Only two questions

[KBurton]

Hello there, I'm new. I'm currently an American permanent resident (British citizen), and I'm marrying a beautiful Canadian gal in late July. We've been together for almost two years.
We plan on applying for Spouse Family Class Sponsorship immediately after the marriage, so my first question would be :

1. Is there any waiting period between when we get our marriage certificate to when we can apply? A week? Two weeks?

I already have my medical examination and the bulk of my documents together, and we've gone through the application many times. We have lots of evidence, photos, shared bank accounts and other investments, so I'm convinced the process will be rather straightforward.

Now, prior to our marriage, I plan on arriving in Canada (specifically, Edmonton) on July 7th. We will be wed on July 31st, and we plan on sending out the application in early August, along with a visitors extension request. I understand that the maximum amount of time a visitor can stay in Canada is six months, but that this can be extended with the request attached to the sponsorship application. We will be applying outside of Canada, though I will be staying with her, in the interest of time. So my next question is:

2. I am purchasing a round-trip ticket, with the intention of cancelling my return flight once the application is submitted. Is this okay? And when immigration grills me about the length of my stay, what questions should I be prepared to answer? I want to avoid being denied entry, but I want to be honest. Should I say I am getting married, or simply staying with my fiance? Should I purchase my ticket for the length of 6 months, or does it not matter if I am going to cancel my return? Will the authorities be alerted if I do cancel my flight?

I'll have my printed out itinerary with my return flight on it, in addition to a copy of my bank statement to show I have enough money to support myself or pay for an earlier flight.

It's possible I'm overthinking the last question - as long as I gain entry and apply for an extension when we submit our sponsorship it should be fine, right?

 

[BeShoo]

1. There's no waiting period. If you're married, you're married. You'll want to apply right away. The medical exam expires after 1 year, and you might have to do another one if your case takes a long time to process.

2. You probably should tell them when you arrive that you are about to submit a PR application. You should have already paid online or at a Canadian bank for the sponsorship/PR application ($550). If you show this receipt, they will know that you are seriously about to apply. They will attach a "visitor record" to your passport with a "leave by" date. You are supposed to apply to extend that one month before it expires. You don't apply for an extension with your PR application, because the PR app goes to Mississauga, Ontario, and the visitor extension request goes to Vegreville, Alberta.

If you're application is approved quickly, you might not even need an extension. The London office is quite fast.

It's quite legal in Canada to have "dual intent": intending to stay permanently and temporarily at the same time, but since the one that will be approved first is the temporary stay, you'll need to show that you are indeed only coming temporarily for now. They'll want to see that you still have a permanent address in the UK to return to, and they'd like to see assets and responsibilities that you have there. Many visa-exempt spouses (mainly Americans) come into Canada saying that they want to stay with their spouses while awaiting the processing of PR applications, and they are generally approved for however long the immigration officer thinks it will take to process the application. If they are worried that you might not have sufficient ties in the home country to return there, they may give you a shorter time, but you can always request an extension. I've seen a few people here who requested an additional 6 months but were given a year.

My American partner asked for 6 months initially but he was only given 3 due to lack of home country ties and the fact that we hadn't paid for the PR application yet (due to confusion on my part). We are filing tomorrow for an extension. You have implied status as a visitor from the time you request an extension until they get back to you (currently about 55 days), as long as the application reaches Vegreville before your current status expires. (Sending it with your sponsorship application to Mississauga would just cause it to be lost in the system somewhere.)

 

[KBurton]

So do I mail my request for an extension before or after the sponsorship application? I've read about "implied status" on here that would give me the ability to stay in Canada until they reach a decision.

I don't live in the United Kingdom. I'm a permanent resident of the United States, I've lived most of my life there, so my application would go to Buffalo, wouldn't it? Pretty much all of my investments and ties are to this country, lol.

But what your saying is that I may have to prove I can physically return to the US, or that I have something to return to. That's easy enough. : )

 

[BeShoo]

Sorry, I was missing some important information and I made some incorrect assumptions. Of course, if you're living in the U.S. and are a PR of the U.S., you would want to apply through Buffalo. (You still send it to Mississauga, who forwards it to Buffalo after they approve the sponsorship part.) Buffalo is a little slower than London, but still very fast. I'm sure you probably wouldn't want to have to go to London for an interview.

You don't apply for an extension until your current visitor status is about to expire. If you're arriving on July 7, you likely will get visitor status until January 6. If your PR isn't finished by then (and it might be), you'll have to request an extension before January 6, preferably about December 7. You won't hear back from them until about the beginning of February (unless they've caught up on the backlog by then), but you have implied status (between Jan. 7 and Feb.) until you do hear from them. Filing a PR application does not give you any kind of implied status. The temporary resident status is quite separate from it, though it can be one of the reasons to get temporary status. There is also a new way of applying for an extension online, which avoids any mailing delays.

You have to prove that you will leave Canada when your temporary status ends. They don't actually care what country you go to, as long as you are not in Canada illegally. Your temporary status might end if you were denied an extension or if you get denied permanent status for some reason. They want to know that you would be willing to leave and that you are capable of doing so. Most of the Canadian population is within a day's drive of the U.S. border, so it's not a huge issue for a lot of American residents like you. If you lived in, say, India or New Zealand, and couldn't afford a ticket to go back, that would be a huge problem.