USA married a Canadian Citizen

[ovasquez1]

My fiance and I recently got married a few days ago. Now we are going to start the process of sponsorship. After researching we found that out land would be the best way for us. He lives in Toronto and Toronto is expensive. I think it's best that I keep working. So for the last 2 years I have been making trips to Canada on my holidays to be with him. I have a few questions. Going home in a few days.

I have to have a criminal background check and a physical. Is there a specific kind of physical or background check I need. Do I forward the information to Canada? or do I take it with me when I visit him? What do I ask for when I see my doctor? How long before I get the results back? What are they looking for in the physical? Can I be rejected over my physical? I am healthy to my knowledge, just kind of nervous I think. Any information you can provide would be most helpful.

Is there anyway to speed up the progress? any recommendations? Is there anything I can do? Besides get a lawyer.

I am preparing a disk with evidence of our relationship, movies and photos of us and our wedding. Our families said they would vouch for us. Do they have to write letters. I have records and copies of texts, facebook chats and some phone records. Does anyone have any suggestions?

We are thinking positive because I am an american, born in the US, we are hoping it won't take too long ( meaning years )

How will this affect our taxes? Any recommendations for US/Canada Couples out there? I believe that once I am in Canada as a resident I will have to pay double taxes to US and Canada. Can anyone explain how this works?

Once I land as a permanent resident, can I apply for a SIN and work?

Any tips and advice you can give, stories, would be most appreciated and welcomed.

 

[MilesAway]

Check out the Family Class section of the forum.

The FBI certificate must be included with your application. I'm not sure how that works, but it does take a while to get, so start on that. The medical must be done with one of the panel doctors, you can find the list on the CIC site. It can't be just any doctor. You include the receipt that the doctor gives you.

For spouses, the only reason you could be rejected is if you had some disease that would be hazardous to Canadians (TB, Typhoid fever, fun stuff like that). If you are healthy without any highly contagious, lethal disease, you'll be fine.

Do not send a disk, CIC does not want them. Please read the guides, they clearly state that you should not send CDs, DVDs, flash drives, etc. Everything needs to be printed. You don't need letters from family, but they can help.

CPP-Ottawa, which processes Americans, is at about a year. If your case is straightforward, then you could be done in 7-10 months. If your case isn't straightforward (red flags, such as huge age difference, different cultures, unusual history,etc) and/or you don't include everything (such as the FBI and medical), then you might have to wait longer.

Yes, once you land as a PR, you can apply for a SIN and start working.

I don't know what you need to do about taxes, so hopefully someone else can assist you with that.

 

[ovasquez1]

Thank you for all that information. That helps a lot. But now I'm a little concerned. There is a considerable age difference between my husband and I. Not to mention we are two different cultures. I'm Hispanic and he is Filipino. We were hoping for 7-10 months. Mostly likely we will be called in for an interview then, right? Any advice on interviews, what do they ask?

 

[scylla]

You should really move over to the Family Sponsorship section of this forum. This is where the vast majority of discussions can be found for spousal sponsorships.