How would I do that if I am living in US? Also I didn't think I would have to get PR for our daughter. Isn't she automatically granted Canadian citizenship being the child of a Canadian citizen born abroad?

If you haven't already, you will need to get her citizenship card (or whatever it's called), do that *now* before you do anything else.

You'll need to prove you will live in Canada after the PR is granted. Place to live, job offer, etc.

 

[dakonej]

I am a Canadian citizen with US permanent residency. My husband is a US citizen and we have been married 5 years. We have two kids, one who is "mine" and was born in Canada and the other is ours together and was born here in Tennessee. We have decided we would like to move back to Canada to be with my family and friends. We are wanting to be together if possible while his PR application is being processed, being that we have already lived together 6 years and have minor children that need us both around. I have read up some info on the forums and learned a bit but I am still totally overwhelmed. My problems are a) I currently reside in the US b) we don't want to be separated during this process c) what do we do with all our stuff d) how do we get across the border into BC without raising any red flags or doing anything illegal or that would mess up his ability to get PR... I have many other questions but I guess this is a good start. Wondering should I call CIC and ask them openly about what options we have? And any answers from anyone on here would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! Leanne

Since both "your" kid and the one you have together are Canadian citizens, you're just down to sponsor your husband under the Family Class category. Awor's advise to get your mutual child's citizen card is correct. That's what i've done to avoid delays for the sponsorship application. Obtaining the Citizen Card or Citizen Certificate as is officially called is fairly straightforward, you can find all the info here: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/applications/certif.asp

Next will be to gather all the documentation needed towards the Sponsorship application. All the info is found here: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/applications/fc.asp

And of course, don't forget to visit this forum for tips, suggestions, recommendations and real experiences from other people in same situation as us.

Hope this helps. Regards.

dj

 

[mommyk]

Hi Leanne,

My situation is/was very similar to yours so I will share my experience. I am a Canadian who was living in the U.S. for over 15 years. My husband of almost 14 years is a U.S. citizen. We started to consider the possibility of moving to Canada last year and at the time I had U.S. PR status. We decided it was best for me to pursue U.S. citizenship before leaving the U.S. because I had been eligible for it for several years but just never got around to getting it/didn't want to spend the money on it. I know that the U.S. really frowns on people with U.S. PR status leaving the U.S. and if you are gone for more than 2 years, you risk losing it and having to re-apply and I have heard of them denying people applying for the second time. A friend of mine from the U.K. is going through this process right now as she is trying to move back to the U.S. Being married to a U.S. citizen and having U.S. citizen children, you just never know when you may want/need to move back to the States and you are not guaranteed to get your green card back just because you are married to an American.

So if you are eligible for U.S. citizenship now (which you should be if you've been married 5 years), you may want to consider that first. For me, it only took 3 months from start to finish but I know it can take longer in some offices. I was working on learning about the Canadian PR sponsorship process and paperwork for my husband at the same time, which took months anyway. The Canadian paperwork is quite a bit more lengthy and complicated, IMHO.

Anyway, I became a U.S. citizen in January and we still didn't have the Canada immigration paperwork ready to mail until the end of February. We applied outland so the file will be processed in Buffalo which is usually quite a bit faster than applying inland through Vegreville, AB. Your husband needs an FBI clearance and that can take up to 16 weeks to get although we lucked out and got ours back in just 4 weeks.

I'm not sure what your husband's employment situation is. We were in a situation where I was working full time and my husband was a stay at home dad for the last couple of years in the U.S. We had a business that failed back in 2008 and lost everything so we didn't even have any real assets in the States and had been renting. I was worried about that because our plan was to come to Canada in March and we also did not want to be separated, but I was concerned about him not having enough "ties to the U.S." (like property or a job). We have 4 children, all born in the U.S. and I was able to apply for their Canadian citizenship cards so they were entitled to come to Canada with me but it just wouldn't work if my husband couldn't come too because he was the one who cared for them while I was at work.

You do have to show proof of your intention to move back to Canada once your husband is granted PR status. For us, it was easier for me to find a job in Canada first and just plan to move so I could put that on the application, rather than stay in the U.S. and not have any idea when his PR would be approved and therefore when to start looking for a job. However if my husband had had a job, we would likely have stayed until the process was complete. As it turned out, I accepted a job in Saskatchewan and we came up here in early March. We left most of our stuff in storage in the U.S. so as not to throw up any red flags at the border and the border officer granted my husband a 6 month visitor visa, which isn't even technically necessary but we took it. Our hope is that he will get PR status before the visa expires but that is out of our hands and our file is in Buffalo waiting to be processed. It stinks to not have the majority of our stuff here though. We have been in a furnished place since we arrived but we have to move into an unfurnished place this week so we have been hitting the garage sales hard!
We did import both of our vehicles and one was pulling a u-haul trailer and the border officer didn't seem concerned about it. The vehicle import process is a whole other story.

Hope this helps. This forum is a wealth of info to help you through the process!

Also FYI, because we had a definite move date when I applied for my kids' Canadian citizenship cards, the lady at the Canadian Consulate where I applied requested expedited processing and we received their cards in about 2 months....sweet! It helped to have them when I applied for their Sask Health cards here.

 

[dlharper]

Mommyk- your information was great and I have more questions for you if you don't mind. My husband was laid off in December and has also been a stay at home dad while looking for other unemployment. If we absolutely have to we can file from here and wait until the application is completed before we go to Canada. I was really hoping though that there was some sort of legal way to go sooner due to my mother having some problems currently that we can help with once we are there.

From what you have said it sounds like this may be possible. Now are you saying you filed your application in Feb and then went up there in March? So the fact that you had a pending PR app in didn't hurt you any? Also what exactly did you tell the agent at the border crossing? I have read of others also leaving their stuff behind in storage to not raise any red flags. One thing I'm worried about is that we also rent currently and own no property. If we were to do this we couldn't afford to pay rent up there and also down here for a place we were not using, but I've wondered if this will be a problem to the border agents if we leave our townhouse. My husbands family is all down here and if for some reason our app wasn't processed in time or anything he would come back to stay with them.
I hated going through US immigration and can't believe we are about to possibly do the same thing again! Oh the things we do for love!

 

[mommyk]

Hi Leanne,

So sorry for the late reply...it has been a hectic week!!!

I am happy to answer your questions.

When we crossed, we were very up front with the border officer. We had intended to send the application several weeks before we left but it just didn't work out that way, so when we came to the border, there was not yet a record of our application in their system. We told him we had applied and had the receipt and everything to show him but he didn't ask for much. He seemed to believe what we said. He asked us point blank if we had a physical residence in the U.S. (not just a mailing address) and we had to say no as we had just moved out of our rental.....but he didn't seem to hold it against us. I told him that we were not prepared to be separated and if for any reason my husband was not able to stay in Canada, then we would all go back to the U.S. and he seemed to believe me. He was actually very helpful and we spent a long time at the border doing all the paperwork for our vehicle import and he gave my husband a 6 month visitor visa in his passport (that is not actually necessary for the first 6 months but he said it would make things easier if we wanted to cross back and forth).

I can relate to your situation a lot and it is a lot of work and effort to go through all of this. I sure hope that my husband will be able to find a job here at the end of this long, expensive process. There have been a few jobs advertised in his industry and it is so frustrating to not be able to apply for them yet, but we have to be patient.

Based on what you have stated, I don't think it will be a problem for him to be able to come with you to Canada as a visitor while you await the immigration process.....but I don't think anyone really knows for sure until they try to cross.

Do you think you will be able to find a job quite easily in Canada?