Canadian Citizen German Girlfriend

[Eric1987]

Hello everyone, my name is Eric and I have been living together with my German girlfriend in Sydney Australia for over 2 years. In January or February of 2015 we plan to move to Vancouver (where I grew up) to live permanently. I have read about sponsored partnership visas but I am unsure about the whole process, does it grant my girlfriend the right to work in Canada? I am currently a de facto partner on her sponsorship visa in Australia and we required proof of our relationship for that.

What are our options for getting her into Canada with workers right? She has a degree in tourism and would like to work in that industry in Vancouver.

Thank you for any and all information!

 

[taffy7]

If you apply outland soon you may just be near the end pf your application by the time you want to move back to Canada. Then your girlfriend can land and she will be able to work .First of all read as much as you can about common law sponsorship,start gathering documents and apply asap.

 

[commonlawsponsor]

You can sponsor her as a common-law partner. Since she has legally been living in Australia for a couple years now, you can apply OUTLAND, using the Sydney office, which has a processing time of 11 months. However a lot of the applications from that office have been getting processed pretty fast lately.

If your application is approved, she will be granted PR and be able to work in Canada, has access to BC medical care etc.

You can get started here:

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/sponsor/spouse.asp

 

[Kysorb]

I have read about sponsored partnership visas but I am unsure about the whole process, does it grant my girlfriend the right to work in Canada?

I think you are going to need to stop calling her your girlfriend and start calling her your wife if you want this to work.

 

[Romance-in-Paris]

I think you are going to need to stop calling her your girlfriend and start calling her your wife if you want this to work.

Nope, since they have lived together for over a year they are just fine to apply as a common-law couple. It can be a bit harder to prove, but marriage is not necessary.

 

[Kysorb]

Nope, since they have lived together for over a year they are just fine to apply as a common-law couple. It can be a bit harder to prove, but marriage is not necessary.

Agreed, but.. you don't say "common law girlfriend". You can say "common law partner" or "common law spouse" or "common law wife" but I don't think CIC is going to like you saying "common law girlfriend"


My main point to this and judging by the guess that the applicant is born in 1987 is to tell him that this is not a temporary visa category similar to Australia, this is a "permanent" visa category. Assuming all conditions are met, this person will be tied to Canada forever, and you will be responsible for them going on social welfare for 3 years.

 

[taffy7]

Agreed, but.. you don't say "common law girlfriend". You can say "common law partner" or "common law spouse" or "common law wife" but I don't think CIC is going to like you saying "common law girlfriend"


My main point to this and judging by the guess that the applicant is born in 1987 is to tell him that this is not a temporary visa category similar to Australia, this is a "permanent" visa category. Assuming all conditions are met, this person will be tied to Canada forever, and you will be responsible for them going on social welfare for 3 years.

He is 26/ 27 years old ,they still say girlfriend if they aren't engaged or married .My daughter lives with her boyfriend " we still say boyfriend" lol and he came to Canada just as that. Common law is not used ,only on paper .

 

[agarand8]

Kysorb -

Pretty sure he can call her whatever he wants to call her and it doesn't make him any more or less serious about his relationship with her. It also sounds like because you think they are young, you don't think they are serious, which is extremely judgemental of you. He came on here asking for help, not your opinion. If you don't have anything nice to say, maybe you ought to keep it to yourself.

I'm a 25 year old Canadian bringing my husband here, and my being young doesn't affect my ability to understand about my financial responsibilities that I will be taking on in bringing my husband here.

Eric1987 -

You probably have a couple of options. You can bring her over as a permanent resident - this is what most of us in this section of the forum are doing - the biggest obstacle with this is proving that your relationship is genuine. You will also have to prove that you have been living together for at least a year and because you (the Canadian) aren't currently living in Canada, you will have to prove to them that you plan to move to Canada once they give her her Permanent Residency. Permanent Residency has a longer processing time and you will be subject to more scrutiny than other types of visas, but once she's here, she's a resident. She'll be elligible for the free provincial health care, she can work, she can study, etc and after a certain amount of time (3-4 years) she will be able to apply for citizenship.

Some other options are workers permits, and temporary residency visas. For a temporary residency visa, it might be harder to get because she is with you, and they might be worried that she will overstay the visa. Her biggest thing with the TRV will be proving that she will leave after the visa expires. I don't know if you want to go this route though because this is a temporary visa, usually only good for 6 months before it needs to be renewed and I don't think she'll be able to work on a TRV. I don't know a lot about workers permits but these are also a temporary type of visa that you would have to renew every year or so. I believe once she has lived in the same province for a certain amount of time she can apply for provincial residency, and then after that national residency. Each province has it's own timeline on how long you have to live there before you can do this. I don't know the specifics of how this whole process works, but you can go to the Workers Visas section of the forum and ask them about it.

You say you both want to live in Canada permanently, and so I think Family Class Permanent Residency Sponsorship is the best route. You can go to immigration Canada's website and start reading about all of the information that you need to gather and print and fill out the forms. Then if you have any questions you can post them in this section of the forum and someone will help you out.

Good luck with everything!

 

[Kysorb]

Kysorb -

Pretty sure he can call her whatever he wants to call her and it doesn't make him any more or less serious about his relationship with her. It also sounds like because you think they are young, you don't think they are serious, which is extremely judgemental of you. He came on here asking for help, not your opinion. If you don't have anything nice to say, maybe you ought to keep it to yourself.

I'm a 25 year old Canadian bringing my husband here, and my being young doesn't affect my ability to understand about my financial responsibilities that I will be taking on in bringing my husband here.

Wow, i wasn't even trying to be rude, but if your judgement is such. My point was to help him with CIC, I guess I could have phrased it more constructivly thinking CIC wouldn't like to hear "girlfriend"

Agrand, gear down, the only one showing any hostility is you.

I am trying to help him, if you think telling CIC you're sponsoring your girlfriend is ok, fine, I think at the very least using the term partner is going to help them through this application.

My comment about age (of which i am not much older) was more to do with the general information provided by the OP (This is the forum for family class visas) assuming they are on temporary Australian work visas I was outlining the long term requirements of the Canadian family class, and a few of the PR requirements.

If there are other visa options, I don't have information about them and the rest of your answer is helpful. Thank-you for posting that after having a go at me.

Maybe PR is for him, Maybe its not. I simply put some information information there and what i thought would be helpful advice for his future if he applies. He can use it or disregard it but i was never as rude as you.

You can respond to everyone, I will just keep quiet.

 

[brucem]

I think I am with Agarand8 on this one. Maybe it wasn't intentional Kysorb but the tone of your post was quite patronising. He was only asking for advice and you appeared to make a judgement based on his use of descriptive language and age. Telling him that he had better call him his 'wife' is as already pointed out not correct. In addition, there is no option to class your partner as a 'girlfriend' on the application so it doesnt really matter what he calls her. Just my two cents.

 

[Kysorb]

My first point was short (it was around midnight where I live) OP sorry if you take offence, I was trying to be a lightly funny about the permanence of this type application to help you judge if its for you.

Expanding. As many many many people point out on this forum the VO's come to the table thinking you have to prove it to them. If I was a VO, (I'm not, but everyone here likes to think they know what VO's are thinking) hearing the word girlfriend would mean it was perhaps not as serious and would want to know more.

OP you can choose - I still believe if you are not attached to the word girlfriend I would call her my partner on all application forms and in any explanations, but maybe like others say it won't matter.

I haven't heard any of them say that they did exactly that and they were fine with it. You can choose what you want to do I'm only trying to help you "play it safe".

 

[little_apple]

@ Kysorb: You are right. In the application they should be called common-law spouse or common-law partner or something else with common-law. Our 4 statutory declarations of friends and family were not accepted by our VO because they referred to us as boyfriend and girlfriend and not as common-law ??? (I read this in our GCMS notes)

Even after 2 years I still call him my boyfriend but for CIC he's my common-law spouse

 

[beatitboss]

Hello everyone, my name is Eric and I have been living together with my German girlfriend in Sydney Australia for over 2 years. In January or February of 2015 we plan to move to Vancouver (where I grew up) to live permanently. I have read about sponsored partnership visas but I am unsure about the whole process, does it grant my girlfriend the right to work in Canada? I am currently a de facto partner on her sponsorship visa in Australia and we required proof of our relationship for that.

What are our options for getting her into Canada with workers right? She has a degree in tourism and would like to work in that industry in Vancouver.

Thank you for any and all information!

Hi there,
I think that you can go for the PR option.
The thing is that (as @agarand8 said) you will have to demonstrate to your relationship with your partner is truly genuine. Personally I don't think it's gonna be tremendously difficult to do since you were already approved by Australian authorities which clearly shows that you are tied to each other. Now the wise thing to do, is to collect all the relevant "evidence" of your cohabitation in Australia.
Start with "hard" evidence such as bank statements, utility bills, drivers licences, rent, car rego, pay slips etc.
Then move on to smaller things such as pictures from you endeavours in Australia, emails, letters, testimonials from friends and especially (if possible/applicable) something from your partner's parents. That would be perfect if you had some pictures together with them etc.
Otherwise try to get emails, plane tickets, maybe tickets for a festival/concert which would show that you've been there together or even skype calls and facebook messages from before you even moved to Australia and consequently the same kind of thing after you moved.
Believe me, the more stuff you can collect, the better it is for you.
Naturally every single case is different but the more structured and complete your application will be, the more chances you'll have to be approved without further complications.


As mentioned before, please refer to this:

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/sponsor/spouse.asp

That will help you understand many technical aspects of the procedure and of course do not forget to post you queries if necessary!


Good luck!

 

[Ellasg]

@ Kysorb: You are right. In the application they should be called common-law spouse or common-law partner or something else with common-law. Our 4 statutory declarations of friends and family were not accepted by our VO because they referred to us as boyfriend and girlfriend and not as common-law ??? (I read this in our GCMS notes)

Even after 2 years I still call him my boyfriend but for CIC he's my common-law spouse

Oh wow, your visa officers were strict. Maybe they should've considered that it's not common to call each other "common-law partners" in Canada and Germany?
I guess he should be fine considering he's applying though Sydney though.

 

[BubbOZ]

Hi...

Apply for an Outland Spousal Sponsorship through the Sydney Visa Office. There's a good thread here specific to this office:
http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/thread-for-applications-through-sydney-australia-office-t46958.1620.html

If all goes well, she will receive a Confirmation of Permanent Residence (COPR). Once she lands in Canada with a COPR in hand, she's pretty much ready to go.

Is she an Australian Permanent Resident? Does she intend to keep it? If so, how will she maintain it while overseas? Is she planning to become an AU citizen?

We got our COPR in 95 days through the Sydney Office. Granted we were already in Canada with one of us on a work visa, but I dont know if that made a difference or not. I believe some people from the above Sydney VO thread had similar timelines while still being in AU.

G'luck....

Hello everyone, my name is Eric and I have been living together with my German girlfriend in Sydney Australia for over 2 years. In January or February of 2015 we plan to move to Vancouver (where I grew up) to live permanently. I have read about sponsored partnership visas but I am unsure about the whole process, does it grant my girlfriend the right to work in Canada? I am currently a de facto partner on her sponsorship visa in Australia and we required proof of our relationship for that.

What are our options for getting her into Canada with workers right? She has a degree in tourism and would like to work in that industry in Vancouver.

Thank you for any and all information!