Getting Married in Canada with Canadian while on work permit URGENT

[aleguillen]

Hello everyone! I am in this forum because me and my bf are thinking in getting married. He is a Canadian citizenship and I am from Venezuela we have been together for 11 months , 1 year next month. I came first to learn English in 2011 the apply in a college and finished it last year. I am now under an open work permit for a year that is till November the 16th 2013 so I have 6 more months in which I can work in Canada. So my questions are:

We are planning in getting married inland as I am already here. How soon should we get married to do the paperwork?
I know we have to get married before my permit is over , but when you apply for PR they should give u a new open work permit, how long does it take to get the new open work permit?
How long does it take for the first stage of the PR to be approved, so I can apply for the open work permit?


PS: I can´t extend my work permit with my employer cuz they don´t do that were I work. I went to a culinary school and now I work in a fancy hotel as a cook, hopefully one day I will have my own company , but that is another story.


I will really appreciate your help! thanks

I will like to add something: If we get married in 1 or two months and prep all our paperwork to get an answer from the sponsorship faster, so I can apply for an extension of my open work permit or for a new one faster cuz I just got 6 months left of work permit and I read it takes around 2 months for sponsorship approval and the 6 months to get the new work permit, so if I do that I will just stay around 3 months without work cuz I will like to keep working, so we both can live together in a better situation, can we live in different home for this two months? or because we are married we have to live together? will this affect our application? I said this cuz we both wanna save up a bit more before affording a place together at least till I get the sponsorship answer.

 

[SchnookoLoly]

I think I have followed this... lots of detail!

To make it simple, separate the work permit from the sponsorship for now.

1) So, for sponsorship, once you are married, you can apply for sponsorship. There's no minimum time you have to be married for to apply, just so long as you are married. However, it can take a few months to get all the papers you need for the application, so I would start preparing the application now and just add the bits in later like your marriage certificate etc. But it takes awhile to get all the forms, so get cracking on that.

2) You have to decide whether to apply inland vs outland. Processing time for 80% of applications inland is 14 months (6 months for sponsor approval and 8 months for PR); Processing time for 80% outland applications via Caracas would be 18 months (1 month for sponsor approval and 17 months for PR). I would recommend applying inland, but do your research to understand the other pros and cons of applying inland vs outland.

3) Assuming you decide to apply inland, this is where the work permit you mention comes into play. When you apply, you submit an open work permit application, and when the sponsor is approved after 6 months, you will get your work permit, and you can use that work permit until your PR is issued.

4) This part I'm only speculating on, but if you aren't already living together, I think you should. One of the things Canada will want to see is that you are not only in a genuine relationship, but you are living like a married couple, and you didn't just get married in order to apply for sponsorship. The more you can do to combine your affairs, the better. Given you have only been together for a year anyway before getting married, which isn't unheadof, it may raise some flags because CIC might see it as a very fast marriage that you only entered into to get status in Canada.

5) Last thing to be aware of is that assuming you go ahead with the marriage and PR is issued, the PR will be conditional for two years. During those two years, you and your sponsor must stay together in your relationship, which includes things like living together - the "normal" stuff you'd otherwise expect in any marriage. Living apart may raise red flags - as I said above, I don't recommend that.

 

[aleguillen]

Oh thank you very much for your help, I understand what you are saying about living together, but what I meant is that we will live apart just till the work permit comes for example. After we get the approval for sponsorship we will start living together as a married couple till I get my PR and after that we will be still together because we want to start a family in like 3 years and we are sure we want to be together. The thing about living in different houses is just to save up. We will still see eaxhother every week!

I have another question tho: if we get married and we send the papers in 3 months, and that will be around august like at the end of that month send the papers, I still got 3 months of work permit but what if the approval actually takes 6 months, am I gonna have any kind of problem cuz I am in canada for 3 months and no work permit or any kind of visa? Or because I am waiting for my approval it is okey?

 

[amikety]

If you apply "Inland" and include an application for Open Work Permit, you will have "Implied Status" until you get the OWP after Stage 1 approval (6-7 months). You can remain in Canada.

If you apply Outland, there is no OWP and no Implied Status options. You will need to maintain your status independantly by asking for a visitor's visa or looking for a new job with a LMO. (There is no consideration if you're married to a citizen or PR.) If you are denied the extension, you will need to leave Canada.

I would strongly advise you not to live apart during processing unless you need to leave Canada. Not living together is a huge red flag for CIC. In order for a marriage to be considered genuine, you must have interdependant lives. That includes living together. I am not personally making a judgment about your choices - I understand where you are coming from. However, CIC has to make these judgments and they really don't like couples living apart like that unless there's barriers to keep them apart (i. e., can't get a visa).

 

[SchnookoLoly]

I would strongly advise you not to live apart during processing unless you need to leave Canada. Not living together is a huge red flag for CIC. In order for a marriage to be considered genuine, you must have interdependant lives. That includes living together. I am not personally making a judgment about your choices - I understand where you are coming from. However, CIC has to make these judgments and they really don't like couples living apart like that unless there's barriers to keep them apart (i. e., can't get a visa).

This is what I was trying to say, but amikety was far more eloquent about it!

I agree with this 100%. You don't want to raise flags to CIC that your marriage may not be genuine - you and your boyfriend/husband may know that it is, but you need to convince CIC of that, and not living together is a huge red flag... a flag not necessarily that your relationship isn't genuine, but that your marriage may not be genuine. Understand CIC will differentiate between "sure they are boyfriend and girlfriend" and "are they actually husband and wife in their real life, not just on paper".

 

[aleguillen]

Ohhh okey, thanks! Now I understand, well i guess I will start putting all.the papers together, we have to apply fo work permit and the sponsorship right? That is all I will have to do? Cuz I mean I will do the paper work for him, he is not in this he has never done it and I have been in canada for two ears always dealing with paperwork. Anyways, that will.be it? I go to the website go on sponsorship and fill All those papers plus the work permit one right? Thank again my head is getting better around this stuff! Is prerty confusing!

 

[SchnookoLoly]

There is a lot of paperwork to fill out, and you will have to do it together, you won't be able to do it for him. It asks for a lot of information, it's likely you won't know it all. I'm not kidding when I say a LOT of paperwork - it takes an average of 2-3 months to fill out all the forms, order things like police checks and other documentation, book your medical, etc etc... when my husband and I applied, our application had a total of 24 sections of forms and other documentation. Get working!

 

[amikety]

Go here: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/applications/spouse.asp

Read the document checklist and instruction guide. Those two items will tell you what you need to include and how to qualify things (by qualify, I mean determine if they are correct, partially correct, or unneeded).

Make sure to pay your fees before filing the application, including the open work permit fee. You use the same application for the OWP, just write "Spouse Open Work Permit - Inland" in the boxes that ask for employer, etc.

 

[AnaMaria]

What kind of work permit you currently have? In order to get implied status to continue working, your current work permit has to be extendable.

I don't necessarily agree that you should live with him now, until you get married. It is your right to live independently. Although you should collect good evidence of genuineness. But once you are married, you should live together.

 

[aleguillen]

I have an open work permit I got it cuz I went to college here but just for a yeat! But I can't do anything to have it for more time after is over cuz my employer doesn't do sponsorships. And yeah I know I won't live with him till we get married, and I mean we have loooooots of pictures together phone calls, texts we don't use emails actually just one time for a.love letter lol, but yeah we went to my country on vacations 2 months ago I guess I can print the old ticket or the stamps on his passaport that shows we went inside the country. He has pictures with my parents, we have letters, we have loooooots of friends that know about our relationship here and backhome. We had photoshoots together and well you know all those stuffs you do with ur bf/gf we kinda want to open a bank account together I don't know if that will be good too! We spend everyweekend together somehow lol even tho I work.lots on weekends but sometimes I don't so we will see each other for 4 days during the week sometimes I go and stay at his place with his family and sometimes he comes down to toronto, he lives on brampton so 1 hour away kinda think not big deal cuz we use ttc

 

[AnaMaria]

If your work permit is Post Graduate Work Permit, it is not extendable. Thus even if you apply PR inland and OWP together, you won't be able to continue working after your PGWP is over until you get new OWP.

 

[aleguillen]

Thanks Anamaria I actually knew that lol. Yeah I just wanna apply in a good time, I so just spend around two months without work permit till I get a new one. I will also still see if I can find a company to work with.that can give me a LMO. Anyways thanks for everything I am pretty sure I will.come up with more questions lol. For now just gonna spend all weekend with the love one up.north!