Common law girlfriend, expired visa but confirmation of PR received in Canada.

[FrankSoul]

FRENCH WILL FOLLOW/FRANCAIS PLUS BAS


Hi,

My girlfriend (I'm Canadian she's Japanese) has been in Canada for more than 2 years. She came with a working holiday visa after which she got a temporary visa in order for us to apply for a permanent residence with me as her common-law sponsor.

Last Friday she received a confirmation of permanent residence letter (2 copies, one with a photo) asking us to call a number to get an appointment with immigration for an interview. He suggested us to leave the country and come back to accelerate the process but since we don't have a car we preferred getting an appointment with immigration Canada.

It's at this moment the gentlemen on the phone told us that my girlfriend didn't have a valid visa for a while (more than 90 days), that we couldn't make an appointment and she had to leave an re-enter Canada.

We were sadly under the impression that since we were in the process of obtaining her permanent residence we didn't need to apply for another temporary visa.

I'm very worried about the situation and I'm wondering if we do a back and forth USA-Canada (flag polling) will we encounter any problems? I'm scared that they will deny her entry even though she got the confirmation of permanent resident letter.

Is there a way for us to stay in Canada without flag polling?

Thank you so much.

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Bonjour,
Ma conjointe (je suis Canadien elle est Japonaise) est au Canada depuis plus de 2 ans. Elle est arrivée avec un visa travail/vacance et à l’échéance de celui-ci elle a obtenu un visa temporaire pour que nous puissions effectuer les démarches de résidence permanente avec moi qui la parraine (sponsor common-law).

Elle a reçu ce vendredi passé une lettre de confirmation de résidence permanente nous demandant d’appeler à un numéro pour prendre rendez-vous avec l’immigration pour une entrevue. Il nous suggéra de quitter le pays et de revenir pour accélérer le processus mais n’ayant pas de voiture nous préférions obtenir un rendez-vous avec immigration Canada.

C’est alors que le monsieur au téléphone nous dit que ma copine n’avais plus de visa depuis longtemps (plus de 90 jours) et que nous ne pouvions pas obtenir de rendez-vous et qu’elle devait quitter le pays et d’y revenir.

Nous étions malheureusement sous l’impression qu’en étant en processus de demande de résidence permanente, nous n’avions pas besoin de faire un autre demande de visa temporaire.

Je suis très inquiet de la situation et je me demande si nous effectuons un aller-retour USA-Canada (tour du poteau) allons-nous rencontrer des problèmes? J’ai peur qu’ils lui refusent l’entrée même si elle a une confirmation de résidence permanente.

Est-ce qu’il y a moyen de rester au Canada sans faire le tour du poteau ?

Merci infiniment.

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[Rob_TO]

We were sadly under the impression that since we were in the process of obtaining her permanent residence we didn't need to apply for another temporary visa.

I'm very worried about the situation and I'm wondering if we do a back and forth USA-Canada (flag polling) will we encounter any problems? I'm scared that they will deny her entry even though she got the confirmation of permanent resident letter.

Is there a way for us to stay in Canada without flag polling?

Definitely a big mistake about the visitor status, with an outland app you definitely need to keep extending it.

However since she already has COPR in hand, there is nothing left to worry about. If there was going to be a problem, it would have happened BEFORE she got COPR. So just go to the closest USA land border, and tell the US officer you want to turn right back around to do a flagpole PR landing. There is literally ZERO chance she will be denied entry with the COPR. Her current overstay will be completely irrelevant, so don't worry about it at all.

Also for outland apps, usually it's always a better choice to do a flagpole landing (if reasonably close to US border) since it can take weeks or months to get an appointment at a CIC office. And the quicker she lands as a PR, the quicker she can get a SIN, healthcare, etc.

 

[FrankSoul]

Thank you so much for giving me some relieve. I don't know if it's the right place to ask but do we need to present anything else at the border except for her passport and COPR? Do we need to pay? I'm so stressed about the whole situation I'm a wreck.

 

[Rob_TO]

Thank you so much for giving me some relieve. I don't know if it's the right place to ask but do we need to present anything else at the border except for her passport and COPR? Do we need to pay? I'm so stressed about the whole situation I'm a wreck.

Don't need to pay anything.

Only if she will be later importing some of her belongings to Canada, she will need to fill in a B4 import form. If she won't be importing anything, then no need for this.

The landing is a super easy process. Should just take all of 15 minutes if there's no line up.

 

[FrankSoul]

Thank you very much sir!

 

[Aquakitty]

Thank you very much sir!

Agreed, don't stress at all. My husband was also out of status and landed by "flagpoling". They won't ask her anything about her status, just a couple questions that are written on the COPR. No need to bring it up. She'll be fine The hard part is over.

 

[FrankSoul]

Thank you!