Outland Application from Within Canada? Who has done it?

[Mfjones]

Hey everyone!

After receiving some really good advice, notably from Sweden and Canuck_in_uk, we have decided to do the outland application from within Canada.

I just wanted to see if anyone else had done this and if there is any advice they can offer? A little background, my common law spouse Australian) and I (Canadian Citizen) have been dating from 4 years - living in Canada together for 3 - and we just bought our first house, together, in June. We have joint bank accounts, credit cards, insurance, the whole lot.

Basically I'm just looking for anyone that the outland application from within Canada. I apologize as I'm sure this question has been asked a million times but we feel like this forum is a Godsend for us.

Thanks in advance!

 

[sariss]

We did! It's not very different, just make sure that you are not overstaying is all we did.

 

[Mfjones]

Thanks for the reply! I guess I forgot to mention that my spouse is currently in Canada on an IEC visa that is valid until June 2015. From what I've read, this should be lots of time to get things done. Would you agree? At the moment we're gathering all the proof we can find that we've lived together. Fortunately, we did have a lot of things already from when we applied for our mortgage.

On your application forms, I assume you put that the country of residence etc was Canada as opposed to your spouses of citizenship?

 

[Rob_TO]

On your application forms, I assume you put that the country of residence etc was Canada as opposed to your spouses of citizenship?

Correct. Don't put any Australian address in the application at all, only your current Canada one.

After the PR is approved (should be less than a year), they will mail the COPR directly to your Canadian address.

 

[DuberBlue]

Also, you said your spouse has been living with you for 3 years in Canada...so be sure to add an RCMP check to that list! I was asked to provide one during the process.

Here are the instructions.

 

[Mfjones]

Thanks for the heads up on the RCMP check! We actually have a police station just down the road so we'll definitely make time for that as well. We've never had any run ins with the law so the police checks should be a breeze.

 

[DuberBlue]

If possible -- get her fingerprints done digitally. The RCMP accepts digital fingerprints for submission within Canada...and you'll get your result back in about a week.

 

[Mfjones]

One question I have is about my personal history that I have to include. I travelled for 10 months in 2009 but since then I have gotten a new passport and they took my old one. I bounced around between countries a lot and I'm not sure how I can do an accurate account of where I was? Any thoughts?

 

[scylla]

One question I have is about my personal history that I have to include. I travelled for 10 months in 2009 but since then I have gotten a new passport and they took my old one. I bounced around between countries a lot and I'm not sure how I can do an accurate account of where I was? Any thoughts?

Emails you sent to friends/family telling them where you were, facebook posts (or similar), contact the people/hotels you stayed with to find out your dates, credit card bills, debit card bills, flight itineraries, etc.

My husband had to recreate 30 years of history for his PR application after having lived in a number of places around the world and at more addresses than I can count (and much of it before the internet made it much easier to figure out past history). It took some work, but it's totally doable if you think a bit creatively.

 

[Rob_TO]

One question I have is about my personal history that I have to include. I travelled for 10 months in 2009 but since then I have gotten a new passport and they took my old one. I bounced around between countries a lot and I'm not sure how I can do an accurate account of where I was? Any thoughts?

We just rounded to the nearest month, and didn't put in specific dates. i.e. Jan 2012 - March 2012.

Surely you can remember or find dates to the closest month?

 

[Mfjones]

Thanks for the reply! One problem is that I stayed in a lot of hostels and always paid cash for everything. And anyone who's been to SE Asia knows they don't give receipts for anything there lol. I do like the Facebook idea, I'm sure I can find things through there for sure.

Do you think it matters if my timelines are approximate as opposed to definite? I can very likely figure out months when I left. Like I said, backpacking around that area meant a lot of stops at countless hostels in countless cities. Thanks so much!

 

[PMM]

Hi

Thanks for the heads up on the RCMP check! We actually have a police station just down the road so we'll definitely make time for that as well. We've never had any run ins with the law so the police checks should be a breeze.

Please read the instructions. You don't require a RCMP police criminal records check, unless CIC requests it. They do their own CPIC name checks.


How to obtain a police certificate - Canada

Do I need to provide a police certificate when applying for permanent residence?
Only in certain cases. The Canadian visa office will tell you if you need a Canadian criminal record check while your application is being processed.

 

[scylla]

Please read the instructions. You don't require a RCMP police criminal records check, unless CIC requests it. They do their own CPIC name checks.

Agreed. Waste of time and money to do it without being asked.

 

[canuck_in_uk]

Thanks for the reply! One problem is that I stayed in a lot of hostels and always paid cash for everything. And anyone who's been to SE Asia knows they don't give receipts for anything there lol. I do like the Facebook idea, I'm sure I can find things through there for sure.

Do you think it matters if my timelines are approximate as opposed to definite? I can very likely figure out months when I left. Like I said, backpacking around that area meant a lot of stops at countless hostels in countless cities. Thanks so much!

My partner and I had similar problems, lots of backpacking in both of our histories too! My partner spent 8 months backpacking Australia over 10 years ago; there was no way he could list the addresses and dates for all the hostels he stayed at. He could barely remember what cities he went to. He just put something like "2001/02 - 2001/10 - Backpacking, no fixed address, all over Australia".

 

[Mfjones]

Thanks for the reply. Obviously your application worked out fine with generic dates listed. That will be what I have to do as well. I have rough guesses of when I was in certain countries but that's about it. Since it's so cheap to travel there, I would bounce in and out of countries for the weekend, sometimes.

Thanks so much for all your help with this. Everyone is making us feel more and more comfortable each time someone replies.