Swedish Citizen married to Canadian Citizen - ADVICE PLEASE!

[ttrites]

Hi there, I am a Canadian Citizen and my fiance - soon to be husband in 15 days - is a Swedish Citizen, we both live in Canada. I will be sponsoring him for permanent residence after we are married; as he is a European citizen, he doesnt need to have a visa to visit. Our understanding is that he can stay here for 3 months, and then exit and re-enter for another 3 months; but after we are married, is he allowed to stay in Canada longer due to the fact he is married to a Canadian and we are awaiting the sponsorship process? And if not, is there a limit to the number of time he can exit and re-enter?

 

[computergeek]

Actually, he can stay 6 months. If they stamp his passport or issue him a visitor record, he can apply to extend his stay online ($75). Generally, visa exempt visitors with a spousal sponsored application in process will be granted permission to stay, but this is not guaranteed.

At a minimum, you should have paid the application fees. Include a copy of the receipt with any extension request, or if traveling back into Canada, carry a copy of that receipt. It's a good idea to have a copy of the application when traveling into Canada as well, but not required. Once the sponsor approval letter has been issued, a copy of that should be carried as well.

London Visa Office is quite fast, so you may find that this process is over within six months. I just read a case of someone who simply received a copy of the COPR in the mail from London. E-cas never showed them as "in process" and the visa office did not request the applicant's passport.

Good luck!

 

[ttrites]

Thank you Computergeek!

Just wondering though, he was here on a termporary work visa, and has been here for 2 years. That permit is about to expire. How do we get the stamp on his passport for the 6 months? Does he need to exit and re-enter as a visitor?

 

[computergeek]

Thank you Computergeek!

Just wondering though, he was here on a termporary work visa, and has been here for 2 years. That permit is about to expire. How do we get the stamp on his passport for the 6 months? Does he need to exit and re-enter as a visitor?

Ah, if he is on a work permit things are a bit different. Then he should apply for a status change before his work permit expires. Otherwise, he will need to exit Canada and upon re-entry, if readmitted, he would be given a visitor's record.

To stay as a visitor: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/applications/visitor.asp (he's changing conditions to be a visitor). This may also be done online. There is a $75 charge for this.

By applying before the expiration of his current status, he remains on what is known as implied status, pursuant to R183(5):

If a temporary resident has applied for an extension of the period authorized for their stay and a decision is not made on the application by the end of the period authorized for their stay, the period is extended until
(a) the day on which a decision is made, if the application is refused; or
(b) the end of the new period authorized for their stay, if the application is allowed.

Thus, what I would suggest is applying before his current work permit expires to remain on visitor status. If he fails to do so prior to its expiration, he must either apply for "restoration of status" ($200 application fee + $75 visitor application fee) or he must leave the country and then attempt to re-enter (they don't charge for VRs at the border, though.) What I would also do is pay the application fees ($75 sponsor fee + $475 applicant fee) online and include a copy of that receipt with his visitor application - tell them "we're in the midst of finalizing the spousal PR application, a copy of the receipt for payment of fees for that application is enclosed as evidence of our serious intent, and would thus request that he be allowed to stay as a visitor for the anticipated time required for processing". You need to make sure they're convinced that your combined resources are sufficient to do this without him working for the 10 months it could take for processing his PR application.

I'm assuming he isn't in a position to extend his worker status.

 

[ttrites]

No, we have tried and tried to get him an LMO, the closest we got was a company that wanted $10,000 to do the LMO, we figured since we only needed it for a short time, we would rather keep the money for ourselves and wait out the time it takes to get the sponsorship to go through. He is also technically not a "skilled worker"...we have looked in every direction and the spousal sponsorship is the only method that is available to us.

Anyway, we are fine with him being here unemployed for a short time as long as the end result is him being able to stay here permanently and work. I looked according to the income requirements of a sponsor, and unless i am not adding everything up correctly, we are above the minimum, so hopefully they wont see it as a problem.

I think sending in the receipt is a great idea! Thanks so much for the help!

 

[computergeek]

Anyway, we are fine with him being here unemployed for a short time as long as the end result is him being able to stay here permanently and work. I looked according to the income requirements of a sponsor, and unless i am not adding everything up correctly, we are above the minimum, so hopefully they wont see it as a problem.

Note: the LICO requirement for sponsorship is waived for spousal cases. But showing that you have sufficient resources will assuage any potential concerns CIC might have about his support while he remains as a visitor.

Good luck on your upcoming nuptials!

 

[ttrites]

Can I ask you one more thing that you may or may not have an answer for?

My fiance thinks that applying through the swedish embassy is faster. But he thinks he can do this while living inside Canada. Is this possible? Or would he need to physically be outside of Canada to do this?

 

[computergeek]

My fiance thinks that applying through the swedish embassy is faster. But he thinks he can do this while living inside Canada. Is this possible? Or would he need to physically be outside of Canada to do this?

Actually, the London Visa Office handles applications for Swedish nationals. They have a very fast track record, and would be your best choice. Because he was admitted to Canada, he could also be processed in the US (which means "Ottawa" now).

Applying via the outland process means he can be anywhere in the world, including in Canada. Inland requires that he be in Canada. CIC is a bit geographically confused, since outland US and Canada applications are now process by CPP-O (Ottawa).

Inland has the benefit of granting him a work permit in 5-6 months (open work permit for inland spouse after sponsor approval). Total time for PR is published at 13-14 months (5-6 months for stage 1, 8 months for stage 2).

Outland has the benefit of being able to appeal to IAD if refused (no work permit in this process though). Total time for PR is published at 2.5 months (first stage) + outland time (varies by office, second stage).

CPP-O is very new, so there is no track record. People have been using the old Buffalo time as an estimate - 12 months. London Visa Office (LVO) posts 8 months last I checked. So total time is 14.5 months (CPP-O, estimate) or 10.5 months (LVO).

Note that the times are actually "time to process 80% of applications". Well-prepared applications can be done in much less time.

From the open data project we can get much better information. For "spouse/partner" class applications (which is not the same number published on CIC's website, which includes "spouse/partner and children") the LVO time is:

20% of applications in 3 months
30% of applications in 4 months
50% of applications in 4 months
70% of applications in 6 months
80% of applications in 7 months

So, for well prepared applications with no complications, the usual advice is to look at the 50% time - which is 4 months for London. Add the ~ 2.5 months for sponsor approval, and the odds are likely he could be landed in 6.5 months time (2.5 + 4). That's why he'd be better off to go through the Outland (London) process.

But each case is unique. Our spousal application went through CPP-O and I landed just 7 months after we filed the application (March to October) - and that was with a 3.5 months sponsor approval time (so 3.5 months for stage 1, and 3.5 months for stage 2, which definitely put us in the 20% for CPP-O).

I hope that helps.

 

[ttrites]

Oh wow!! Really great information!! Thanks so much!

 

[Pippin]

A small aside off topic, but you mentioned that whopping $10,000 for LMO!! It is illegal to charge the employee as the employer is supposed to pay fees for recruitment. I would smell something very dodgy with that company.

 

[nada3]

From the open data project we can get much better information. For "spouse/partner" class applications (which is not the same number published on CIC's website, which includes "spouse/partner and children") the LVO time is:

20% of applications in 3 months
30% of applications in 4 months
50% of applications in 4 months
70% of applications in 6 months
80% of applications in 7 months

So, for well prepared applications with no complications, the usual advice is to look at the 50% time - which is 4 months for London. Add the ~ 2.5 months for sponsor approval, and the odds are likely he could be landed in 6.5 months time (2.5 + 4). That's why he'd be better off to go through the Outland (London) process.

But each case is unique. Our spousal application went through CPP-O and I landed just 7 months after we filed the application (March to October) - and that was with a 3.5 months sponsor approval time (so 3.5 months for stage 1, and 3.5 months for stage 2, which definitely put us in the 20% for CPP-O).

I hope that helps.

Hi computergeek,
sorry to jump in like this ...just wondering where do you get this info about processing times, and if there is one for Vienna office as well? Everything seems to be very slow in Vienna as if nothing is being done.
Thanks in advance.

 

[computergeek]

Hi computergeek,
sorry to jump in like this ...just wondering where do you get this info about processing times, and if there is one for Vienna office as well? Everything seems to be very slow in Vienna as if nothing is being done.
Thanks in advance.

http://data.gc.ca

Choose "Top 10 data sets" and the CIC data set for PR applications is #1 (about 2x the second place winner which is another CIC data set).

The data set is an interactive Excel spreadsheet (000001-eng.xls for the English version). You use the "PR-RP" tab for the visa office listing. Make sure you choose the "spouse and partners" or "spouse, partners and children" subset so you are only looking at the relevant data.

Spouses & Partners for Vienna says: 5/6/8/10/12 (20%/30%/50%/70%/80%).

You will notice the 80% time figures are what CIC uses on the main website. These data sets are updated quarterly and show the "prior 12 months data" as of some specific date (right now it is June 30, 2013).

 

[nada3]

http://data.gc.ca

Choose "Top 10 data sets" and the CIC data set for PR applications is #1 (about 2x the second place winner which is another CIC data set).

The data set is an interactive Excel spreadsheet (000001-eng.xls for the English version). You use the "PR-RP" tab for the visa office listing. Make sure you choose the "spouse and partners" or "spouse, partners and children" subset so you are only looking at the relevant data.

Spouses & Partners for Vienna says: 5/6/8/10/12 (20%/30%/50%/70%/80%).

You will notice the 80% time figures are what CIC uses on the main website. These data sets are updated quarterly and show the "prior 12 months data" as of some specific date (right now it is June 30, 2013).

thanks very much

 

[Swedish citizen]

Hi! I´m a Swedish citizen and my husband is Canadian. While I was waiting for my PR, we went out and in of the country to get a 6 months visitor visa instead of apply for one. If you live close to a boarder, that is an option. They do ask for how long you intend to stay etc. A lot of questions sometimes but I´ve never got any questions that was difficult to answer, just be prepared.