Help needed to keep my girlfriend working and living in Canada.

[GreenAnia]

Hey So my girlfriend and I have been living in Vancouver since January and living in Canada together from November 18th. I am a Canadian citizen but my girlfriend is from Germany on a Working Holiday Visa. It expired in June 28th, but we put in an application for a correction for extention because her visa was supposed to be valid until november but the border crossing officer read the papers wrong and gave her the wrong date. It was sent May 6th, but apparently the processing time is 111 days? Absolutely crazy. So hopefully she gets it extended by september. The problem is I have to stay for school for another 1.5 years. She would like to stay with me. We want to know what the best course of action to take from this point. Should we be doing a sponsorship as common law inland or outland? And how does she keep a legal status to work? I'm a student so its not like I can work for the both of us. Should we just be trying to extend her work permit someway? We would like as much information as anyone can offer. Because looking at processing time for sponorship inland, 26 months is rediculous and she would like to go home to Germany for Christmas and not be dealing with the fear of not being granted entry to the country.

Thank you in advance.

 

[just a square]

I am in a very similar situation - I was on a Working Holiday program and was in a relationship with a Canadian who is still a student. When my work permit was getting close to expiration we had to decide our plans for the future, after being in relationship for almost a year. We got married, I came back to Europe and we started outland application while staying in a long distance relationship.
It's still quite a while for you to become common law and you can't start the application before that (or before you get married, if you're even considering this option). Sadly, I don't know much about common law applications, they seem more complicated than marriage ones.
However, I would not recommend applying inland because she won't be able to work until she gets OWP which takes up to 4 months. You might want to take a look at Germany VO (or whichever belongs to your region) to see how long outland applications take and consider that option. She can still stay in country if applied outland, however no OWP in this case.

 

[Aquakitty]

Hey So my girlfriend and I have been living in Vancouver since January and living in Canada together from November 18th. I am a Canadian citizen but my girlfriend is from Germany on a Working Holiday Visa. It expired in June 28th, but we put in an application for a correction for extention because her visa was supposed to be valid until november but the border crossing officer read the papers wrong and gave her the wrong date. It was sent May 6th, but apparently the processing time is 111 days? Absolutely crazy. So hopefully she gets it extended by september. The problem is I have to stay for school for another 1.5 years. She would like to stay with me. We want to know what the best course of action to take from this point. Should we be doing a sponsorship as common law inland or outland? And how does she keep a legal status to work? I'm a student so its not like I can work for the both of us. Should we just be trying to extend her work permit someway? We would like as much information as anyone can offer. Because looking at processing time for sponorship inland, 26 months is rediculous and she would like to go home to Germany for Christmas and not be dealing with the fear of not being granted entry to the country.

Thank you in advance.

Has she been working since the expiry of her work permit? She really should have got it fixed at the border immediately. Hopefully they will fix the issue because normally WH permits are not extendable.

 

[GreenAnia]

Has she been working since the expiry of her work permit? She really should have got it fixed at the border immediately. Hopefully they will fix the issue because normally WH permits are not extendable.

Yes she's been working since when we called the CIC they told us as long as it's in pocessing time she's still allowed to work. She wanted he border offiver to fix he mistake but she said she couldn't/wouldn't that we had to call the number on the back of the visa to get it done.

 

[GreenAnia]

I am in a very similar situation - I was on a Working Holiday program and was in a relationship with a Canadian who is still a student. When my work permit was getting close to expiration we had to decide our plans for the future, after being in relationship for almost a year. We got married, I came back to Europe and we started outland application while staying in a long distance relationship.
It's still quite a while for you to become common law and you can't start the application before that (or before you get married, if you're even considering this option). Sadly, I don't know much about common law applications, they seem more complicated than marriage ones.
However, I would not recommend applying inland because she won't be able to work until she gets OWP which takes up to 4 months. You might want to take a look at Germany VO (or whichever belongs to your region) to see how long outland applications take and consider that option. She can still stay in country if applied outland, however no OWP in this case.

I thought to be considered common law you have to have been living together with your partner for 12 months? Which we will be by November.

 

[Ponga]

That's correct. It looks like will be eligible to apply on Nov 19th.

Make sure you have plenty of evidence that you've been living together since Nov 18th of last year. Unlike a married couple, you have to prove to CIC that you have in fact cohabited together for at least one year. Most people submit a copy of their lease, or rental agreement, joint utility bills, joint cell plans, life insurance, etc., as well as the required Statutory Declarations from at least two people, verifying your relationship AND that the person is aware that you have met the cohabiting requirement.

 

[just a square]

I thought to be considered common law you have to have been living together with your partner for 12 months? Which we will be by November.

Yes, as Ponga explained that is true. If I understand correctly, you will become common law at the same time (+- a few days) when her WH work permit expires. She will need to extend her stay (as a visitor, so won't be able to work legally).
And don't forget to collect the maximum amount of evidence to prove your relationship is genuine. When I was spending time with my spouse, we didn't think 'oh, we need to take pictures of ourselves constantly, because we'll need them for immigration'. Not to even mention throwing away all the receipts of going to the movies/dinner/etc together.

 

[Sous02]

I am in a very similar situation - I was on a Working Holiday program and was in a relationship with a Canadian who is still a student. When my work permit was getting close to expiration we had to decide our plans for the future, after being in relationship for almost a year. We got married, I came back to Europe and we started outland application while staying in a long distance relationship.
It's still quite a while for you to become common law and you can't start the application before that (or before you get married, if you're even considering this option). Sadly, I don't know much about common law applications, they seem more complicated than marriage ones.
However, I would not recommend applying inland because she won't be able to work until she gets OWP which takes up to 4 months. You might want to take a look at Germany VO (or whichever belongs to your region) to see how long outland applications take and consider that option. She can still stay in country if applied outland, however no OWP in this case.

I was reading some of your posts and I am not trying to alarm you but I read some appeal cases and CIC see's marriage at the end of a visa as a red flag. Have you considered sending relationship updates?