US Citizen Live in Canada - Work in the US?

[kerrigriffin31]

Hey,

My boyfriend and I want to begin getting more serious with our relationship. We have that darn pain in the butt border between us though . We live 10min drive on either side of the border so either of us commuting to work isn't a problem.

The immigration process takes forever from what I have read so far. Can him and I buy/build a house in Canada? We would both live there, but he'd commute across the border for work until his papers are cleared. We are engaged to be married June 2014.

 

[Leon]

A US citizen can not just take up living in Canada without a visa of some kind. A visitor can stay up to 6 months in Canada but if immigration feels that he is staying too much, they can decide to refuse him entry any time. The only option if you both want to live in Canada is to sponsor him for PR. In order to do that, you must either be married or have lived together for 12 months or more. That taken care of, applying outland through the US shouldn't take much more than 6 months.

 

[kerrigriffin31]

How can we live together for 12 months or more if either of us can not live in the other's country without a PR card?

We were hoping to begin building a house in spring of 2013 as our wedding date is June 2014.

 

[scylla]

How can we live together for 12 months or more if either of us can not live in the other's country without a PR card?

There are a number of different options.

One person could go to the other person's country on a work visa or student visa.

You could spend six months in one country together followed by six months in the other country.

Your boyfriend could come to Canada for a six month visit as a tourist and then extend his visit by six months to make it a full year. (Note that crossing the border each day to work in the US wouldn't be doable during this visit.)

You could also get married earlier and forget about common law.

 

[kerrigriffin31]

looks like we better push our wedding date up then or elope lol.

Thanks for the help.

 

[scylla]

You won't be the first person on this forum who's done that!

Let us know if you have any other questions and good luck with the planning.