Inland Sponsorship Questions

[juljud]

Hi,

We are a couple wishing to settle to Canada, we are together for over 2 years now but never lived for a full year together.
I got my PR last July and we are living together since September in Ireland.

We might come to Canada in few month (April), we checked the different kind of Visa she could get to stay in Canada to validate the 1 year needed for the common law sponsorship and launch it.
So far our idea was to get her on a Visitor Visa until she gets the Open Work Permit sent with the Sponsorship application.

My first question is regarding the visitor Visa:
Would it be better when we enter the country in April to directly explain to an officer that we need a 1 year Visitor Visa so we can validate and launch the sponsorship/OWP or should we just get the 6 month default Visa and then request an extention?

I guess the second might be better as the officer will not need too much to think about, however if we do this in April, I should have a job waiting for me in Toronto and enough money to prove that I can support her.

So if she enters with a 6 months visitor Visa that would bring us to the following timeline:
April -> Enter Canada, get 6 month visitor
August -> Request a 6 months Extention to the Visitor Visa
September -> Launch the Sponsorship with an Open Work Permit Request
March -> End of the Visitor Visa, opefully the Open Work Permit Request will have been received before

By writting it down it looks a little optimistic no?
Does this look possible for you or am I missing something here?

Can we send with the Sponsorship forms an Open Work Permit and a Visitor Extention request at the same time?
How long does it take usually to get the OWP approved?
I think I read it's between 4 to 6 months.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you.

 

[Leon]

If she arrives in April, she will still have a month left on her visit visa in September so you can apply then for everything. The official time for first stage approval is 6 months but inland does have one huge drawback and that is that if they have any questions or doubts about your relationship, she will not get first stage approval, instead they will send her application directly to the local visa office where it may sit for a year or two or three before it's even looked at depending on how busy that visa office happens to be.

Your alternative would be to apply outland so then you would send in your outland application to Mississauga in September and still send a visit visa extension request to Vegreville also in September. Mississauga takes a month to approve sponsor and London takes an average of 4 months to process the PR. In that case, if all goes well, she could have her PR in in February next year.

 

[juljud]

Thanks for the answer but as I am a Permanent Resident (not currently residing in Canada), I don't think I can apply outland through London.

Is there any way for a Permanent Resident to apply outland? Or can I apply Outland if I am a Permanent Resident currently living in Canada?

Otherwise, could I do something like stay working in Ireland, go few days in Canada to launch the application Inland and then go back to my normal life in Ireland the time it get processed?
In that case we might need to use the card she is not living in Canada and will come once her PR is approved.
This scenario if possible seems risky as from what I understood a Permanent Resident needs to stay in Canada for the whole duration of the process.

 

[Leon]

As a PR, you have to be in Canada to sponsor but your girlfriend can still request that her application is processed in her country of nationality so if she's Irish, then she can apply outland and have her application processed by London. If she's not Irish, then it depends on where she is from where it would be processed. Your girlfriend being in Canada on a visit visa at the time you apply does not prevent you from applying outland.

 

[juljud]

Thanks Leon, that's a good point I was not thinking about this. She's Hungarian, not Irish so it would go through Vienna which is similar.

If we follow this and apply Outland for the Sponsorship, from cic they say 9 months to get 80% of the request finalized.
Would it be possible while the request is being processed to still get an Open Work Permit?

I guess this only applies for Inland applications.

 

[Leon]

Vienna has an average of 5 months so one month more than London. You can't get an open work permit with outland, only with inland but if all goes well, she should have the PR at the same time she would have had the open work permit anyway.

 

[juljud]

That's what I was thinking as well.

Thank you very much for your help Leon.

Just maybe one last question regarding the Visitor Visa, I assume when you can prove them that you started the sponsorship they don't really cause troubles to renew it.
Am I right on this?

 

[Leon]

As for the visit visa, she always has to keep her status legal in Canada. That means that when her visit visa is about to expire or 30 days before, she should apply for an extension. It takes 2-3 months to process the extension so in the meantime, her status is implied. If they deny her extension, she would have to leave. If you apply inland, they will not deny her extension. If you apply outland, they can but as long as you tell them that if there is a problem with the sponsorship, she will have to leave Canada anyway to attend an interview in Vienna, they have no reason to deny. That argument has worked for other people in the past anyway. As well as you have to show that you have enough money to support her without her working illegally.

 

[juljud]

Perfect Leon, and what about explaining the situation (sponsorship) to an officer as soon as we enter Canada to directly get a 1 year (multiple entries) visitor visa.
Would it be an option or is it better to stick with the normal 6 month Visa and say she comes to visit the country or something similar?

 

[Leon]

Just stick with the normal 6 months visit visa. When entering as a visitor, the IO is not supposed to let her in if they think she will overstay. They may get suspicious if you ask for 1 year right away. Besides, I am not even sure they can grant 1 year on entry.

 

[juljud]

Thank you very much for your help Leon, I think you answered all my questions.