A lot of Americans I know have started talking more frequently about “fleeing” to Canada due to the sociopolitical climate, etc… I’m fairly sure it’s all idle chatter in their cases, but if I were to marry one (assume opposite-sex for the sake of simplicity) so they could get residency/citizenship, how long would it take?
I guess I would have to sponser her, which is fine, but would anyone be out to expose our marriage as a sham, a la the movie Green Card? Or is that an American thing, or simply a fabrication for plot’s sake?
And how long would we have to be married, and how long would sponsorship duties remain? (3-10 years is pretty vague)
In Australia and New Zealand citizens from the other country can easily get residency without marrying anyone at all, I would’ve thought that Canada and the US would have a similar arrangement.
You have to sponsor your new spouse for immigration. It can take a few years. Your spouse may be able to reside in Canada while waiting for immigration.
It depends. In general, if the spouse is already in-country, and they have a valid temporary visa (visitor, work, student, etc), they can stay, but they have to make sure they keep their status current and not leave Canada (unless they have a multiple-entry visa). If their visa runs out, or if they leave and have to apply for another temporary visa, there’s a good chance they will be refused, and (I can’t recall the details) it may affect their permanent residence application.
Things could certainly be different when marrying an American, since you can generally cross the border as a visitor without a formal visa, but even if there is no paperwork, make no mistake that there is a visa, and it does have rules. It could make things sticky if you have to prove that you followed the rules of your invisible visa.
I’ve had two relatives marry a broad abroad :D, and they both chose to sit out their wait with their spouse abroad while waiting for the permanent residence to come through.
If you get into this situation, I’d recommend talking to a lawyer who deals in this stuff regularly.
First of all, and I should have said this in my first post, IANAL. I have dealt with a lot of immigration issues in the US and Canada, mostly because I have a personal interest in this (I immigrated to the US from Canada), and I have a number of friends and relatives who have moved one direction or the other and told me about their experiences. Like a lot of things to do with law, there is a lot of gray area, and little nuances that can bite you. If you are serious about this, please see a good lawyer (at least in the US, there are a lot of bad immigration lawyers).
She’d need to get a work permit on her own. If she qualifies as a professional under NAFTA (almost anybody with a University Degree except for grade-school teachers), and can find a Canadian employer to offer her a job, then she can get a work visa at any border crossing in 15 minutes. The visa is good for a year and is renewable, although you have to make the job at least appear to be temporary.
The problem, which you can see on the second reference, is “You must be seeking temporary entry only”. So if you apply for permanent residence first, then a temporary work visa second, your application for the work visa might be turned down because your intentions appear to be permanent, given the existing permanent application. However, if you do it the other way around, you have to be careful about timing (at least in the US, I don’t know if Canada is hard-ass about this). For instance, if you get a temporary visa, then the very next day apply for a permanent visa, it appears that your intention all along was to be permanent, so it could be construed that you lied when you got your temporary visa. If you wait a month or two, being nailed on intent to deceive isn’t as likely.