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| Subject: Visting Canada while waiting for Perm. Residency |
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I am a US citizen who will be marrying a Canadian and moving to TO. I´ve been reviewing the application and have realized that acquiring my permanent residency my take some time. Can I enter Canada as a Visitor (with my 12 year old son, household goods, and dog) while my application is pending, and can my son attend public schools during this interim "visiting" period? Also, regarding the application, I am confused: The Buffalo website says to only get police records after they request it, but the forms indicate to me that I should be sending off for this information now to include with my application.
[15-11-2004,15:24]
Deidre |
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visiting (in reply to: Visting Canada while waiting for Perm. Residency)
Visiting would imply your intention to return home to the US. I doubt that the boarder guard would see a car full of household goods as ´visiting´. As for your child attending Canadian public school - no. There is no quick way for this to happen. There are many of us waiting to be with the one we love. We all dream about a quick solution- but there is none.
[15-11-2004,18:25]
sharon |
(in reply to: Visting Canada while waiting for Perm. Residency)
I am a US citizen who will be marrying a Canadian and moving to TO. I?ve been reviewing the application and have realized that acquiring my permanent residency my take some time. Can I enter Canada as a Visitor (with my 12 year old son, household goods, and dog) while my application is pending, and can my son attend public schools during this interim "visiting" period? Also, regarding the application, I am confused: The Buffalo website says to only get police records after they request it, but the forms indicate to me that I should be sending off for this information now to include with my application.
Hi,
My best suggestion regarding your son´s schooling situation is to have your husband-to-be contact the local school board in the area of the city you will be living in and ask them whether or not your son would be allowed to attend school during the "visiting" period.
As for the whether or not you can enter Canada with your son, belongings and dog...since you and your son are U.S citizens you both should be able to enter Canada as visitors while your applications for permanent residence are being processed. Generally, when you arrive at the border with your belongings they will ask you why you are visiting and how long you plan on staying. When I crossed the border with most my belongings (I´m a U.S citizen as well), I told them that I was coming up to live with my husband (who is a Canadian citizen) while applying for permanent residence. I was directed to go to the immigration officials at the border, they asked me a few questions, asked for photo identification, since my husband was with me at the time they asked for photo identification from him that included the address where we would be living, and I was issued a visitor´s visa valid for 6 months which is able to be extended until my permanent residence application is finalized and I become a landed immigrant. So I don´t believe that you and your son will have any problems getting visitor´s records when you enter Canada. The only thing I would check on is the requirements that your dog has to meet in order to be allowed to enter Canada. Since I don´t have a pet I´m not sure what the regulations are concerning this.
As for your police certificates, the information that is on the website for the Buffalo consulate is, from what I can tell, more for people applying under the Skilled workers and Business classes. Since you and your son will be applying for permanent residence via sponsorship under the Family class you should apply for your police certificates before you submit your application because they need to be submitted along with the application for permanent residence. The reason they say for skilled worker and business class applicants to apply for them only once they are requested is because these classes take much longer for them to process and the police certificates are only valid for a period of 6 months, so if they submit them along with their initial application the certificates will expire long before the time they would be looking at them.
Depending on when you are planning on getting married there is a lot that you should still be considering:
1) Where you and your fiance are going to get married, since a copy of your marriage certificate needs to be included with your permanent residence application. In Ontario, you currently have to wait 3 months after getting married before you can apply for a marriage certificate and after you apply for it can take up to 6 months or more for you to receive it. In the U.S it is much quicker to receive the marriage certificate, generally only a few weeks.
2) Since you are planning on moving to Toronto to live with your fiance after getting married you have the option of either applying from "Within Canada" or "Outside Canada".
~Applications processed from within Canada are processed by the Case Processing Centre in Vegreville, Alberta. If you apply from within Canada, once you recieve your first stage of approval (also known as approval in principle) you are able to apply for a general work permit which allows you to work while they finalize your application (this takes about a month to recieve after recieving first stage of approval) and you are also able to apply for OHIP (Ontario´s provincial health insurance plan - after applying for OHIP it takes 3 months for you to recieve it). Applications made within Canada take longer to be finalized and if they are denied you aren´t allowed to appeal the decision so you would have to begin the process all over again at via the "outside Canada" route.
~Applying "Outside Canada" doesn´t mean you must be out of the country when you apply, it simply means it is handled by a visa office outside of Canada. In yours and your son´s case it would be handled by the first the Case Processing Centre in Mississauga (where your husband will be approved as a sponsor) and then forwarded to the Regional Processing Centre in Buffalo (where they will process the applications for permanent residence for you and your son). If you apply "outside Canada" you aren´t able to work or apply for OHIP until after your application is finalized and you ´land´ in Canada and if an interview is required you would need to go back to the U.S to attend it. However these applications are generally processed and finalized much faster then those processed from within Canada (average time seems to be anywhere from 6-11 months or possibily a bit longer). Another added bonus is that if your application is denied, you and your husband would be able to appeal the decision to the Immigration and Refugee Board.
With both of these classes you would need to maintain your legal status in Canada until your application is finalized, this is especially true for applications from within Canada because if you don´t keep legal status you will not be eligible to apply in-Canada and your application may be rejected.
My best suggestion, in regards to your actual application is that you visit the CIC website and look at the information they have on Family Class sponsorship. On the site you will be able to download & print the applications and guides so you can begin looking at what you need to complete before you submit your application to the appropriate Case Processing Centre. From my experience, getting married and moving up to be with my husband was the easy part - dealing with the filling out the permanent residence application, gathering the necessary supporting documents, and dealing with not being able to work/support myself while my application is processing is the hard part.
FYI - I´m a U.S citizen and I applied outside Canada via Buffalo with my husband as my sponsor. I know I gave a lot of information for you to digest, but hopefully it will prove helpful to you because I know how difficult it was for me before I got married and I was looking at all the immigration forms & information.
[15-11-2004,18:50]
Mel |
i want to visit canada (in reply to: Visting Canada while waiting for Perm. Residency)
I WANT TO KNOW WHAT IT TAKES TO VISIT CANADA FROM NIGERIA FOR TWO WEEKS HOILDAY
FROM DOUGLAS
[03-08-2006,08:15]
[***.1.189.6]
douglas |
i want to visit canada (in reply to: Visting Canada while waiting for Perm. Residency)
hi
just want to find out how to go about applying for a canadian visa from my country nigeria. i can´t find any place to download the form.
thanks
[01-09-2006,14:24]
[**.72.98.27]
efe |
Visiting Canada (in reply to: Visting Canada while waiting for Perm. Residency)
I am a Canadian Citizen who married an American Citizen. My 13 yr old son and myself now live in the States with my husband and have been here for almost 3 yrs while we wait for our perm. Residency paperwork. It seems to be taking forever, but my son goes to visit with his father during the summer. The ex gets pulled over each and every time he brings my son back to me. The guards give him such a hard time..doesn´t help that they can smell the fear on him. Is there a way to make this easier for both parties as my son has to watch his father and answer questions as well? I have researched tons of sites in trying to find a solution but they are full of double talk and are very confusing. I have tried sending original paperwork that I have received from the American government that has a number on it showing that we are still waiting on some kind of decision, along with my son´ passport and the customs agents still like to drill the ex husband. I was told by said ex that if he comes to get our son this summer, he will not be crossing the border to meet in Detroit,to bring him back home to me. I just need to know if anyone knows of a specific form that I need to fill out so that my son has an easier time going to visit his father in Canada?
[03-06-2013,11:40]
[**.127.95.83]
C.Arbuckle |
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