Common law partnership with international student

[marta12]

Hello, I posted a few things in the past and the forum has been very helpful, so I hope you'll help me once again
Here is the situation:
My boyfriend is an international student in Canada and still had one more year to go. In November 2017 I joined him I'm Canada thanks to a working holiday visa. My permit is expiring in November (not renewable for a second year). Ever since I came we have been living together. We would like to apply for a common-law partner sponsorship, given that international students have the opportunity to invite their partner and that by the time my permit expires we would have lived together for 12 consecutive months.
My question is: when my work permit expires can I extend my stay as a visitor and in the meantime apply for the common-law visa within Canada? Or is it better to leave the country and apply from outside?
Any suggestion would help, thanks!

 

[canuck_in_uk]

Hello, I posted a few things in the past and the forum has been very helpful, so I hope you'll help me once again
Here is the situation:
My boyfriend is an international student in Canada and still had one more year to go. In November 2017 I joined him I'm Canada thanks to a working holiday visa. My permit is expiring in November (not renewable for a second year). Ever since I came we have been living together. We would like to apply for a common-law partner sponsorship, given that international students have the opportunity to invite their partner and that by the time my permit expires we would have lived together for 12 consecutive months.
My question is: when my work permit expires can I extend my stay as a visitor and in the meantime apply for the common-law visa within Canada? Or is it better to leave the country and apply from outside?
Any suggestion would help, thanks!

Hi

You would not be applying for sponsorship, as that is the process for Canadian citizens and PRs to bring their family members to Canada.

Do you have proof of living together?

You can apply to change your status to visitor before your current work permit expires. Once you are common-law, you can apply for a work permit based on his study permit.

 

[marta12]

Thanks for the advise! So if I apply as a visitor then I can apply for the work permit from within Canada, right? No need to leave the country?

 

[canuck_in_uk]

Thanks for the advise! So if I apply as a visitor then I can apply for the work permit from within Canada, right? No need to leave the country?

If you are common-law, yes.

 

[marta12]

So even though my work permit expires in November I started to look around and find out which documents are needed for the common-law visa of an international student, because I know that some papers take long to be ready.
I have tried to find out of a police certificate from Canada will be required, given that I have been living here for the past year, but I can't find an answer and I would like to avoid being notified last minute and then wait weeks before getting it.
Does anybody know if I'll need it? And

 

[marta12]

Hi

You would not be applying for sponsorship, as that is the process for Canadian citizens and PRs to bring their family members to Canada.

Do you have proof of living together?

You can apply to change your status to visitor before your current work permit expires. Once you are common-law, you can apply for a work permit based on his study permit.

Here I am again..So my current working holiday expires Nov 14, and I was planning to extend my stay as a visitor this month, thinking it would only take a few weeks. Then I was going to apply for common-law visa in Nov 15, after 12 months of cohabitating.
Turns out processing time for visitor stay is 83 days..My question is..Can i apply for visitor and stay here with implied status after November 14th and then on Nov 15th apply for common law visa, cancelling the visitor application?
If that's not possible, instead of applying to extend my stay as visitor, can I leave the country and flagpole to the US in order.to re-enter Canada as a visitor bypassing the processing time for the application as visitor? Is that an option?

 

[canuck_in_uk]

Here I am again..So my current working holiday expires Nov 14, and I was planning to extend my stay as a visitor this month, thinking it would only take a few weeks. Then I was going to apply for common-law visa in Nov 15, after 12 months of cohabitating.
Turns out processing time for visitor stay is 83 days..My question is..Can i apply for visitor and stay here with implied status after November 14th and then on Nov 15th apply for common law visa, cancelling the visitor application?
If that's not possible, instead of applying to extend my stay as visitor, can I leave the country and flagpole to the US in order.to re-enter Canada as a visitor bypassing the processing time for the application as visitor? Is that an option?

Yes, you can apply for visitor status and remain on Implied Status.

 

[marta12]

Yes, you can apply for visitor status and remain on Implied Status.

But once I will have the 12 months to apply as a common law partner of an international student (mid November), can I cancel my application for visitor (which might be processed in February 2019) in order to apply as common law?

 

[canuck78]

Not sure if you realize but an OWP is not guaranteed for the family of international students. Will depend mostly on whether you have enough savings to support yourselves if you don't get a job and how long is left on the student permit. Once he has PGWP, has a full-time permanent job in NOC 0, A or B and has 3 pay stubs then you qualify for sure for a SOWP. The wording confuses people because it says you can apply for work permit as the spouse of an international student but it doesn't mention the not everybody gets accepted.

 

[canuck_in_uk]

But once I will have the 12 months to apply as a common law partner of an international student (mid November), can I cancel my application for visitor (which might be processed in February 2019) in order to apply as common law?

I suggest you leave the visitor app in process until the work permit app is processed. There is no guarantee of approval of the OWP and if refused, you would find yourself in Canada illegally.