Hello everybody, I have a bit of a situation I'm trying to resolve. I have done a search and haven't found the exact answers yet so I'm posting here for some help.
I'll try to keep the story to the point.
I entered Canada on a Working holiday visa from Australia in mid-2011, visa expired in mid-2013. I didn't get my paperwork together in time to renew the work visa (stupid I know) so I just stayed on and worked. My employer didn't question anything so I just stayed on. Around this same time I met my GF and we moved in not long after. In November 2014 I found my drivers licence expired and to renew this you need a valid work permit, at which point I knew the jig was up.
We had both planned to move to Australia for a while before any of this happened and we lodged her spousal visa application (me being the sponsor of course) in December 2014. She is still in Canada waiting for this to process while I left in January 2014 to continue working in Australia
We both want to move back to Canada as soon as possible as we both very much consider it home however I have absolutely no idea how to go about the process due to my overstay. We are considered common-law partners however getting officially married is not off the table if it were to make a difference to the situation.
I goofed up pretty bad, especially considering the job and lifestyle I had but I'm not here for sympathy, just advice on how to remedy my screw up.
Many thanks in advance.