AwiserBud

hello everyone.
I am planning on moving to canada to be with my girlfriend who is a canadian citizen, we plan to get married within the next few months and then apply for a spousal visa so i can move over permanently and work there, ( i am a skilled worker too)
i have been told that this process can be turned around within 6 months?would it be possible for me to stay in canada as a tourist (i believe i can stay in this capacity for up to 6 months from england) while we are waiting for the application to be processed? and if the process takes slightly longer then can i extend my tourist stay without having to return to england?

also i would really appreciate any comments on whether i should simply apply for the sposal visa once we are married myself directly to the authorities, or should i be using an immigration company to help us out? i dont really want to pay expensive representation fee's to a company if all i have to do is submit an application to the relevant office.

thanks in advance for your advice.
Steve.

britishvixen21

Hi Steve you might want to post this in the immigration Canada section, this is just the lounge for off immigration topics. Youl find experts in the immigration section that can help you.

My cents worth, we just went through the spousal route, was done in 3 months and 3 weeks total. I also stayed here as a tourist while it was in process its not uncommon to do it. couple of things though:

Make sure you get married first, as you dont seem to qualify for common law as yet and conjugal is a waste of time.

Apply outside of Canada to London, if you appy inland youl have a much longer wait time (about a year to be done and dusted)

If your going to apply to London do it as soon as you arrive as you must stay in status while you are here, you only get a max of 6 months as a tourist before you either have to apply for an extension of leave and come back again both of which avenues can be refused.

We didnt use a consultant, i just researched researched and researched i dotted the i's and crossed the t's. and put in as much evidence of our relationship as i could possibly find. pictures, letters, flight tickets, proof of joint bank accounts together, letters of support from family and freinds basically they want to see the ins and outs of your cats backside.

Hope that helps good luck.

AwiserBud

hello, i am really sorry for posting in here, i didnt realise this wasnt a forum for immigration issues, yeah i know i should have read the headers, i guess i missed them lol,
I will post in the relevant section but i would really love to hear more about your move and the process you went through,
when you say apply to the british office, should i do that from canada, and give a canadian correspondence address? or should i mail my application to someone in the UK and have them post it from the UK, i will still have a correspondence address in the UK.

sorry once again for posting in the wrong group, I can imagine how this can annoy people