Canadian Citizen marrying an illegal alien from U.S

[canadiangirl90]

hello, I'm a Canadian citizen that wants to marry a Brazilian citizen that lives illegally in the U.S, would we be able to get married in the U.S? Would he have to go back to Brazil? He's entered the U.S illegally when he was 16, he's been living there for 14 years now. I want to sponsor him to come to Canada, I want to know how long the process takes and if he has to go back to Brazil at some point. If someone has been in a similar situation please help.

 

[scylla]

Yes - you can get married in the US.

There's a chance he may have to return to Brazil if an interview is required as part of the sponsorship process. He will be automatically banned from re-entering the US for 10 years as soon as he leaves. So once he exits the US - he needs to be aware that he can't return for a decade.

Does he have a valid passport? He will need one to start the sponsorship process.

Make sure you are 100% honest about his immigration history in the immigration application.

It's going to be difficult for any of us to guess how long the process will take since his illegal status in the US will likely cause CIC to examine your file more closely leading to longer processing times.

 

[canadiangirl90]

Yes, he does have a Brazilian passport, if he has to go to Brazil for the interview, how long will he have to stay there? Is there a possibility of it being declined? He doesn't want to live in Brazil how much money do I have to make to be able to sponsor him? Thank you so much for your reply.

 

[copypaper]

There is always a possibility of the application being declined.

Check the processing times for the Brazil office on CIC's website. Your application may take longer, as mentioned above, due to the additional scrutiny.

There is no income requirement for sponsoring a spouse/common law partner. You just need to be able to show CIC you can support yourself and your partner. If you are on welfare or in bankruptcy proceedings, you are not eligible to sponsor. As long as you have a job or significant saving and are looking for a job, you should be good for financial eligibility to sponsor.

 

[scylla]

There is no minimum income for you to be a sponsor. You just can't be bankrupt or on social assistance/welfare.

It's impossible for any of us to say how long he will have to remain in Brazil if he has to return there for an interview. Most likely a few months at a minimum. Once he leaves for Brazil, re-entering the US won't be possible (because of the 10 year ban). And I think it's highly unlikely Canada would grant him a visitor visa due to his immigration history. So he would have to remain in Brazil until a decision about his application is made and he is issued with a PR visa to come to Canada as a permanent resident. Note that it's by no means guaranteed that he will need to attend an interivew - it's entirely possible he won't.

Yes - there always a chance the application could be refused. To increase the chances of approval, you will want to demonstrate that your relationship is genuine and supply as much evidence as you can to support this. Proving the relationship is genuine will be especially important for your application due to your future husband's illegal status in the US (CIC will want to make sure he is marrying you for the right reasons and not just looking for a way to easily get PR status in Canada).

 

[MiriamT]

hello, I'm a Canadian citizen that wants to marry a Brazilian citizen that lives illegally in the U.S, would we be able to get married in the U.S? Would he have to go back to Brazil? He's entered the U.S illegally when he was 16, he's been living there for 14 years now. I want to sponsor him to come to Canada, I want to know how long the process takes and if he has to go back to Brazil at some point. If someone has been in a similar situation please help.

Hi,

Just a disclaimer that that isn't my situation, as I met and married my sponsor on a valid J1 visa and stay, when we started the process I was already in Canada.

However, I know of a case where the wife had been out of status in the US for nearly a decade. We chatted a bit about it at the time, so I heard it through her. At the time, the average processing time for São Paulo was 6 months; hers took roughly 3 months once it reached the visa office. She had to return to Brazil, not for an interview (which was waived, as they usually were in São Paulo) but because they couldn't process her application while she was in the US without proper status. I'm not sure what the current rules are, but at the time one couldn't be sponsored while illegally living somewhere, so if I were you I'd double check that.

Processing time in São Paulo is currently 5 months.

 

[MiriamT]

Yes - you can get married in the US.

There's a chance he may have to return to Brazil if an interview is required as part of the sponsorship process. He will be automatically banned from re-entering the US for 10 years as soon as he leaves. So once he exits the US - he needs to be aware that he can't return for a decade.

Does he have a valid passport? He will need one to start the sponsorship process.

Make sure you are 100% honest about his immigration history in the immigration application.

It's going to be difficult for any of us to guess how long the process will take since his illegal status in the US will likely cause CIC to examine your file more closely leading to longer processing times.

There is no minimum income for you to be a sponsor. You just can't be bankrupt or on social assistance/welfare.

It's impossible for any of us to say how long he will have to remain in Brazil if he has to return there for an interview. Most likely a few months at a minimum. Once he leaves for Brazil, re-entering the US won't be possible (because of the 10 year ban). And I think it's highly unlikely Canada would grant him a visitor visa due to his immigration history. So he would have to remain in Brazil until a decision about his application is made and he is issued with a PR visa to come to Canada as a permanent resident. Note that it's by no means guaranteed that he will need to attend an interivew - it's entirely possible he won't.

Yes - there always a chance the application could be refused. To increase the chances of approval, you will want to demonstrate that your relationship is genuine and supply as much evidence as you can to support this. Proving the relationship is genuine will be especially important for your application due to your future husband's illegal status in the US (CIC will want to make sure he is marrying you for the right reasons and not just looking for a way to easily get PR status in Canada).

I agree with scylla.

 

[kangamoose]

She had to return to Brazil, not for an interview (which was waived, as they usually were in São Paulo) but because they couldn't process her application while she was in the US without proper status. I'm not sure what the current rules are, but at the time one couldn't be sponsored while illegally living somewhere, so if I were you I'd double check that.

I'm not sure about other countries but the Australian checklist specifically asks for a copy of a visa for the country you currently reside in if its not your country of citizenship. You should check that as MiriamT advised.