inland PR application with expired TRP

[arron]

Hey guys, has anyone had any experience applying for permanent residence with invalid status in Canada? My wife and her daughter moved here to Ontario to live with me last October 2009.. We got married in March 2010, and didn't bother to apply to extend her temporary resident permit

After digging down deep in immigration regulations, and OP manuals, which are frankly much more helpful as immigration guides than the crap CIC puts out on their website.. it seems that a recent act of parliament requires them to not prejudice your family-class application due to status in canada expiring, and that as long as they have received the application my wife and our step-daughter can not be subject to a removal order..

We just submitted our application a couple weeks ago and my initial excitement gave way to a deep sense of unease reading this forum and some of the stories.. Seems that applications will take a long time longer to process than i had figured on. I had looked forward to a quick decision on my sponsorship portion, but figured out after talking to CIC agents on the phone that instead of the application being decided in mississauga with a speedy turnaround time it gets stuck in vegreville collecting dust until the backlog of documents clears through.

We've applied for an open work permit with her along with the application but i'm not sure how they will treat this, her being out of status and basically considered an illegal.

 

[sithvixen]

I'm curious about your question as well, since my own question relates to legal/illegal status. I'm glad to hear that they can't deny you based on status as long as the application is sent in.

In my case, we are waiting on FBI prints and by the time we get these and can apply for his PR (and wait for the 8 month dust collecting turnaround) - my husband will be well past the allowed stay of one year, even if it was all done legally with extensions. (By about 4 or 5 months).

Where did you get the manuals from on immigration? Especially on this new legislation?

I mean, in the USA, I was able to stay WELLLL past my 3 month visitor status while I waited 3 years for my green card. They never said a thing in the interview. You are kind of in a "grey area". I couldn't leave the country though.

But like you said, reading this forum makes one feel very uneasy. I have no idea how Canada does it or how anal they are.

K

 

[arron]

Hi sithvixen:

You can view all the operations manuals at cic.gc.ca/english/resources/manuals/index.asp

These seem to be the actual manuals used by caseworkers at CIC, and they often explain some of the more arcane issues and loopholes that the online guides leave you scratching your head over. I'm going by what I found in the IP 8 (inland processing of family class applications) manual where it says this on page 37

"The current Regulations require that to be eligible for the spouse or common-law partner in
Canada class, the applicant have temporary legal status in Canada. However, under the spousal
policy, persons who are otherwise eligible for consideration under this class (and who are not
inadmissible for reasons other than “lack of status”) including those who have applied for
consideration on H&C grounds and submitted a sponsorship, may have this requirement waived.

This does not mean however that there is no longer any requirement to have legal status in
Canada. Persons who wish to study or work in Canada must still seek to obtain and
maintain the required permits. Applicants who do not have legal status in Canada may be
removed from Canada at any time."

It goes on to mention that people whos legal status expires after the application is submitted need not maintain their legal visitor status in Canada as long as the application is otherwise acceptable. Also, if you have submitted an application in good faith you will not be subject to a removal order.

I still feel uneasy being the one to test this though

So far my wife has had no legal status since May, and we haven't had the border services knocking on our door. I managed to get her attached to my bank account, and on my lease, and enroll our step-daughter in kindergarden. Her having no health card does make me quite nervous though. And paying 50 dollars to go down to the walk-in clinic just for my wife to get a presciption drives me insane. Not much I can do about it right now though except wait with bated breath.

 

[sithvixen]

Thanks for the link! There are definitely a lot of loopholes and inefficiencies going on. It looks like according to that article you will be fine as long as you are waiting on her application. She is in that grey area that I was in when I applied for my green card in the USA. (I'm a dual citizen now). I more or less sent in my application while on a visitor visa that was limited to 3 months. It took almost 3 years for them to process my green card application so I was there quite some time with no status. They never denied me; despite the fact I was living illegally in the USA according to the law. Unfortunately when in that grey area, you can't leave the country or do anything to jeopardize the application.

Worse comes to worse you can phone a local lawyer and ask them a quick question, usually they don't object to it. If you choose to hire one, it's around $4000.

As for me, we are going to try applying "outland" while he stays here on visitors status. That seems to be the recommendation as it will only take about 5months for the whole process. He can live here while doing that as long as he has legal extensions and doesn't stay past his welcome. I'm also going to read those manuals!

 

[boasorte]

I know different people from this forum that applied as an out of status and got their application processed like everybody else and sometimes in less than 9 months. The latest was "mint" who tried twice to extend her visa and it was denied both time, she applied inland as an out of status and couple weeks ago went to her landing interview, she was scared that they would kick her outta the country, less than 9 months submitting her application, she got her PR status .
If there is no way to you leave te country and apply Outland, do it Inland. The wait is long buy at least you will be with your loved ones!

 

[arron]

Thanks, it's good to know that applying out of status inland isn't the end of the world. I am kicking myself now for not applying outland, but it just seemed silly to have my wife fly over here, we get married (since marrying in the UK is much more difficult and involves posting banns, 30 day wait etc), then her flying back to the UK just to file the outland application. We had already been waiting 2 years to be together and we were both sick of the terrible airport goodbye scene, not knowing when we'd see each other again.