Moving from Forida to Canada, THEN marrying in Toronto

[pipo2115]

29 year old US citizen engaged to Canadian fiancee. I'm planning to drive up to the border with my car with my fiancee by my side. What should do/expect in border crossing procedures? Clearly stated, how do I tell CBSA that I'm here to stay?
Me: Single never married. Have title of my SUV. Putting my belongings in it. US passport. No kids.
Her: Single never married lives in Toronto. Canadian citizen/passport. No kids.
The plan: she comes to do the drive with me. Cross border first, wedding later in October, then apply for work permit/PR whatever possible.
The Goal: live/work/play in CANADA!!!
We don't mind me waiting months for everything to complete.
Thanks for the help!

 

[Leon]

I suggest not trying to tell CBSA that you are coming to stay. If it's a lot of stuff that you're bringing, more than you'd need for a vacation, you are better off storing it or having it shipped to you. You might get lucky and have an immigration officer who says oh, you are getting married and doing sponsorship, cool, and lets you in. You might get unlucky and get one that says you are moving here with all your stuff without a proper visa, forget it, back to the US you go and don't try to come back unless you have serious ties to the US, a job to go back to etc.

Best if you can enter and say you are just visiting. Once they let you in with a 6 month visa, you can always "change your mind" and decide to stay longer. A visa can also be extended if you want to stay longer.

You can not apply for PR before you are married unless you are living together for 12 months in which case you can apply as common law partners. If you apply inland, you would qualify for an open work permit after your first stage approval which takes around 6 months.

If you want to work earlier, you can apply for a regular work permit regardless of your impending wedding or PR application. If your occupation falls under NAFTA, you just need a job offer. If not, your prospective employer would have to apply for a labour market opinion in order to hire you. This is to prove that he had advertised and found no Canadians or PR's for the job. If the employer gets the LMO, you could apply for a work permit.

If you apply inland, you must stay in Canada during the processing time. If you apply outland, you could go back to the US and take a job there while you wait in case money is getting tight.

 

[pipo2115]

I suggest not trying to tell CBSA that you are coming to stay. If it's a lot of stuff that you're bringing, more than you'd need for a vacation, you are better off storing it or having it shipped to you. You might get lucky and have an immigration officer who says oh, you are getting married and doing sponsorship, cool, and lets you in. You might get unlucky and get one that says you are moving here with all your stuff without a proper visa, forget it, back to the US you go and don't try to come back unless you have serious ties to the US, a job to go back to etc.

Best if you can enter and say you are just visiting. Once they let you in with a 6 month visa, you can always "change your mind" and decide to stay longer. A visa can also be extended if you want to stay longer.

You can not apply for PR before you are married unless you are living together for 12 months in which case you can apply as common law partners. If you apply inland, you would qualify for an open work permit after your first stage approval which takes around 6 months.

If you want to work earlier, you can apply for a regular work permit regardless of your impending wedding or PR application. If your occupation falls under NAFTA, you just need a job offer. If not, your prospective employer would have to apply for a labour market opinion in order to hire you. This is to prove that he had advertised and found no Canadians or PR's for the job. If the employer gets the LMO, you could apply for a work permit.

If you apply inland, you must stay in Canada during the processing time. If you apply outland, you could go back to the US and take a job there while you wait in case money is getting tight.

We won't start the application until we are married. What type of Visa would be proper in my situation for the crossing?

 

[amikety]

Most likely you won't get anything other than a Passport stamp. In fact, I wouldn't even try to get anything besides a PP stamp.

You can extend your stay later online or by mail and get issued a Visitor's Record, which is akin to a Visitor's Visa for visa exempt citizens. It's official paperwork with the foil seal and all that jazz. (At least mine has one, I heard they may be phasing out the foil seals to save money.) Visitor's Records can be longer than 6 months. (My current one was valid for 14 at the time of issue.) You can renew your status without leaving Canada or you can leave & re-enter for a new passport stamp. It's up to you how you decide to work that....... but worry about that about 4.5 months into your visit.

Try to remember, Canada is a separate country. It's our neighbor, but we're still guests!

Leon brings up a good point about NAFTA. Depending on your qualifications, you might be able to get a NAFTA work visa. If you haven't looked into it, google and read away.

 

[Leon]

We won't start the application until we are married. What type of Visa would be proper in my situation for the crossing?

There is no fiance visa in Canada. Either you enter as a visitor or on a work permit or you don't enter until you have PR.

 

[Tuatha]

An American friend of mine tried to do just that once (minus the driving up with her fiance, he was already in Canada) with the intention of staying. Packed up her car with all her stuff, tried to play off that she was only "visiting for 6 months" but I guess something threw up a red flag to the border official and she got turned away.

She ended up getting a 6 month visa stay through some sort of volunteer thing (I'm honestly unclear on the details, we don't talk much anymore), flew up instead of driving, and ended up getting married, overstaying her visa, and getting her PR card as far as I know. (again I really don't know the whole story so I'm just going by what I remember)

My advice is the same as someone else who posted here, don't bring too many belongings with you. Clothes and other things that you would need on a vacation, and that's it. They may ask you to prove ties to the US - that's what they did to my friend and she had none since she quit her job and sold a bunch of her stuff to move to Canada, she was also living with her parents at the time so she didn't have a lease or anything to show that she'd actually be returning.

If you give them any reason to suspect that you don't have intentions of returning to the US the chances are you're going to get turned away, fiancee in the car with you or not :/