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Common law partner - family class visa and IEC visa?

Oct 28, 2016
5
0
Hi all. I'm a Canadian living in the UK with my British partner of 20 months. My visa in the UK will expire in March so we have decided we would like to relocate to Canada. We are common-law, not married (for various reasons including just not being big believers in marriage).

My question is, can my partner submit an application for a family class visa at the same time as accepting an International Experience Canada visa (for those unfamiliar with IEC visas, it is two-year work visas for young people under 30)? As I have to leave the UK in March, we want to get him an IEC visa so he can come with me immediately, rather than us being separated while waiting for our family class visa application to be processed. We are nearly done preparing our family class visa application and hope to have it submitted by the end of November.

Do you think this will be a problem? The other point to make is that IEC visas are distributed through a random lottery - my partner is currently in the pool of applicants but the lottery for 2017 visas hasn't started yet, so we don't know whether or not he will be successful in getting an IEC visa.

If anyone can offer any guidance on this, we would very much appreciate it!
 

scylla

VIP Member
Jun 8, 2010
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Category........
Visa Office......
Buffalo
Job Offer........
Pre-Assessed..
App. Filed.......
28-05-2010
AOR Received.
19-08-2010
File Transfer...
28-06-2010
Passport Req..
01-10-2010
VISA ISSUED...
05-10-2010
LANDED..........
05-10-2010
Yes - you can do both.

Hopefully you're aware that for the UK, there are always far more applicants for the IEC program than spots available. Good luck - hopefully you'll get a spot.