Common-law Sponsorship Questions

[ChaCol927]

Greetings,

I'm not sure where to find more information about this or what the best place to ask questions are, so I hope posting here is okay.

Anyways, long story short - I have a girlfriend who lives in Canada and I live in the United States. We have been dating for two years and I will be graduating college in one year. The end goal is for her to sponsor me until I get permanent residency in Canada.

So, the plan is that she moves to the United States for a year to live with me and we will be considered common-law partners for the purpose of the Canadian sponsorship. How does she move down here for 1 year? Is a visa needed because it exceeds 6 months? Does she need to tell customs anything when she comes down here? Where do we get more information on this and how the process actually works?

After I graduate and we live together for 1 year, I plan to live and work in Canada through a SWAP program for one year. This is where I will work towards permanent residency, but that is not until further down the line.

Any advice and information is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[danawhitaker]

Greetings,

I'm not sure where to find more information about this or what the best place to ask questions are, so I hope posting here is okay.

Anyways, long story short - I have a girlfriend who lives in Canada and I live in the United States. We have been dating for two years and I will be graduating college in one year. The end goal is for her to sponsor me until I get permanent residency in Canada.

So, the plan is that she moves to the United States for a year to live with me and we will be considered common-law partners for the purpose of the Canadian sponsorship. How does she move down here for 1 year? Is a visa needed because it exceeds 6 months? Does she need to tell customs anything when she comes down here? Where do we get more information on this and how the process actually works?

After I graduate and we live together for 1 year, I plan to live and work in Canada through a SWAP program for one year. This is where I will work towards permanent residency, but that is not until further down the line.

Any advice and information is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

These kinds of complications are why my husband and I ultimately just decided to get married. We didn't want to worry about how to juggle establishing common law. Keep in mind I have a school-age dependent child, so that eliminated several possibilities that are easier for other couples. But just getting married does bypass a lot of the hurdles in terms of the actual sponsorship process.

 

[ChaCol927]

These kinds of complications are why my husband and I ultimately just decided to get married. We didn't want to worry about how to juggle establishing common law. Keep in mind I have a school-age dependent child, so that eliminated several possibilities that are easier for other couples. But just getting married does bypass a lot of the hurdles in terms of the actual sponsorship process.

This seems to be the best case scenario, however we are still both young and I don't think I am ready for marriage as of right now. This would most likely only happen this early if all other methods fail.

Worst case scenario, she can't stay with me for one year and will only be allowed the 6 months or whatever time period she is allowed. I would then focus strictly on the SWAP program of living in Canada and hopefully get permanent residency during that time or get married then.

 

[danawhitaker]

This seems to be the best case scenario, however we are still both young and I don't think I am ready for marriage as of right now. This would most likely only happen this early if all other methods fail.

Worst case scenario, she can't stay with me for one year and will only be allowed the 6 months or whatever time period she is allowed. I would then focus strictly on the SWAP program of living in Canada and hopefully get permanent residency during that time or get married then.

I can understand that. Just keep in mind that the sponsorship undertaking is a fairly serious commitment as well. And for the purposes of sponsorship, common law is fairly equivalent in nature, and the relationship is expected to be of the same depth as someone who's formally married. Being from the U.S., that was the weirdest concept to me with regards to common law, because in the state I'm in there's no formal definition as such.

 

[sjs124]

Greetings,

I'm not sure where to find more information about this or what the best place to ask questions are, so I hope posting here is okay.

Anyways, long story short - I have a girlfriend who lives in Canada and I live in the United States. We have been dating for two years and I will be graduating college in one year. The end goal is for her to sponsor me until I get permanent residency in Canada.

So, the plan is that she moves to the United States for a year to live with me and we will be considered common-law partners for the purpose of the Canadian sponsorship. How does she move down here for 1 year? Is a visa needed because it exceeds 6 months? Does she need to tell customs anything when she comes down here? Where do we get more information on this and how the process actually works?

After I graduate and we live together for 1 year, I plan to live and work in Canada through a SWAP program for one year. This is where I will work towards permanent residency, but that is not until further down the line.

Any advice and information is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

She can visit the states on a Visitor visa (B2), which is the default visa she will end up on when crossing the border. Near the 6 month mark, she can apply for a 6-month extension of the visa. These are usually granted, but not guaranteed.

I would recommend coming to Canada on the SWAP (IEC Visa) and applying for Permanent residency as soon as the 1 year of living together is up. You can then either a) stay unemployed until the OWP (open work permit) is approved for inland applicants, or (b) you can apply outland and then return to wherever you are from to live until it was approved.

Hypothetically she could come stay int he states for 6 months, and then you could come up on IEC at the conclusion of 6 months and do the second 6 months + apply for permanent residency.

I recently sponsored my partner (common-law) for permanent residency and it only took 6 months from start to finish.

 

[ChaCol927]

She can visit the states on a Visitor visa (B2), which is the default visa she will end up on when crossing the border. Near the 6 month mark, she can apply for a 6-month extension of the visa. These are usually granted, but not guaranteed.

I would recommend coming to Canada on the SWAP (IEC Visa) and applying for Permanent residency as soon as the 1 year of living together is up. You can then either a) stay unemployed until the OWP (open work permit) is approved for inland applicants, or (b) you can apply outland and then return to wherever you are from to live until it was approved.

Hypothetically she could come stay int he states for 6 months, and then you could come up on IEC at the conclusion of 6 months and do the second 6 months + apply for permanent residency.

I recently sponsored my partner (common-law) for permanent residency and it only took 6 months from start to finish.

This was originally the plan, but she did not want to wait much longer to live together. I won't be finishing school until December 2017 so I don't really have any option to move to Canada any earlier. After doing research it does seem that staying for 1 year is unlikely and would be a lot of work in getting the extension.

I think we will have to keep visitation limited to short periods until she can move up here for the 6 months and after I graduate school I can move to Canada through the SWAP program and complete the 1 year common-law requirement and work towards permanent residency.