Road To Canada Forums

Hello everyone,

I hope our questions has not been asked previously. My fiance and I have been together for quite sometime. We live in separate border cities - I am American and he is Canadian. We are both working, but he filed for bankruptcy this year. We would like to get married in Ontario asap, but I know that one can not sponsor while in bankruptcy.

We would like to live together, but do not want to run into any problems at the border. We are going to meet with immigration lawyer in a couple of weeks.

We are mostly confused with the order we should take:

1 - Wait to get married until he gets discharged then get an VR and apply for SS.

2 - Get married next month, Get VR (after or before we are married?), apply for SS after he is discharged. We would like to take this route.

Any feedback you can give us?

Going back and forth between the border and not wanting to mess up our application is what we are most concerned about.

Thanks in advance for reading.

OK, first of all, there isn't much chance of you getting a VR to stay with him before you're married as you won't be in a "qualified relationship". Once you're married you can try to come to Canada to stay with him - but read through the information at the "Visiting" tab of US2Canada about Visitor Records before you try to enter Canada after the wedding. You won't have to apply for PR immediately - you can wait til the bankruptcy is discharged (you'll have to) - but keep in mind the timeline for that because it's likely you'll only be admitted on a VR that's valid for six months, and you'll have to apply to extend it in order to stay beyond that. If you aren't ready to submit the PR application pretty close to when you're due to apply to extend your VR, it's going to make it difficult to get extended. You need to include with the extension application a copy of your marriage licence, a copy of proof that he can support you and a copy of proof that you will be submitting ((or have already) a PR application (you can send a copy of your receipt for fees paid to buy a little time). The extension application HAS TO be received by CIC prior to expiration of the status you receive on entry - that gives you "implied status" to remain in Canada until they make a decision on whether or not to extend (takes about 100 days). Be sure you send your extension application with delivery confirmation so you have proof of when it was received.

There is a real risk to the "going back and forth" so you're right to be concerned and cautious. It's not above them to refuse entry to (and sometimes even exclude) a foreign national who goes back and forth too much for their liking.

Thank you so very much for your quick reply. It was very helpful...it make sense for us to wait.

Good luck with your situation! :)