Sponsoring my future wife and her child

[DannyDanny]

Dear Sir/Madame,

I met my girlfriend in Peru in December 2011. We are planning to get married by the middle of May 2013. She has a daughter of 13 years, she also has a full custody of her daughter. Her daughter has her father’s letter of permission to exit Peru, and to immigrate to Canada.

If I get married in Peru and come back to Canada, the wait time for Canadian visa is too long, almost 18 months. I would like to sponsor my girlfriend and her daughter from within Canada. I will try to get them a tourist visa, they would come to Toronto, and stay here with me. I work as a lighting engineer and I make sufficient funds to support the 3 of us.

I know that the process takes 20 months when applying for PR within Canada. It is a long time, but at least we would be together. My question is, can her daughter go to elementary school while waiting for her permanent residence?
What kind of a status will they get after I marry my girlfriend in Canada?
Will they be able to get any medical insurance, will they be covered by OHIP?

Thank you very much in advance.

 

[DannyDanny]

I would also like to know when would my future wife be eligible to apply for a work permit?

Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Sweden]

If you apply for a work permit together with the inland application, your wife will be able to work after the first stage (currently, 6 months).
For your daughter - it depends. It's up to the school board to decide whether they want to let her study or not. you might have to pay international fees, or not. The best way would be to consult with schools in your area, explain your situation, and see what they say.

Getting married to a Canadian doesn't give any status. For OHIP, most likely she will not be covered at the beginning, but I'm not sure how it works for Inland sponsorship. You might have to get a private insurance for both of them.

It might be very difficult to get them a tourist visa, as CIC will think ( and for good reasons) that they will not leave Canada... so you might have to do outland anyway. If you're a Canadian citizen, you can stay outside of Canada for the whole time of the application, if you don't want to be separated. If you are a PR of Canada, then you must be in Canada to sponsor them.

Good luck,
Sweden

 

[DannyDanny]

Good morning Sweden,

Your reply is very informative, thank you very much.

I cannot take much time off my work, therefore I want to bring them here on a tourist visa and marry here. To fill you in on our status, I sent a letter of invitation to my girlfriend the summer of 2012 and she got a visa in duration of 6 months. I claimed that we are friends and nothing but friends, because if I told the truth I know that Canadian embassy in Peru would not approve her visa. She came to Toronto at the end of July and returned to Peru in September of 2012. This is the second time that she gets approved for a Canadian tourist visa.

This time, I would not send the letter of invitation to her nor her daughter because as you say it will seem suspicious to CIC.

My girlfriend is planning to apply for a tourist visa, for her and her daughter. If she gets it, she would come here, and we would marry here. If she cannot get it, I would go to Peru, marry there, come back and start the application process…
If she gets the visa and we marry here, do you know what would be the wait time for her PR?

Thanks again

 

[Rob_TO]

If she gets the visa and we marry here, do you know what would be the wait time for her PR?

If she can come to Canada, you get married here and you apply inland, the total time to get PR ranges anywhere from 1 - 2 years. After first stage sponsor approval (around 6 months), then she can get a valid work permit.

If she can't come to Canada and you get married in Peru and then apply outland, you would go through Lima visa office. For outland the first stage sponsor approval is around 1 month, and then from Lima the average time for spouse/children applications is showing at around 11 months (50% of applications take up to 11 months, some are quicker).

 

[DannyDanny]

Rob_TO, that means that it is much better for me to have a little patience and apply from outland. The process seems much quicker than applying from inland. I also heard that CIC does not like to deal with inland applications, so I have to weigh my options very good…

Thank you very much sir, I appreciate your reply.

 

[Rob_TO]

Rob_TO, that means that it is much better for me to have a little patience and apply from outland. The process seems much quicker than applying from inland. I also heard that CIC does not like to deal with inland applications, so I have to weigh my options very good...

Keep in mind the main disadvantage to applying outland, is that you may need to live apart and not be able to actually be together during the application processing (or only seeing each other when you can fly down to Peru). The processing times are subject to lots of things... and actual processing times can be much quicker OR much longer. For couples that run into problems and have long processing times, it can be very difficult to stay apart from your loved one for so long.

If you can do inland, at least you are guaranteed she can stay with you in Canada during the entire time.

 

[DannyDanny]

Rob_TO thank you very much. Can you please tell me what do you think about this reply that I received from another gentleman:

"Roy is an immigration consultant himself. He just gave you an advice FOR FREE on what is the best way to go.

In a nutshell you basically have two options:

1- Move down to Peru if you want and sponsor your wife. As a Canadian citizen, you don´t have to be in Canada during the process and then you can move with your family back to Canada once the process is completed.

OR....

2- You can move to Canada yourself, sponsor your wife and once the process is completed then she can move to Canada. During the process, you may go down to Peru for a visit.

Trying to bring your wife for in-land application in a tourist visa simply is not going happen.

First, CIC officers normally, avoid to process in-land applications, trust me...it is not their coup of tea.

Second, there is no right to appeal of your application is refused.

Third, she does not appear to be a genuine visitor, visitors are supposed to leave at the end of their VISIT, what makes you think she looks and sounds like a visitor?

Apply from abroad.

Up to you, but these are your options. "

I got this response from another web site and he kind of scared me a bit of not applying from inland...
Thanks

 

[Rob_TO]

Well you could move down to Peru, but odds are you would have to quit your job here and doubtful you would be able to find anything that pays as well down there! Its usually for work/financial reasons that the Canadian sponsor needs to stay in Canada, and their partner in another country (while visiting as often as you can).

Your partner and her daughter getting a visa to come here is indeed not a very good chance of success, because they will assume she will not intend to leave. She would have to show a VERY strong tie to Peru and a good reason she would have to return there.

Although if by some chance a visitor visa is approved and they both can travel here, there is nothing stopping you from doing an inland application. This is your choice alone, and nothing to do with what CIC wants.

But due to that fact she will most likely be denied for a visitor visa, this will force you to apply outland anyways after getting married. Then you just need to hope for a very quick processing time.

 

[DannyDanny]

Ok Rob, thank you very much for your help. I appreciate it.

 

[DannyDanny]

Rob, my only worry applying from inland is the education of her daughter. I am sure I would have to pay for a private school until they get their PR...

 

[canadianwoman]

Not necessarily. Some forum members have reported they were able to enroll the children in school without paying international fees. It seems to depend on the school board and the individual school. So talk to the principal at several schools, in different school board areas if possible. If one says no, another might say yes.

 

[Sweden]

Good morning Sweden,

Your reply is very informative, thank you very much.

I cannot take much time off my work, therefore I want to bring them here on a tourist visa and marry here. To fill you in on our status, I sent a letter of invitation to my girlfriend the summer of 2012 and she got a visa in duration of 6 months. I claimed that we are friends and nothing but friends, because if I told the truth I know that Canadian embassy in Peru would not approve her visa. She came to Toronto at the end of July and returned to Peru in September of 2012. This is the second time that she gets approved for a Canadian tourist visa.

This time, I would not send the letter of invitation to her nor her daughter because as you say it will seem suspicious to CIC.

My girlfriend is planning to apply for a tourist visa, for her and her daughter. If she gets it, she would come here, and we would marry here. If she cannot get it, I would go to Peru, marry there, come back and start the application process...
If she gets the visa and we marry here, do you know what would be the wait time for her PR?

Thanks again

Also - I don't know if applying inland is really a good thing. You already lied in her first tourist visa applications, and that's called mis-representation. Not a good place to start.
To apply for PR, you will have to explain how your relationship started, and how it developed. it will be hard to say that you were not together, but at the same time saying the contrary on the PR application. Not sure how you will deal with that - I hope you thought about it before.