Thread for outland Buffalo applicants!

[Quince777]

You're preaching to the choir. I am so sick of not contributing as far as work outside of the house is concerned and I feel bad every morning when my husband leaves for work.

Even among my friends I feel a bit out of place because everyone is either working or studying or even doing both and I'm doing God knows what. I'm sick of it to say the least.

 

[ddobro2]

I thought I knew how to use Google well enough, but apparently I missed this group: http://immigrate2us.net/forum/forumdisplay.php?52-Introduce-yourself. I have scylla to give the credit to - s/he posted this link to someone in another thread recently. Can't say if it's as useful as the canadavisa forum at this point but looks pretty good at first glance.

I have and I can tell you the application process is not as clear as how CIC makes it, and you won't find a group comparable to this one for green card applicants.

 

[ddobro2]

I know. Obviously we're going to be told to do what you can with what you have right now, blah blah (it's true, I guess I could start writing a master's thesis real real reaaaaal early). But still, it does suck when you're sitting on your hands.

Even among my friends I feel a bit out of place because everyone is either working or studying or even doing both and I'm doing God knows what. I'm sick of it to say the least.

 

[scylla]

I think the even bigger difference though is that the U.S. does conditional permanent residency. If you're sponsored by a spouse and you break up within a certain time period (I believe it's 2 or 3 yrs) then you pretty much automatically lose your PR status. I also think there may be further interviews and paperwork required because of this near the end of the conditional period, but I'm not certain on that.

You're right - it is conditional.

The other big difference is that the sponsor must be making a certain level of income to qualify as a sponsor. (I believe it's something like 125% of the poverty income level.) If the sponsor doesn't have sufficient income, they must find a co-sponsor in order to sponsor their spouse.

 

[ddobro2]

Although.....it's conditional for people who have been married less than two years at the time the foreign national (in this case, Canadian) spouse would be admitted as a U.S. permanent resident. The whole point of the conditional PR of the U.S. policy, from how I understand it, is to really make sure that someone is not going to kick their spouse to the curb the moment they show up in America with their green card. A couple that's been together for two years or more BEFORE they even applied for permanent residence would not be affected by the conditionality and I believe that any couple that is seeking Canadian PR for the American first before going on to apply for U.S. PR for the Canadian would have already been together for at least 2 years at the point when the Canadian spouse gets the green card.

You're right - it is conditional.

 

[AmericaninQuebec]

Okay, I think that the living in Canada thing is really a factor in our applications that is making Buffalo decelerate the speed of the process for people like you, me, Calgary-Bound and some others on here (I recall AmericanInQuebec also was living in Canada at some point in the process) vis-a-vis those of us who remain in the U.S.A.

I'm thinking of putting a column in the spreadsheet to note whether someone is residing in Canada at the time they file their application, and perhaps the details of their being here (work permit, study permit, visitor visa, what date they first entered the country).

What do you guys think of this? If you feel this would help clarify some things for us and future applicants and it's worthwhile to include, or if you think it's not necessary or inappropriate to include, let me know.

Yup, I was in Canada from before my marriage and PR app was submitted. I could definitely see it being a factor, since the goal of sponsorship PR is family reunification. Sucks though that it would cause such a discrepancy.

I too found the first 10 mths (again, I was in Canada from May 2010, married Nov. 2010, app submitted Feb. 2011) extremely slow and painful. It did give me a long time to learn enough French to get by though, for which I think I'll be forever grateful. I ended up finding an unpaid volunteer/internship type position for most of the remainder of my wait. Sucked working unpaid, but in the long run it's really working out since now I have something on my resume from Canada. Plus, just having a reason to get out of bed every day helped my mental health, and it kept my husband from feeling annoyed that he had to get up and go to work every day while I got to hang out.

Anyway, my fingers are crossed for you guys that you'll have word very soon!

 

[AmericaninQuebec]

Thanks! It all worked out pretty smoothly. Hard to believe that it's even for real yet, but I'll find out soon enough when I go and apply for a SIN card tomorrow. Right now, I'm just enjoying the night as a family.

Congrats!! Have fun with the SIN card stuff tomorrow. Hope it goes smoothly for you!

 

[ddobro2]

Exactly - it's either the family reunification bias (which I'm not judging btw), RCMP checks, or something else, and I'm leaning toward the first.

That's encouraging to hear about how you found working, albeit unpaid, a big help. Was it something in your field at least (if you don't mind sharing).

Yup, I was in Canada from before my marriage and PR app was submitted. I could definitely see it being a factor, since the goal of sponsorship PR is family reunification. Sucks though that it would cause such a discrepancy.

I too found the first 10 mths (again, I was in Canada from May 2010, married Nov. 2010, app submitted Feb. 2011) extremely slow and painful. It did give me a long time to learn enough French to get by though, for which I think I'll be forever grateful. I ended up finding an unpaid volunteer/internship type position for most of the remainder of my wait. Sucked working unpaid, but in the long run it's really working out since now I have something on my resume from Canada. Plus, just having a reason to get out of bed every day helped my mental health, and it kept my husband from feeling annoyed that he had to get up and go to work every day while I got to hang out.

Anyway, my fingers are crossed for you guys that you'll have word very soon!

 

[ddobro2]

Thanks. Yes, I definetely remembered what happened to you when I saw the response Buffalo sent. I had the positive thought and the negative thought, and unfortunately, because this process has turned me into an immigration grinch, I decided to post the negative thought. Yeah, I hope it'll be a week or two more but frankly, I want to be pessimistic about it so that I won't be let down if it doesn't happen that fast.

You may disagree that it's good news, but I got PPR a week or two after I was told my file was in queue to be reviewed by an officer. Hopefully it's the same for you!

 

[Quince777]

Are there any restrictions as to what type of volunteering or internship I am allowed to do in Canada under visitor permit?

 

[AmericaninQuebec]

Are there any restrictions as to what type of volunteering or internship I am allowed to do in Canada under visitor permit?

I'm honestly not certain, but the general rule is you're not allowed to be paid for work done in Canada until you have PR or a work permit. I have never heard of the government cracking down on unpaid workers at the very least. Hehe.

 

[AmericaninQuebec]

Exactly - it's either the family reunification bias (which I'm not judging btw), RCMP checks, or something else, and I'm leaning toward the first.

That's encouraging to hear about how you found working, albeit unpaid, a big help. Was it something in your field at least (if you don't mind sharing).

It was related to my field enough that it is helping my current job search in that I don't have a massive gap on my resume. I'd rather not share details online, but basically it was of mutual benefit to me and the small office where I was. I got to get out of the house, learn some more French, put something down on my resume after it all, while they got an extra worker for free. Obviously not an ideal situation (at least not the unpaid part for me), but for me it was better than being at home all day every day.

 

[mjh49783aa]

Yep. That's also true, and I totally forgot about that part. It's a two year conditional green card from what I understand, and that one would have to apply to have those conditions removed before they expire in order to stay in the US for good.

You know, I was hearing rumours on the TV here that they were considering a conditional residency permit in Canada for landed immigrants too, because of the concern for marriage fraud. I say, 'Go ahead and give me a conditional as I have nothing to hide.' On the other hand, I'd also have concerns with abusive sponsors under that rule, too. I don't know, except to say that it's a really complex problem with no simple solutions.

Meanwhile, back when my wife and I were dating, and we started getting serious about our future plans, it didn't take us very long to come to the conclusion that I was coming to Canada. She has a son, and therefore, it would be more difficult for her to uproot her son, and herself to the States, while I'm just my own person, and I'm a lot easier to uproot myself as just one person. Besides, I like Canada better than the States, though I certainly don't hate the USA by any means.

You're right - it is conditional.

The other big difference is that the sponsor must be making a certain level of income to qualify as a sponsor. (I believe it's something like 125% of the poverty income level.) If the sponsor doesn't have sufficient income, they must find a co-sponsor in order to sponsor their spouse.

 

[mjh49783aa]

That was another thing I didn't know, regarding the part where if a couple was already married two years prior to the alien spouse applying for a green card, that the two year conditional doesn't apply.

Although.....it's conditional for people who have been married less than two years at the time the foreign national (in this case, Canadian) spouse would be admitted as a U.S. permanent resident. The whole point of the conditional PR of the U.S. policy, from how I understand it, is to really make sure that someone is not going to kick their spouse to the curb the moment they show up in America with their green card. A couple that's been together for two years or more BEFORE they even applied for permanent residence would not be affected by the conditionality and I believe that any couple that is seeking Canadian PR for the American first before going on to apply for U.S. PR for the Canadian would have already been together for at least 2 years at the point when the Canadian spouse gets the green card.

 

[nhl1011]

Hello all.

As of 3:15pm, I've became a landed immigrant of Canada!

The process was pretty painless. It took all of ten minutes to finalize my landing. But it took another twenty minutes afterwards for them to go through all my B4As, making sure everything is all in order. My wife and father-in-law was with me throughout the process, and was happy to see me get through it all in one piece.

They took my COPR, stapled part 3 of the COPR to my passport, stamped it, wrote some numbers in it, explained to me my rights and responsibilities as a permanent resident, and told me I was all set. I had to get a hold of someone else for the B4As, where they copied them, and gave me back the copies, but not before
they stamped them all, wrote a file number on all of them, and had me sign the B4 that I forgot to sign. The stuff I already brought over got marked off, too. People there were quite friendly and helpful.


Congrats!

Anyway, I wish you all good luck. I'm sure I'll be lurking around for a while here, but now I'm off to my new life!