Obtaining Canadian citizenship for my fiancee and her son

[Sylvain83]

In the last two months, I have met someone very special to me. We are always in constant communication. We have a very strong relationship. We share many wonderful moments but also sad ones. Immigration is so stressful, We have read and read and have so many questions and no answers.

She would like to move here to Ontario and leave everything behind for us to be happy. She doesn't have a criminal background. She teaches photography and graphic design at a university level. She is very talented and does speaks english. We dream together every day and want to make it a reality. We feel that our dreams are crushed by what seems to be a big uncertaincy and not knowing what lies ahead with immigrating.
We are trying to figure out the most effective and quickest way as to accomplish her residency and keeping her in Canada.

As far as I have understood i can sponsor her for 3years and her son 10years
Or we can get married.

What other ways would be most affective in obtaining her Canadian status. I forgot to mention she has Italian citizenship so she is able to stay in Canada for 6months. (if she has to leave after six month would going to the states for a few days and coming back to Canada count? as leaving the country?

And my other big question is what channels would i go through for her son to be able to go to school as he only speaks Spanish.

Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[scylla]

Start by reading the first post here:

http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/spousal-sponsorship-t46995.0.html

Before you can sponsor your fiancee, you'll either need to get married or become common law (live together for a full year). FYI - you will be sponsoring her and her son for permanent residency.They have to become PRs before they can qualify for citizenship.

 

[Leon]

For the future, she must get PR if she wants to live in Canada. As a visitor, she will not have health care and not be able to work as well as she is ideally not supposed to stay longer than 6 months a year. Going to the US for a few days and returning may not work because immigration may start to question her about whether she is actually living in Canada and that she shouldn't without the proper visa. Visa exempt or not, immigration can still deny entry if they aren't sure of her purpose or thing she will overstay or work illegally. Her son would not be entitled to attend school as a visitor to Canada.

If you sponsor her and her son, you will be financially responsible for her for 3 years and him for 10 years but that will only kick in in case they go on welfare within that period in which case you will have to pay back the cost of welfare because of them. This also applies if she has left you in the meantime and even if she has married someone else.

In order to sponsor her, you need to either have lived together as a couple for 12 months or longer (common law) or you need to be married. In order to sponsor her son, she either needs permission from her sons father that she may immigrate with him or she needs to show that she has full custody and that she is free and clear to move to Canada with him without any court being able to say otherwise.

As for her son going to school, I think you need to arrange for him to start learning English now to make his move easier. Once he arrives in Canada as a PR, you can enroll him in the neighbourhood school or a private school as you wish. I am sure they will offer some assistance to immigrant children who are arriving with a low level of English. The alternative would be sending him to a French school as French is closer to Spanish than English and might be easier for him.