Living in Canada whilst waiting for a visa

[marchickling]

Hey there, I am a canadian citizen living in the UK and planning to emmigrate with my wife to Canada. She is a UK citizen. We are currently in the process of doing a visa application for her as a spousal visa.

However - we have read that from the UK there is an 11 month lead time on visas. I could obviously move there tomorrow but we dont want to be apart for that long. I have heard that on a UK passport you can live in Canada up to 6 months without a visa.

Does anyone know of this or had experience doing this?

thanks

 

[Evadyrrehs]

Well I do not know for sure, I believe if you can show that there are enough funds for her stay she could be allowed to stay for 6 months.. Also while here you can apply for an extension to that as long as you apply 30 days before she would have to leave Canada etc..

My gf came to visit me in Canada from the US on a one way flight.. The border agent hassled her a bit as she did not have enough funds but she said I will be supporting her.. We were lucky as the border agent called me and asked about how will she support herself during her stay? I said I would be and she'd be staying with me.. He let her through and didn't stamp her passport which gave her a default stay of 6 months right there if we wanted.. About 40 days before the 6 months would have expired we applied for a visitor extension and were granted another 6 months.. She just left back to the US last weekend and we were married the week before that.. Really missing each other right now even though it's just been a week apart now so I can understand not wanting to be apart so long as we don't want that either..

Anyhow if all is in order chances are she could stay up to 6 months with you here, maybe even longer if an extension is granted.

 

[marchickling]

thanks for that, appreciate it. thats good news.

However wondering if anyone has been in the same situation as me - ie in the process of a spousal visa application and bringing your wife to Canada whilst waiting for the application to clear.

Also you dont need a visa to visit canada as a tourist from the UK so how do you extend a tourist visa if you didnt have one in the first place?

thanks again

Marc

 

[rhcohen2014]

thanks for that, appreciate it. thats good news.

However wondering if anyone has been in the same situation as me - ie in the process of a spousal visa application and bringing your wife to Canada whilst waiting for the application to clear.

Also you dont need a visa to visit canada as a tourist from the UK so how do you extend a tourist visa if you didnt have one in the first place?

thanks again

Marc

yes, this is pretty common practice for visa exempt applicants. an applicant can be IN canada while the OUTLAND applicaiton is mailed in and being processed. As the above poster mentioned, once the applicant is in Canada, they can apply to extend their visit for the duration of the process. The extension can be done online and the fee is $100. For the most part, people ask for a 12 month extension, and it's rarely denied when you can show you have intentions to apply or have already applied.

Make sure your wife brings your marriage certificate, and any paperwork already started for PR. It's important for her to remember she is not "living" or "moving" to canada yet... she will be "visiting" you and will always be considered a visitor until she gets approved for pr. If you can pay some of the fees beforehand too, that will be helpful. The border agents like to see when you know and are following the rules. IT's also not recommended to travel without a return ticket or a lifetime's worth of belongings. Those are considered red flags and can cause an issue at the border. If she doesnt know if she will use the return ticket, buy a refundable ticket. More likely than not, if your application is in already, they will have her wait until they can confirm it's been received and is in the system.

As for the processing time. The website isn't completely accurate or current. Those statisitics are for 80% of applications, and for the most part applications are processed in less time. The best way to see the current "trend" is to look for the London visa office thread to see which UK applicants are getting PPR and landing. You can also check each month's threads. Monthly threads and visa office threads have spreasheets that track the progress of applications. I believe UK has an "average" of 6-8 months.