Extend stay in Canada

[CAgirl]

Hi, I just got married to my husband who is a Canadian Citizen. I traveled to Canada for the wedding and stayed after to put together out spousal sponsor application. However, my time is starting to run out and we still don't have everything for the sponsor application, so we want to apply to extend my stay. I wrote a letter explaining why i want to stay. also, my husband wrote a letter stating he'll financially support me while I'm here. Are these 2 letters clear and grounded enough to prove that we want to apply for sponsorship and that we're in a serious relationship?



Dear sir/Madam,
I'm writing this additional statement to provide proof of financial support for my wife, who is applying to extend her stay in Canada.
Since the day my wife has arrived in Canada, I have been financially responsible for her. She has been living with me at my parents home ( ) and will continue to do so, if her extension is granted. I provide her with food, clothing, and whatever else she needs to live here with me comfortably. Below, you will find an official statement of my intent to financially support my wife while in Canada.
I, , hereby agree to guarantee and be liable to financially support my wife while she is a visitor in Canada. If her extention is denied, I will provide her with means of transportation back to the United States before her legal status expires. This guarantee will remain in effect as long as she is a visitor in Canada until she becomes a Permanent Resident, if granted.
I confirm that I am employed and work a full time job as a ( ) for the past 5 years. I've included with this letter, cheque stubs from the past 6 months.
I thank you for taking the time to review my wife's application, as I would love for my wife to be able to continue staying with me during this application process.


To whom it may concern,
this is an addition document to explain my particular situation in applying to extend my stay as a visitor in Canada.
I would like to extend my stay so as to complete my application for Permanant Residence through the Family Class, as well as to stay with my husband during the process.
My husband and I have been together for a total of two and a half years. We met and started dating long distance back in Decemeber of 2012. After a year of dating and visits we were engaged. We planned our wedding and in May of 2015 I traveled to Canada for our wedding. Our wedding took place with friends and family a month later, June 13, 2015. After the wedding I continued staying in Canada with my husband, since I'm allowed a 6 month visit.
Since i've been here, we've been working on our sponsor application, gathering documents, and proof of our relationship. We will be submitting our application within the next 2 months. Since being apart would just be more of an emotional and financial strain on us, we wanted to submit my extention application as soon as possible.
I am requesting a 12 month extention to allow enough time to submit our application and wait for it to be processed.
I understand that as a visitor in Canada, I am not allowed to work or go to school. Because I am not able to work, my husband has been financially supporting me since I arrived in Canada and will conintue to do so. My only intent is to stay with my husband. If my extention is denied, or if Permanant Residence is not granted, I would leave Canada, so as to comply with CIC's wishes.
I thank you for your time and conisderation of my extention application.
Sincerely,


Thank you for reading my post, please answer with any helpful information or tips

 

[Aquakitty]

We wrote something similar when requesting extensions, maybe add something to show that you have ties to the US and will return at the end of your stay if you have to, to cover all your bases. My husband and I did a lot of procrastinating, so he had a ridiculous amount of extensions. The only time he got refused gave the reason "we don't believe you will return to the US at the end of your stay". Well no kidding, haha.

Anyways, you are applying outland, correct? Otherwise it looks pretty good to me.

 

[hillaryh]

We just submitted our extension application and included a cover letter (similar to what you have written) as well as

1) sponsorship approval letter from CIC
2) receipt of application payment
3) proof of medical exam
4) 8 of my husbands pay stubs
5) proof of employment letter
6) a few bank statements
7) copy of FBI background check
and a few other things i can't remember off the top of my head...

may be over kill, but I tried to cover all the bases. =]

 

[Aquakitty]

We just submitted our extension application and included a cover letter (similar to what you have written) as well as

1) sponsorship approval letter from CIC
2) receipt of application payment
3) proof of medical exam
4) 8 of my husbands pay stubs
5) proof of employment letter
6) a few bank statements
7) copy of FBI background check
and a few other things i can't remember off the top of my head...


may be over kill, but I tried to cover all the bases. =]

You already have an app in progress though, I don't think OP does. But yes OP if you do it would help to include proof that you submitted it already.

 

[Prelude]

We're doing a similar thing right now, too. Your letters sound good to me!

Are you submitting online? We've been having trouble with the CIC website for the past two nights, and it's not letting us upload the last of our documents. (And we need to have it in by the 18th if we're going to have it submitted 30 days before her VR runs out. Argh.) It keeps giving us an error message when we try to upload stuff, saying the site's down or under maintenance.

I'm apprehensive. Anyone think we should just print everything out and mail it? I know the CIC site terms and conditions say that they're not responsible for site outages and everything. :U

Also, do you guys think a letter of employment and an account summary would be sufficient from me, as the spouse doing the supporting? I could give the months of financial records, but I only just got the good full-time job I'm at, so my previous four months would be pretty abysmal income-wise. I do have a decent amount of money in a TFSA, though, and my records would show that, at least.

 

[CAgirl]

Thanks for the answers. my husband and I will be applying outland. However, we haven't submitted our application yet. But we plan to within the next couple months, still trying to gather information about our relationship etc.... also when we send in the extension application, do they need to see how much is in your bank account? We plan on sending in check stubs from the past 6 months and a letter from my husbands employer, confirming employment and salary. Is that enough?

 

[Aquakitty]

Thanks for the answers. my husband and I will be applying outland. However, we haven't submitted our application yet. But we plan to within the next couple months, still trying to gather information about our relationship etc.... also when we send in the extension application, do they need to see how much is in your bank account? We plan on sending in check stubs from the past 6 months and a letter from my husbands employer, confirming employment and salary. Is that enough?

We always showed savings of $5,000, you have to show you have enough to support yourself during that time, since you can't work. I'd say that is enough unless your husband is making minimum wage or something. You've gone well beyond what we ever did for a visitor extension so I think you will be fine.

 

[CAgirl]

Oh okay. Do we need to show them the amount in our bank account? or is the check stubs and letter from employer enough? Just curious so I know what to send. I don't want to leave anything out. Thank you for your reply!

 

[JJMoshpotatoes]

I applied outland, my husband has been with me in Canada since march of 2014. He is from the USA. We have been applying for extensions since he has been up here. When we applied for a 6 month extension a couple weeks after we got married ( before we even had the package put together ) I included his visa statement, and bank statements for the previous 3 months ( he isn't working so no pay stubs ) I also included a hand written letter explaining we are planning on working on our sponsorship application and that I will be supporting him while he is in canada For further proof I included our marriage license. I added in my pay stubs, and proof of employment to show that I was fully capable of supporting him while he is with me in canada. Every time we have applied for a new extension I have done this and it seems to work. Whenever we applied we always just asked for up to 6 months just in case asking for a year would be too much and he would be denied. We just played it safe. But the most recent extension we applied for and just asked for 6 months, I just got in the mail today and they gave us 1 year instead of the requested 6 months. It was a pleasant surprise! Also, since you are planning on applying for a 12 month extension, just know that you will need to have proof of a medical done by a CIC certified panel physician. I always included ours even though we only asked for 6 months.

 

[CAgirl]

Thanks for the reply. From what I understand, if we asked for a year we would have to do the medical exam? I have to send this out by next week so I won't have time to do that. Should I just ask for 6 months instead of a year? Then I wouldn't have to do the medical until I send in the outland application? Would you recommend just asking for 6 months?
What I have put together is the completed application, our marriage cert. my passport photocopies, the 2 letters I have above, a letter from his employer and his check stubs. Do you think that is enough? I would appreciate your answer. Thanks!

 

[JJMoshpotatoes]

Thanks for the reply. From what I understand, if we asked for a year we would have to do the medical exam? I have to send this out by next week so I won't have time to do that. Should I just ask for 6 months instead of a year? Then I wouldn't have to do the medical until I send in the outland application? Would you recommend just asking for 6 months?
What I have put together is the completed application, our marriage cert. my passport photocopies, the 2 letters I have above, a letter from his employer and his check stubs. Do you think that is enough? I would appreciate your answer. Thanks!

Well first I will ask, are you applying online or sending it through mail? I did all of mine online. But yes if you plan on asking for any more than 6 months, they will require you to have proof of a medical exam by a CIC physician. It's advised to do it up front, but what you can do is wait for them to request the medical from you, then you can submit it that way. Another option, since you are doing your sponsorship package, since that requires you to do a medical you can apply for a 6 month extension. When that one is close to being expired you should have an extra copy of your receipt for your medical, you can then include that with your next extension request and ask for a longer time than 6 months.
Also, just so you are aware because I was confused at this as well, since they are quite behind on doing extension applications, chances are your visitor pass will expire before they issue you a new one. Don't panic by this, because you have submitted a request for an extension you will be considered "implied status" which means even though your legal visitor pass has expired, you are legally allowed to stay in canada until a decision has been made. My husbands visitor pass expired back in June! We applied in May, and yesterday is when I got his new visitor pass in the mail.

Yes I think what you have is perfectly fine. Bank statements could also come in handy as well just for further proof. The fact that he stated he is willing to support you, chances are they wont deny you. For me ( the one supporting ) I had everything you mentioned. Pay stubs, and a letter from my employers showing I have a stable steady income. For my husband, just for extra proof we had his bank statements and his visa. So if you really want to secure your posibilities, you could include your side of income as well, even if you don't have a steady income that's no problem.

Feel free to ask any other questions

 

[CAgirl]

I appreciate your answers. I think I'm going to just ask for a 6 months extension, since it sounds a little easier. Anything would be great! Anyway, I'm going to send my application by mail. The only thing I'm concerned about is, I don't have a job, obviously since I can't work here and I don't have really anything in my American bank account. My husband has been financially supporting me since I arrived here no problem, but we also don't have a very big bank account. He makes more than minimum wage but things are just expensive lol. We live with his parents so that's what has been making it much easier on us. asking your opinion, do you think because I won't include any bank statements that it will cause a question for them?

 

[JJMoshpotatoes]

I appreciate your answers. I think I'm going to just ask for a 6 months extension, since it sounds a little easier. Anything would be great! Anyway, I'm going to send my application by mail. The only thing I'm concerned about is, I don't have a job, obviously since I can't work here and I don't have really anything in my American bank account. My husband has been financially supporting me since I arrived here no problem, but we also don't have a very big bank account. He makes more than minimum wage but things are just expensive lol. We live with his parents so that's what has been making it much easier on us. asking your opinion, do you think because I won't include any bank statements that it will cause a question for them?

My husband didn't have a job when he came up here either. He just had his savings! But that shouldn't be a problem at all if he is the one saying he is supporting you. If you really wanted to top the cake you could get one of his parents ( if they are willing ) to write a letter saying that you and your husband are living with them, and that if needed they would be willing to support the both of your needs. The first extension my husband and I did, we got his dad ( all the way back in california ) to say if he needed support his dad was willing to help with anything that was needed. So that is always an option as well. But just the fact that he is alreadying saying he is going to support you is probably enough for them to approve you. I just tend to add more than I should just to be on the safe side! But everything I am suggesting is totally optional for you, I find the more proof you have, the higher chances you get at being approved. But since you are stating that you are working on your sponsorship package, I'd say with all the proof you have, you are pretty well set to be approved

 

[CAgirl]

Thank you. It's nice having someone re assure you and not doubting your chances. Anyway, I think I'm going to send in everything I said and also see if my husbands parents would be willing to write up a small statement. I'm sure they would be willing to. Cross your fingers for me Thanks again!

 

[CAgirl]

I had somebody else online tell me that because I stayed in Canada after the wedding that I would get my extension denied because of misrepresentation and I "better get my backside back to the states before I get banned from the country" which doesn't make much since to me since I came here lawfully and I'm still here lawfully, hence WHY I'm applying to extend my stay....... Some people.