Canadian living in Slovakia with my Slovak Girlfriend > next steps

[ytzmarlon]

Hello,

I started dating my girlfriend while she was on vacation in toronto starting from October 2014. She was first in toronto for 6 months, after I went to visit her in Slovakia for 10 days. A couple months later she returned to toronto to study english at a language school. Her total time in Canada 1 year. During her second stretch, her school recommended she apply for a visa to study and work at the school for a year. She was rejected twice.

I then moved to slovakia on december 2015 to continue our relationship on a one year visa. We have been living together ever since, I work in IT for a top 20 fortune 500 company. My visa is set to expire in december 2016. We want to remain together, and are thinking of moving to toronto where we both have family.

What are our options, I was looking into sponsoring her as common law, but am not aware of the waiting periods and restrictions. Any guidance will be greatly appreciated!

A million thanks, Marlon and Greta

 

[lieob2]

You can sponsor her to Canada, you can contact some lawyers for suggestion and help.

 

[COPRQuestion]

Hello,

I started dating my girlfriend while she was on vacation in toronto starting from October 2014. She was first in toronto for 6 months, after I went to visit her in Slovakia for 10 days. A couple months later she returned to toronto to study english at a language school. Her total time in Canada 1 year. During her second stretch, her school recommended she apply for a visa to study and work at the school for a year. She was rejected twice.

I then moved to slovakia on december 2015 to continue our relationship on a one year visa. We have been living together ever since, I work in IT for a top 20 fortune 500 company. My visa is set to expire in december 2016. We want to remain together, and are thinking of moving to toronto where we both have family.

What are our options, I was looking into sponsoring her as common law, but am not aware of the waiting
periods and restrictions. Any guidance will be greatly appreciated!

A million thanks, Marlon and Greta

Here you go, the page has all the info and eligibility requirements for sponsoring a common law partner. The should get you started with all the info, you can the decide what course you want to take

 

[Rob_TO]

I then moved to slovakia on december 2015 to continue our relationship on a one year visa. We have been living together ever since, I work in IT for a top 20 fortune 500 company. My visa is set to expire in december 2016. We want to remain together, and are thinking of moving to toronto where we both have family.

What are our options, I was looking into sponsoring her as common law, but am not aware of the waiting periods and restrictions. Any guidance will be greatly appreciated!

Once you've lived together for 12 continuous months (and not a day shorter), you will be officially common-law and can then apply to sponsor her as a common-law partner. So I assume that will be Dec 2016.

It will take some time to put together an application after you become common-law. Hopefully you've been keeping amply proofs of your cohabitation since Dec 2015.

During the time preparing the app and waiting for it to be processed (could take up to a year or so), she can apply for an eTA and come to Canada as a visitor. Just make sure she acts like a visitor when entering Canada, and not like someone who intends to live/move here permanently (so have return air ticket, minimal luggage, etc). If her PR app is submitted before she comes to Canada and you show proofs of this, usually CBSA will be easier on allowing entry. Once in Canada she will most likely have 6 months visitor status, and can apply to extend that as needed.

 

[vensak]

I may answer in a bit more broad possition regarding your options:

1. Your sponsorship of her in Canada - you can find more advice about that on this forum.

2. You will marry her - from the moment of marriage you will have right for Family reunion with EU citizen. Meaning, that you can ask for permanent residency in Slovakia for 5 years (it takes around 3-4 months to get it from the moment of the application but if you are genuine couple you will sure get it). (my husband went through all that process).
For marriage itself you will need some documents (including , birth certificate, Confirmation of Domicile fixe, your passport, confirmation that you are single/divorced/widower) - all those documents have to be superlegalised (since I have not seen Canada on the list of countries that do accept apostils) and after that officialy translated into slovak language. for this count around 4-6 months to get all together, go through marriage and get marriage certificate.
As for permanent residency you will need - certificate of good character from every country you have lived last 10 years continously for at least 6 months - here not 100% sure since we were only dealing with 1 certificate and all of them shall not be older than 6 months, confirmation about financial funds - for example from bank, ideally a slovak ban, confirmation about where you live - for example a rent contract (Money and living place can be also replaced by her official commitment to be responsible for you and to take you in her appartment if that is rented on her name or if she does own it, marriage certificate.) Plus one application to be filled in, like 2-3 photos and thats it. And again superlegalisation process does apply here.
S
3. If you just want to stay in with her in EU, there you might also check for European Blue card option (sorry I do not know much details about this one)