BlackandBlue said:
Hi Everyone, I guess this is a simple question but Google's not my friend today. I'm married to a Canadian citizen. If I submit a sponsorship application from outside Canada, can I enter Canada as a visitor? That shouldn't kill my application, right? The only problem I see in this is that I first entered Canada in 2010 on a tourist visa (my country is on the OK list - I can enter without a visa and stay for 6 months), then I left and came back on a working holiday visa... when that expired I applied for a visitor visa which was (of course!) denied because I was stupid enough to write I have a fiancee in Canada... so I left, following the departure order, and now I'm home again.
You should review the enforcement manuals regarding removals. If I include the links the forum software refuses to allow me to post. You want ENF 10 and ENF 11, and they are on the CIC website.
Entering Canada as a visitor will not terminate your (outland) application.
Please tell me that you received a departure acknowledgement from CBSA (IMM 0056B). Assuming that you did, then you will have complied with the departure order. My reading of ENF 11 indicates you should
not be flagged for additional scrutiny at the primary inspection line, but it is certainly possible that you will be, in which case you will be subject to additional scrutiny. The fact you complied and left actually is to your benefit in terms of being evaluated by a BSO.
If you did not receive a departure acknowledgement from CBSA, then your departure order has been converted to a deportation order and you are banned from entering Canada without an ARC on file; this should have been requested with your PR application if that is the case, because without it you would not be permitted to re-enter Canada.
BlackandBlue said:
So I'm just worried, even though I obeyed the departure letter, and my relationship is legit, and I submit that sponsorship application, they still might not let me in as a visitor, since I have so many ins and outs of Canada...
What do you think? I appreciate your thoughts.
Ultimately, a BSO has the discretion to refuse you entry - there's nothing you can do about that. But in my experience BSOs are generally quite reasonable to deal with, so as long as you are prepared and don't set off their BS detector.