I'm an American currently in Canada, a couple months into a visitor visa, living with my Canadian girlfriend. We are aiming for common law spousal visa after (hopefully) getting a 6 month extension on my visitor visa.
We will be flying to the USA to visit my family for Christmas, then going to Mexico together for New Years and flying straight back to Toronto after that. We are worried about getting past immigration. We have a family friend who is an immigration lawyer, and he advised us that a) it's usually safer to drive across the border and b) there is an added risk of us passing through immigration at the airport together.
He even went so far as to suggest we fly in on separate days so that the two of us flying in together doesn't trigger any flags. (We originally crossed the border by car from Buffalo together, so they could make that connection.) This has us worried. We were thinking maybe we should go through the immigration line separately and I will just tell them I'm visiting friends. But then on here I've read that flying is safer, and it's actually better if she stands with me and we go through immi together where I tell them I'm just visiting her. I realize this will probably be helped if I have a return air ticket back home, which I will probably need to get. So I'm getting contradictory info, and although I know each situation is different and it's hard to give general advice, does anyone have any personal experience with this?
Also, how much of the exchange with immigration agent is recorded? Could I get into trouble by 'fibbing' saying I'm just visiting friends, when later we apply for visitor visa extension and/or PR?
Thanks a lot
We will be flying to the USA to visit my family for Christmas, then going to Mexico together for New Years and flying straight back to Toronto after that. We are worried about getting past immigration. We have a family friend who is an immigration lawyer, and he advised us that a) it's usually safer to drive across the border and b) there is an added risk of us passing through immigration at the airport together.
He even went so far as to suggest we fly in on separate days so that the two of us flying in together doesn't trigger any flags. (We originally crossed the border by car from Buffalo together, so they could make that connection.) This has us worried. We were thinking maybe we should go through the immigration line separately and I will just tell them I'm visiting friends. But then on here I've read that flying is safer, and it's actually better if she stands with me and we go through immi together where I tell them I'm just visiting her. I realize this will probably be helped if I have a return air ticket back home, which I will probably need to get. So I'm getting contradictory info, and although I know each situation is different and it's hard to give general advice, does anyone have any personal experience with this?
Also, how much of the exchange with immigration agent is recorded? Could I get into trouble by 'fibbing' saying I'm just visiting friends, when later we apply for visitor visa extension and/or PR?
Thanks a lot
