Inland vs outland if us citizen overstayed 6 months more

[Morena]

Hi! i have some questions...if because of an unplanned pregnancy and an later a baby delivery an american citizen overstayed his visa 6 months more and then decide to apply for permanent residence by husband sponsorship, which of the process is better and shorter inland or outland?

 

[isakben]

Outland is much faster, but you would have to get the illegal status issue sorted out first!

 

[Leon]

If somebody wants to stay longer than 6 months, there is no reason to overstay, they can simply ask for an extension. If you have overstayed less than 3 months, it is fairly easy to pay to get your status restored. Overstaying 6 months is a big harder to deal with. I think you should seek legal advice.

As for whether to apply outland or inland.. if there are any problems with an inland application and I somehow suspect that being out of status might be one of them, it will take way longer than an outland but they will not deport you while your application is in process. Of course if you leave yourself, say you want to visit your family in the US, they might not let you back in, in which case had you applied inland, you would lose your application since you are no longer in Canada. I think outland is better.

 

[Morena]

Thanks for reply guys! I guess i can still stay here if we apply outland...or they will ask me to return? Just worry about baby and hubby...

 

[Morena]

Just reading this make me think that thank God we decided to do the best thing. Returned to my country....then applied.

 

[RobsLuv]

Things are a bit different for US citizens than for those nationals who are non-visa-exempt, so I wouldn't say you need to seek legal advice or spend extra money restoring status. That doesn't mean it's okay to overstay - but all a US citizen really needs to do to be back in "compliance" is go home for a bit, and then come back again for a visit. Just as with any other foreign national trying to enter Canada at a port-of-entry, there are no guarantees of being allowed to re-enter, but there are specific ways to deal with this situation when someone is the spouse of a Canadian and being sponsored for PR and if you have all your ducks in a row, it shouldn't be a huge issue.

First of all, applying inland is never really encouraged for US applicants, much less ones who don't have documented visitor status - whether they've overstayed or not. That's because a lot of times a US citizen coming into Canada won't even get documentation of their entry date and that can really mess up an inland application. And it's not necessary to return to your home country to apply outland

An applicant is ALWAYS able to apply through the embassy that represents their own country - regardless of where they may be staying or visiting during processing. For some applicants, it's a bit more complicated to apply outland when they're in Canada - if an interview is required, they have to attend at their own embassy and some countries don't allow passports to be transported over international borders - but for US applicants, it's relatively easy to apply outland for spousal PR while visiting in Canada. The temporary status is what's key to staying in Canada legally - and if you get documented status on entry, you can apply to extend from within Canada using proof of the relationship and the PR ap in process to support the extension. The hard part is getting the documented status in the first place - normally this requires that the Canadian sponsor enter Canada with a visa-exempt foreign national they're going to sponsor. Read through the info at US2Canada. Follow the Visiting link to "Visitor Records" for more details.

 

[Morena]

Thanks Robsluv!. I was a little afraid of applying inland with no status. I knew the way was going to be too long. Now i understand there is not reasong to overstay, no matter how difficult your situation is. Now that the app have been sent outland while im in the states, my prayer is that i can return to visit my partner before the PPR get approve. As you said for US citizen is so different sometimes when they want to extend the stay llegally, becausethe IO doesn't stamp our passport to document the visists. Even though i know they have records of all the time i've been there, my passport is with no stamps of my four previous visits. I will try to visit again with my partner by my side. Wish us luck!