Gizmo13 said:
I'm just wondering if someone can answer a question for me as I have heard conflicting arguments, so am a little unclear! (My apologies as the answer may be somewhere on one of these pages!)
My boyfriend is a U.K. citizen, he will be living with me here in Canada, and we are wanting to apply out land through buffalo.
I understand if you are granted temporary status for at least 1 year are able to use a Canadian address as your residential address, so my question is when it comes to these region specific forms, would he use the West Europe form, or the United States form if wanting to apply through Buffalo?!
Thank you kindly!
He can apply from any country where he lives or a citizen. Basically it doesn't seem that he has any reason to apply through the Buffalo visa office since he's neither an American citizen nor is he living/working in the US. (I understand he's living in Canada, right?).
So it doesn't seem that Buffalo is even an option.
In any case, it makes more sense to apply through a UK visa office, since he is a UK citizen (you don't need to live in the country where your visa office is located... you just need to have some kind of legal attachment to the country with the visa office that will process your application (such as a citizenship, a work visa...) - but you can apply through a visa office in the UK and have your address in another country. If he has a temporary visa for a year, it would make sense to give the Canadian address.. the problem with is that his application will have to be processed within that year, because CIC officers won't know where to send any paperwork to them otherwise (since his address won't be valid after a year unless he can renew his temporary visa).
The other good thing about it is that applications are processed faster through the English VO in London (7 months apparently, which means it's probably shorter than that for most people applying in the UK) than through Buffalo (11 months).
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/times/perm/fc-spouses.asp
I understand your concern about the interview... although if your relationship is genuine and not too complicated (medicals, etc)I wouldn't worry about it too much... ....especially since he's from the UK (probably the best country to immigrate from...).
Otherwise, he could fill an inland application (from inside Canada) it would take him longer to get his visa than through an outland application but I believe he would be able to get a work permit.
Basically the two options seem to be an outland application processed through London (after CIC-Mississauga for the approval of your sponsorship) OR an inland application.
Good luck!
)
