Help please- Questions about inland application

sparkles2016 wrote: I am hoping that someone can help me out (either with their own experience, or info that i may have missed!) So, here is my story: My hubby and I were married in Oct 2013. I am a Canadian Citizen, living in Canada, and he is a US citizen living in the USA. We went though the US immigration process, and were approved- however I never moved to the USA (kept my job and residence in Canada). Now, we have re-evaluated our plans and hope to move him up to Canada. We have a very straightforward case- no children, no other applicants, no convictions, no issues with finances etc. As a US citizen, he is not required to possess a visitor visa (my understanding is that they will not issue him one, as his valid US passport is all that he needs to travel into Canada). Our plan is to have him come to Canada as a visitor and live with me (he can stay for 6 months, and we can apply to extend his stay beyond that) and apply for his permanent residence status as an inland applicant- thus permitting him to also apply for an open work visa while the application is being processed. I have a few questions: What document could we provide in our application that confirms his status in canada? (as mentioned he will not be issued a visitor visa, nor will he have a study permit, or work permit) Will he be permitted to return to the US/ leave canada for short visits or short holidays (less than a week) while his application is being processed? Has anyone else done this before? What was your experience?

Caveat: while I personally did this (as the sponsored U.S. spouse) and for many years after that followed these issues somewhat closely, it has been awhile now since I kept current with this. That said, while some of the details have changed, for the most part I believe the process continues to be largely the same as it has been since I applied and became a PR (and am now myself a Canadian citizen).

Among changes I am aware of has been the addition of a two-year cohabitation condition for sponsored spouses, the implementation of a stricter standard for a genuine relationship (should have no effect on you), relocation of visa-office handling sponsored partner PR applications for American applicants applying outside Canada, and a number of other details, none of which should much affect how you go about this.


Inland versus out-of-Canada application; processing times:

For sponsoring a U.S. citizen spouse, the application can easily be made via the out-of-Canada process even if the American is actually living in Canada (this is what we did, after much research and having our decision confirmed by an attorney) and generally it has been better for an American to apply via the out-of-Canada application process.

The advantages may not be so clear today as they were a few years ago, but the biggest advantage continues to be the shorter processing time. Probably.

IRCC is playing games with processing times. Purportedly this is to provide better service, especially more consistent and efficient service for all clients regardless of region. But in the meantime the information about processing times that IRCC is providing is way, way too indefinite to be of much use. That said, the difference in even the posted timelines for an inland application versus the out-of-Canada application clearly favours the out-of-Canada application by many months.

Perhaps it is true that an out-of-Canada sponsored spouse application now takes around 17 months, as the posted timeline suggests, but it is very likely this is still based on how long it takes to process 80 percent of applications, which is typically much much longer than it takes to process the median number of applications. In other words, how long it takes to process 50 percent of applications would be far more informative for applicants who are clearly qualified and who submit proper applications. My guess is that for an American sponsored PR application the processing time is likely to be less than a year, perhaps well less than a year, for the out-of-Canada application.

(Mine literally took barely more than four months from application date to final decision, but that was in 2008, and timelines have continued to grow since then; but even when I was going through the process, the timeline for 80 percent of applicants then was well over a year. In those days CIC provided far more specific timeline information, providing how long it took to process 30 percent of applications, how long it took to process 50 percent, and how long it took to process 80 percent; the latter was typically more than double how long it was for 50 percent. By the way, as noted I was in Canada when we made the out-of-Canada application, and I applied for and was given an extension of my visitor's status so I could continue to remain in Canada while the application was pending.)

In any event, the out-of-Canada process is generally a lot faster than the inland process, and if for some reason a complication arises causing a delay in processing, the length of the delay tends to be longer for inland applications.

With the out-of-Canada application, the U.S. citizen can readily travel back and forth to the U.S. without any risk of negatively affecting the application. (For the inland application, the couple must cohabitate in Canada for the full duration of the process and if for any reason the applicant has to spend a significant amount of time outside Canada that risks the application being denied. Yes, short trips abroad should be no problem, but the risk of a problem is eliminated by making an out-of-Canada application.)     


Documentation of status in Canada while in Canada as a visitor:

Technically he is not entitled to just come to Canada to live. Not even for a month let alone six months or indefinitely. He can come to Canada to visit, only to visit, unless he applies for and is given some other status.

No matter how often he has visited Canada to date, if he shows up at the border with a vehicle packed like he is moving to Canada, there is a risk he will be challenged about his intentions. If his intention is to live in Canada, he is at risk for not being allowed into Canada at all unless the border officers are satisfied he has what is called dual intent: that is intent to only be a visitor while at the same time applying for status to live in Canada.

While an American is typically not issued a visitor's visa (though sometimes they are), if he overtly declares his dual intent at the border, it is likely he will be referred inside for a secondary examination and issued a Visitor's Record. Best that the two of you be traveling together for this, so that you can vouch for intending to sponsor him for PR and being willing to support him while he is in Canada. The Visitor's Record constitutes sufficient record of status when making a later application to extend visitor status.

An American can also specifically ask the border officer if they will issue a Visitor's Record, and explain that the reason is he plans on making a sponsored spouse PR application. Still, best to be together when doing this.

Americans can be turned back at the border if the Canadian officer concludes the American is not coming to Canada to be a visitor. Many have. Usually much to their suprise.

Additionally, there is no six month guarantee. If an American is simply waived into Canada as a visitor, he can stay up to six months. If, in contrast, the American acknowledges to the border officer a plan to stay for six months, that is likely to raise questions and could lead to being issued a Visitor's Record for a much shorter period of time (before I became a PR I had a couple good for barely a few weeks).


Work permit:

In the past it has typically taken as long to get an open-work permit, when applying via the inland process, as it would take for the whole application to be processed via the out-of-Canada route. In other words, typically, historically, the out-of-Canada applicant (talking about sponsored U.S. citizens) would get his or her PR and be able to work in Canada sooner than an inland applicant gets a mere open-work permit. Caveat: I am not familiar with the current time line to obtain an open-work permit.