Soul mates need help finding the right answers.

[gillxley]

Hello!
I have been dating my boyfriend since April 30th 2012, and we are working on getting him a visa to come live in Canada with me. He is an American citizen, and he currently lives in the States. We do not qualify for common-law sponsorship (since we haven’t lived together continuously for the required amount of time, 1 year). We are not married, but we plan to marry in the future when we are both settled together. BUT by no means is that an excuse, we would marry one another in an instant if it would make the immigration process faster or less complicated (which it appears to be). I have also looked into the conjugal sponsorship for him to come and live here while he applies for PR (permanent residence) or a visa. He is also currently looking into his eligibility for a work visa.

I feel our “paper trail” situation is going to make things difficult. He was on unemployment for a year and a half, and recently just started to work full time, as a landscaper. Will it be hard to get a work visa due to his recent past? I myself, work full time, as a bartender which the government probably doesn’t smile too much about. I do have a mortgage on my condo, and money in the bank, and I could also support him while his papers get processed.

Now my main questions: which is the best route to go down? sponsorship, work visa, marriage?
Do you know how much money I would need to prove in order to be an acceptable sponsor?
How much money am I looking at to invest in getting him up here (i.e. paperwork, lawyers, applications, health exams, marriage certificate)
on a side note, the lawyer I have talked to said it would be $450 dollars for the initial consultation to see if he is eligible to enter on his own, or with me. Is this worth it?

Thank you for taking the time to hear me out. We are both VERY ready to get the ball rolling, so we can start to plan the life we want to have together.

 

[scylla]

Forget about conjugal. You don't qualify since you don't face any barriers to getting married or living together for a year.

Getting married and then sponsoring him for PR as your spouse is your easiest / fastest option.

There are no minimum requirements for you to sponsor him as your spouse.

A work visa is a more difficult option since he would have to find an employer first.

Apply on your own. You don't need a lawyer.

 

[gillxley]

If I were able to arrange work for him, with a landscaping company, or within my own company, would that be sufficient to obtain a work visa? or are we looking at a specialty job or something the province is currently seeking?

 

[scylla]

It's nowhere near that simple.

To obtain a work permit - he first has to find an employer who is willing to offer him a job. That employer must then obtain an approved Labour Market Opinion (permission to hire him). As part of this process, the employer must prove they advertised the job and were unable to find a Canadian to hire or train for the role. This is the difficult part when it comes to jobs that aren't specialized. As you can imagine, it would be very difficult to prove that a Canadian couldn't be found to hire for a landscaping job.

If the LMO is approved (not all are), you can then apply for a work permit.

Finding an employer who is willing to go through the LMO process and then obtaining an approved LMO is the hard part.

 

[gillxley]

Thank you!
You have no idea how much I appreciate straight forward answers. So I guess the next step is what we do after we get married.
I am 90% sure we would get married in Canada. But either way, we would need to prove our marriage with a certificate, apply for spousal sponsorship, and he would then be allowed a visitor permit for up to 1yr while the papers get processed? I read somewhere that he wouldn't be allowed to bring up all of his belongings....

And what would need to happen once we were married and he went down to the states after?
Would I need to join him?
Do we need certain documents to get back into Canada?

And on a side note, for a work Visa: If he were to come up here, work at my bar, as a sought out resident DJ, and has specifically been asked to play in a band where his skill as an artist is based on the type of music needed... would that exclude artists in Canada since he is an asset to the artistic skill we are looking for?

This could be a stretch, but I have to check every possibility. AND if this is possible, the bar would go through the legal steps with LMO.

 

[scylla]

In my opinion there is zero chance an LMO would be approved for a DJ role. The job needs to be full time. I think you will also have a hard time arguing that a Canadian couldn't be hired for the role. It's not that you have to prove he was the best candidate for the job - you effectively have to prove he was the only candidate. There are tons of DJs looking for gigs here. I honestly wouldn't even bother trying.

Getting married and applying for PR will not automatically give him a visitor permit for one year. He will likely be able to come to Canada as a visitor while the application being processed (whether he is allowed into Canada and for how long will be up to the immigration officer he encounters at the border) - however the most he can do is visit - he won't be allowed to "live" in Canada yet. When crossing the border, he should not look like he's moving and should be able to show that he still has strong ties to the US (job, property, etc.).

I would recommend that you stop posting in this section and spend some time reading through the posts in the Family Sponsorship section of this forum. If you have additional questions, post them there.

 

[Leon]

If he wants to stay with you, you should enter Canada together after you get married (if you marry in Canada, take a weekend in the US and cross over to Canada again) and you should ask for a visitor record for him based on that you are married and you are sponsoring him for PR. If you are lucky, you might get a visa for him for one year. That means he can stay in Canada though. Not work. If you apply inland and apply for an open work permit at the same time, he might get it in around 6 months. Note that he would have to live in Canada during the processing time of an inland application. If you apply outland, then it is not a requirement to live in Canada but there is no open work permit.

 

[eninrutas]

Hey lady,

It's Ali. Sorry to see you're having to go through this as well now. It's so frustrating.
Best of luck to you both! Feel free to get in touch on FB if you wanna talk.

 

[VickieLynn63]

Hey everyone.

I am having the same issues as this person. I am wishing to come to Canada to live with my guy. We want to be together and I am really confused about how and what to do to make this happen within the next year. I really want to be there in 2014 to be with him.

Any suggestions will help. I need to know everything that needs to be done in order to make this happen.

 

[scylla]

Hey everyone.

I am having the same issues as this person. I am wishing to come to Canada to live with my guy. We want to be together and I am really confused about how and what to do to make this happen within the next year. I really want to be there in 2014 to be with him.

Any suggestions will help. I need to know everything that needs to be done in order to make this happen.

Read the first post here:

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