Moving household items

[CECanada27]

Hello,

I have a question about moving household belogings from the Usa to Canada. My wife and I are almost ready to submit the outland sponsorship package in the next month or so. I am a Canadian Citizen living in Canada and my wife is an american citizen. We have been together for the last 9 plus years and have been married for 3 months. Our home has been in the Usa for the last 6 years, I have flown back and forth to see her during that time. She plans on coming here during the sponsorship application process and file an extension as well to remain here as a visitor(we have discussed this all with out attorney already). I have talked to the border crossing office and they said that as long as everything is itemized her's vs mine and a garage sale value is applied to our household goods, we wont have any problems getting them across the border. Now do we have to wait until her permanent residency is approved before we move her stuff up here?

 

[Decoy24601]

Yes, you do have to wait until her PR is approved to move stuff across the border, since she legally isn't allowed to "move" until then. When she lands she will bring a B4 form (it's been renamed to something else) that will list all of the goods she is settling with.

Why do you have an attorney? Unless your wife has criminality issues, it's a waste of money. Most of the information about spousal sponsorship is easily found online and on the CIC website.

I would actually just recommend waiting to move honestly. Americans are processed through Ottawa and are getting through in 1-3 months lately. My application only took just over 2 months.

 

[CECanada27]

Thank you for your reply. No my wife doesnt have any criminal history at all, she actually worked for the american government. You said your application only took 1-3 months... Do you mean thats how long it took you to get your permanent residency?

 

[Decoy24601]

Yes, you can see my timeline to the left of my posts. I applied April 6th and received my Confirmation of Permanent Residence around June 14th. It's taking a total of 1-3 months for Americans right now (2 is more common, but some have received theirs in less than that).

 

[CECanada27]

Perfect! Just waiting on the fbi background check/fingerprints to come back. I dont mind our things being in storage for a few months

 

[Decoy24601]

Yeah, since they're being processed so fast lately, you might as well wait maybe 3 months after you submit the application. If your wife doesn't have PR by then, you can always change your mind on waiting.

Just letting you know, American citizens and Permanent Residents can now use FBI-approved 3rd party channelers again (they didn't allow it for about a year). Your wife could have results in as little as a day depending on the channeler: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/security/police-cert/north-america/united-states.asp https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/identity-history-summary-checks/fbi-approved-channelers (Unfortunately, they didn't reapprove the use of channelers until after I already got my FBI background check, which took 18+ weeks for me).