Marriage & Canadian Citizenship for Russian citizens

[Michael Henry]

Hi, I am wondering about the Canadian Citizenship process for Russian citizens.

We have been in a relationship for 1 year now. We live with her 8-year-old child together in Bali, Indonesia, where we met.
We plan to marry in Canada and eventually get her and her child Canadian citizenship.
My partner is 34 years old & fluent in English and her child is learning.
I need help to understand the visa situation for
1. Get married in Canada
2. Apply for citizenship for both of them

(How long is the process? What are the fees? How much time do we need to spend in Canada together? Are we allowed to leave in the process?)

Any tips and advice are very welcome.
Thank you everyone

 

[Naturgrl]

Hi, I am wondering about the Canadian Citizenship process for Russian citizens.

We have been in a relationship for 1 year now. We live with her 8-year-old child together in Bali, Indonesia, where we met.
We plan to marry in Canada and eventually get her and her child Canadian citizenship.
My partner is 34 years old & fluent in English and her child is learning.
I need help to understand the visa situation for
1. Get married in Canada
2. Apply for citizenship for both of them

(How long is the process? What are the fees? How much time do we need to spend in Canada together? Are we allowed to leave in the process?)

Any tips and advice are very welcome.
Thank you everyone

Assume you are Canadian citizen. They are years away. Getting married to a Canadian doesn’t mean they automatically become citizens. First you have to sponsor them for permanent residency. And then they need to meet permanent residency obligations by living in Canada for a number of years. Then if they do they can apply for citizenship.

So first step is once married, you can apply to sponsor them for PR. Assume they have TRVs to come to Canada for you to marry. If you marry in Canada, then you can apply inland. This first step will take 10-12 months. Read the link for requirements and fees.

https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/immigrate-canada/family-sponsorship/spouse-partner-children.html

 

[scylla]

Hi, I am wondering about the Canadian Citizenship process for Russian citizens.

We have been in a relationship for 1 year now. We live with her 8-year-old child together in Bali, Indonesia, where we met.
We plan to marry in Canada and eventually get her and her child Canadian citizenship.
My partner is 34 years old & fluent in English and her child is learning.
I need help to understand the visa situation for
1. Get married in Canada
2. Apply for citizenship for both of them

(How long is the process? What are the fees? How much time do we need to spend in Canada together? Are we allowed to leave in the process?)

Any tips and advice are very welcome.
Thank you everyone

As mentioned above, there is no directly path to citizenship for them. You must sponsor them for PR first and then they must physically live in Canada for enough time after they become PRs (3 out of 5 years) to qualify for citizenship.

Note that since you are living outside of Canada, in order to successfully sponsor them for PR, you must show that all of you plan to relocate back to Canada to live her permanently once the PR visa is approved. If you don't plan to do that now, there's likely no point in applying.

You can get married anywhere. It doesn't need to be in Canada. Also, you may already be common law (i.e. have lived together continuously for at least one full year). You can sponsor your partner either once you are married or based on being common law. But again, you will need to provide evidence as part of the application that you will be moving permanently to Canada once PR is approved.

 

[scylla]

Hi, I am wondering about the Canadian Citizenship process for Russian citizens.

We have been in a relationship for 1 year now. We live with her 8-year-old child together in Bali, Indonesia, where we met.
We plan to marry in Canada and eventually get her and her child Canadian citizenship.
My partner is 34 years old & fluent in English and her child is learning.
I need help to understand the visa situation for
1. Get married in Canada
2. Apply for citizenship for both of them

(How long is the process? What are the fees? How much time do we need to spend in Canada together? Are we allowed to leave in the process?)

Any tips and advice are very welcome.
Thank you everyone

Just to add, if you want to get married in Canada, then she and the child would need to get TRVs / tourist visas.

 

[armoured]

Just to make minor addition: there is a sub-forum here that is mostly about sponsoring immediate family (spouses and dependent children), family sponsorship:
https://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/forums/family-class-sponsorship.5/

That's the best place to ask questions on this.

To reassure your partner: you sponsor her as spouse (not fiancee, Canada does not have that) or common-law, and include her dependent children. There is no formal need to adopt, etc - although she will (usually) need permission of the other parent to immigrate.

There is nothing about sponsoring Russian citizens that is particularly complex (some minor stuff about what types of docs are required and how to get them, but every country has its peculiarities, and modern Russia - despite many other problems - has decent civil records and the like).

While you can apply if cohabiting for more than 12 months as common law, in my opinion, it will be slightly easier processing if married - mainly because you won't need to document that you have lived together for precisely 12 months or more (start date matters), which can be challenging in many countries.

You can get married anywhere in world. (I know Indonesia has some oddities about marriage requirements, amongst which only marriages of foreigners of the same faith, Catholics and Protestants are of different faiths, and ... they consider Russian Orthodox to be protestants, no idea how that works).

Pay attention to the requirements to show intent to return to Canada when applying to sponsor and consider applying for the TRV (but be prepared that it could be refused).