Common Law Partner sponsorship problem

[juliakristof]

Hey all,
We are currently figuring out how my Canadian girlfriend can sponsor me to get PR in Canada. We decided to go with a working holiday visa which works for Belgians. In this time we'll live together to have 12 months of cohabiting which will be enough to get an application for common law partnership. However we were wondering after these 12 months of living together, when my working holiday visa expires, can I still stay in Canada continuing living with my girl? Or do I have to get back to Belgium first for a couple of months until my application is accepted?

Thanks in advance, these forums have been really helpful so far!

Kristof & Julia

 

[sylvain1]

Hey all,
We are currently figuring out how my Canadian girlfriend can sponsor me to get PR in Canada. We decided to go with a working holiday visa which works for Belgians. In this time we'll live together to have 12 months of cohabiting which will be enough to get an application for common law partnership. However we were wondering after these 12 months of living together, when my working holiday visa expires, can I still stay in Canada continuing living with my girl? Or do I have to get back to Belgium first for a couple of months until my application is accepted?

Thanks in advance, these forums have been really helpful so far!

Kristof & Julia

If you apply inland, file an open work permit application at the same time. This will automatically extend your status here. There have been some mixed information regarding what you can do after your working holiday visa expires and until your OWP gets approved. So I'm not affirming whether you can or cannot work during that particular period, but you can definitely stay here legally during that time.

 

[juliakristof]

If you apply inland, file an open work permit application at the same time. This will automatically extend your status here. There have been some mixed information regarding what you can do after your working holiday visa expires and until your OWP gets approved. So I'm not affirming whether you can or cannot work during that particular period, but you can definitely stay here legally during that time.

Okay perfect, that will do for us. Its one thing to not be able to work, its something else to have to pay round trip to Canada again only for waiting until the application is validated.

 

[spousalsponsee]

Easiest is to just apply online for visitor status, and apply for outland processing of your case. You can stay in Canada as a visitor while it is processed, which will probably be quicker than having it processed inland (although if you filed inland & for a work permit, then once the work permit arrived after about 3-4 months you'd be able to once again work while you waited).