Want to Marry an American and live in Canada - What's the process?

[Rinner]

Hi All,

I'm new here so please let me know if i'm doing this wrong.

My American Fiance and I (I'm Canadian) are still in the process of deciding who is going to go where. As of now, this is sort of the plan. We would like to get married in America because his family doesn't travel. But then we would like to live in Canada.

It seems like Canada doesn't care where you get married, as long is it's legal. After getting married we would apply for spousal sponsorship. I believe the process is for him to apply while he is still in America and then we have to wait 6-8 months to get approved before he can move to Canada?

I'm not sure at what point he has to apply for permanent residence.

We would like to live in Canada for 3-5 years and then move to America.

Would we be allowed to do this? Do I have to apply for these things or does he?

I'm just so confused by the whole process.

 

[tucosword]

Hi Rinner,
I'm in a similar boat.
I'm Canadian(PR) and my wife is a US citizen. We married in Jan 2016. Since then we have been doing the long distance thing.

My advice is this:
1. gather tons of documents - start with getting your American spouse to apply for a FBI clearance. This is the most time consuming part of the process. Take 9-12 weeks.
2. apply for spousal sponsorship(outland) - what this means is your spouse is abroad(not in Canada). this matters because inland is much much longer. inland would apply to a spouse who is in Canada already and the cic reckons no need to be too fast to process this claim.
3. download the package for outland and get all your documents/financial and proof of relationship and so on.
4. get your spouse to go for a medical .
5. once you have all the documents including the medical, submit the application.

good luck.

I'm behind the game because my wife is pregnant and so she can't do the xray for the medical so we will finish that after baby is born and bring baby over as a dependant too.

 

[tucosword]

the processing time for americans is fairly quick compared to the subcontinental countries so be optimistic.

 

[Rinner]

Hi Rinner,
I'm in a similar boat.
I'm Canadian(PR) and my wife is a US citizen. We married in Jan 2016. Since then we have been doing the long distance thing.

My advice is this:
1. gather tons of documents - start with getting your American spouse to apply for a FBI clearance. This is the most time consuming part of the process. Take 9-12 weeks.
2. apply for spousal sponsorship(outland) - what this means is your spouse is abroad(not in Canada). this matters because inland is much much longer. inland would apply to a spouse who is in Canada already and the cic reckons no need to be too fast to process this claim.
3. download the package for outland and get all your documents/financial and proof of relationship and so on.
4. get your spouse to go for a medical .
5. once you have all the documents including the medical, submit the application.

good luck.

I'm behind the game because my wife is pregnant and so she can't do the xray for the medical so we will finish that after baby is born and bring baby over as a dependant too.

Thank you for helping! In regards to submitting the paperwork - Is it the American that has to submit it or is it the Canadian?

 

[Rinner]

the processing time for americans is fairly quick compared to the subcontinental countries so be optimistic.

What does fairly quickly mean? I know that it's different depending on the time of year but do you know what it is on average?

 

[itsasyn17]

The Canadian (sponsor) fills out their paperwork and provides proofs. The American (principal applicant) fills out their paperwork and provides proofs. The applications are sent out in the same package.

The shortest time frame I have seen is just under three months. The average right now is four to five months.

There are some good resources on the forum. Best of luck!

 

[silky28]

You have to get married first, after that you can do it in 2 ways: 1) get him to travel to Canada then apply as an Inland applicant. The benefit to this is that he can apply for a work permit while he is waiting. The downside is that it can take some time to get the work permit, you have to extend his visa to stay after 6 months, it is risky for him to try to leave and return to Canada, and the processing time is much higher. 2) the other way is to keep him in the U.S. and to do an "outland" application. The benefit to this is that it is much much faster...like 3 months instead of 18. Most people, it seem, would chose this route for an American applicant.

I believe there are restrictions on how long you can be out of Canada for the first so many years of your PR but I don't know what they are.

 

[CDNPR2014]

You have to get married first, after that you can do it in 2 ways: 1) get him to travel to Canada then apply as an Inland applicant. The benefit to this is that he can apply for a work permit while he is waiting. The downside is that it can take some time to get the work permit, you have to extend his visa to stay after 6 months, it is risky for him to try to leave and return to Canada, and the processing time is much higher. 2) the other way is to keep him in the U.S. and to do an "outland" application. The benefit to this is that it is much much faster...like 3 months instead of 18. Most people, it seem, would chose this route for an American applicant.

I believe there are restrictions on how long you can be out of Canada for the first so many years of your PR but I don't know what they are.

it is very rarely advised for US applicants to apply inland. It simply does not make sense, even with the OWP. A person can be completely approved as a PR through the outland stream in 3-6 months. It is rare a US applicant takes longer than 8 months, and only a handful of applicants wait longer than that. This applicant is better off applying OUTLAND. An outland applicant can be IN canada as a visitor throughout their entire process. there is NO reason to apply inland!

The residency obligation (RO) for PRs is they need to be living in canada for 2 out of 5 years. it doesn't matter which 2 years out of the 5. It can be the first or the last or the middle.

 

[Ponga]

Good advice so far. I'd just like to add the following:

The OP can use an FBI approved Channeler (3rd party) to obtain the FBI IHSR letter. This will save an enormous amount of time! It was only until the recent change at CIC that Channelers are now an option.

The OP can also submit an Outland application even if they come to Canada before or during the process. With such fast processing times for [most] Americans, there's really no reason to even consider an Inland application. Every other American that's chosen Inland has regretted it!

To the OP:
In order to maintain PR status, you must be in Canada for at least 730 days within each rolling 5 year period. However...since you are a Canadian citizen, your spouse can remain outside of Canada indefinitely, as long as you are living together abroad (anywhere). In theory, once PR has been granted, your spouse would need to `Land' in Canada, but the two of you could return to The U.S. immediately.

 

[Rinner]

Good advice so far. I'd just like to add the following:

The OP can use an FBI approved Channeler (3rd party) to obtain the FBI IHSR letter. This will save an enormous amount of time! It was only until the recent change at CIC that Channelers are now an option.

The OP can also submit an Outland application even if they come to Canada before or during the process. With such fast processing times for [most] Americans, there's really no reason to even consider an Inland application. Every other American that's chosen Inland has regretted it!

To the OP:
In order to maintain PR status, you must be in Canada for at least 730 days within each rolling 5 year period. However...since you are a Canadian citizen, your spouse can remain outside of Canada indefinitely, as long as you are living together abroad (anywhere). In theory, once PR has been granted, your spouse would need to `Land' in Canada, but the two of you could return to The U.S. immediately.

Thank you! Would you explain to me when during the process the American becomes a permanent resident? He would like to attend school once he moves here and I was informed he would have to pay international fees until he was a PR.

 

[CDNPR2014]

Thank you! Would you explain to me when during the process the American becomes a permanent resident? He would like to attend school once he moves here and I was informed he would have to pay international fees until he was a PR.

he becomes pr at the end of the process, when his application is approved and he "lands" as a pr. the sponsor's application is evaluated first, then the applicant's application is evaluated. after the evaluations, the officer will decide to approve the application. he will be sent his approval form and in order to become a pr, he needs to go to a border entry and sign the paperwork with an officer. once that's complete he's a pr.

depending on the school, he may be able to pay canadian rates with proof of being married to you before becoming a PR. you would need to call the school to see if they follow this rule. i know schools in Ottawa follow this rule (i worked at one of them). if the program is for a degree or 6+ months, he will still need a student visa.

 

[Rinner]

he becomes pr at the end of the process, when his application is approved and he "lands" as a pr. the sponsor's application is evaluated first, then the applicant's application is evaluated. after the evaluations, the officer will decide to approve the application. he will be sent his approval form and in order to become a pr, he needs to go to a border entry and sign the paperwork with an officer. once that's complete he's a pr.

depending on the school, he may be able to pay canadian rates with proof of being married to you before becoming a PR. you would need to call the school to see if they follow this rule. i know schools in Ottawa follow this rule (i worked at one of them). if the program is for a degree or 6+ months, he will still need a student visa.

Thank you for the explanation! When you say they have to go to a boarder entry do you mean physically go to the boarder and cross by land? Or is this something that could be done in an airport?

Re schooling: I contracted the school and they said he can only pay Canadian fees if he has proof of PR. Kind of a bummer since the price difference is pretty large.

 

[CDNPR2014]

Thank you for the explanation! When you say they have to go to a boarder entry do you mean physically go to the boarder and cross by land? Or is this something that could be done in an airport?

Re schooling: I contracted the school and they said he can only pay Canadian fees if he has proof of PR. Kind of a bummer since the price difference is pretty large.

yes, you can land at an airport, assuming you are flying in from outside of canada. when you go through immigration, you tell the officer you are landing and they will send you to secondary to do the procedure.

if you want to go to a land border, technically, you have to drive to the us and either visit for a bit or ask to "flagpole" - which essentially means the US border will let you turn around to go back to canada. once at the canadian border window, you tell them about landing as a pr, and they will send you into secondary to process the landing.

bummer about the school. perhaps it's only colleges not universities or it's only for non-degree programs.

 

[Rinner]

Does anyone know if I would need a visa to have the wedding in America?

 

[CDNPR2014]

Does anyone know if I would need a visa to have the wedding in America?

no, canadians are visa exempt and do not require a visa to travel to the US. there is no approval needed for getting married in the us, people are free to get married in the us no matter where they are from. you would need to follow the rules for getting a marriage license where the marriage takes place. generally, only a passport is needed to file for a license.