Navita said:
I'm a citizen in Ottawa and he's in Poland ...
We have lived together for about 6 months total (me 3 months there, him 3 months here), so our relationship is considered conjugal as I understand.
No. Definitely not. You can travel easily between Canada and Poland, there is no barrier to you living together or getting married, so you cannot make a conjugal application.
I also read that for immigration's sake we are treated like a common law relationship if we have been together a year+
This is true
but could not live together due to immigration barriers or laws.
No. That would be grounds for a conjugal application (grounds which you do not have).
What exactly counts as an immigration barrier?
Not being able to travel to live with each other, or to a country where you could both travel to get married.
Is it as simple as we could have lived together for a year by now if the time limit on visitor visas were longer?
No. You can do that. As a Canadian citizen you might have problems entering the Schengen zone for over 3 months, but your Polish partner can travel to Canada, live with you, and extend their visitor permit while there. The only prospect of you doing this is if for some reason you're banned from entering the Schengen zone, and they're unable to leave.
We want to apply inland, but would this be the best option for our case?
In order to file an inland application, you must both be in Canada. If you are both in Canada, you can get married, or live as common-law (so can certainly not do conjugal). If you get married in Canada, you could file inland, yes.
I'm inclined because of the distance and the price of plane tickets in the case that he needs to come in for an interview (which I imagine he will since we're applying as conjugal). So why not be here anyway, right? In that case, what happens when his 6 month visitor visa runs out?
He can apply online to extend his visitor permit if he's establishing common law (12 months living together), or you have married and are awaiting the processing together. See above for why you won't be applying as conjugal
Can he stay since it's estimated to take 12 months to process?
Almost certainly yes. He can apply to extend his permit online.
If he has to leave, when can he return? Can I leave Canada to visit him while it is processing? Can the two of us leave Canada to vacation (probably 1 week, not the usa) during this process?
Leaving Canada during an inland application is not advisable, as the application could be deemed abandoned
If applying as conjugal is not the way to go, what is the best + fastest route? Marriage? I am a business owner as well, would it make sense to put the relationship off the immigration table and have him work for me? Could he extend his visitor's visa for another 6 months so we would be considered common law?
We're both pretty lost on this. Any advice or answers would be awesome.
Marriage would be quickest. Common law takes 12 months to establish (which does make gathering proof easier, because of so much that just accumulates in a year of living together).