British wanting to Marry Canadian - need help
 

Hi all,

My girlfriend lives in Quebec, Canada and I live in England. We have decided to take the plunge and get married and I am going to move to Canada but we are not sure the best way to go about it. I am going to be in America very soon for business and could fly up and marry her during my stay.
Below are my questions, please advise what you recommend:

1. Is it legal for me to enter Canada on a tourist visa and then marry her?
2. I have heard it is hard to get married in Quebec so we will travel outside of that jurisdiction - other than that, can we just walk into a courthouse and get married without any other applications ahead of time?
3. How do we then fill in paperwork so i can move to Canada and live there, once i have sold my house in England?
4. Is there a better way to do this? We have put a 6-12month timeframe on getting settled in together but this trip to the US is coming up soon so if it could be useful i would like to know sooner rather than later. I don't want to commit a crime and jeopardise anything in our future...

I appreciate any advice,
Thanks,
AB.

Re: British wanting to Marry Canadian - need help
 

I believe so. I am not aware of any other visa types. The US has a "fiance" visa but I don't think Canada does. Even then thats just to make your intentions clearer and it's not needed from what I've read.

One common theme you'll see on this site is it's never good to lie about your intentions with your actions. If you intend to live in Quebec with her, get married in Quebec. Otherwise you risk making yourself look suspicious despite having genuine intentions.

She will have to Sponsor you, and provide proof she can support you. All this information is on the CIC site. Don't go selling your house till it comes back positive!

You should be fine. 6-12months is very quick though, be aware the sponsorship process can take over a year to complete.

Re: British wanting to Marry Canadian - need help
 

Very unlikely to take that long if they do it outland - takes around 2-4 months.

Apologies OP, completely forgot my manners. Welcome to the forum! The Wiki (on blue bar at top of page) has a good article on spousal sponsorship.

Re: British wanting to Marry Canadian - need help
 

You don't need a special visa to get married in Canada (she would do if you wanted to marry her in the UK). In Alberta you have to get a marriage license before you can get married, but you can walk in and get it straight away.

When arriving at immigration, just make sure you have some evidence that you'll be leaving the country on you, in case they want reassurance. I had a return flight booked for September (which also had my new wife's new surname listed), which convinced the IO.

There's a few of us on the forums who are currently in Canada on tourist visas waiting for our paperwork to process, and also a few who are still in the UK living apart from their spouses waiting, so you can do it both ways. The general consensus is that you should use the outland route whatever you decide.

Finally, welcome and congratulations!

Re: British wanting to Marry Canadian - need help
 

She'll have to look into getting a marriage license. In NS there is a 5 day wait from when you apply to when you can pick it up (but only one person needs to be there to apply for it). You can't get married without it. The laws re. marriage licenses in the province where you decide to get married are the laws you need to worry about.

I can't see where getting married in another province would be an issue (if you had reason to do it there). Maybe you want to get married in a certain city? As long as it's a legal marriage I'm not seeing why it should matter to Imm Can.

If you apply spousal outland, it will be around 2-4 mos as mentioned previously. She doesn't have to prove she can support you, she only has to prove she is not receiving social assistance. There is no minimum income requirement for Spousal Sponsorship.

Never lie to Imm. Can, odds are they'll find out. Get married where you want, when you want as long as it's legal and fill out the app.

Note, Quebec has some somewhat "restrictive" laws re. marriage regardless of where you get married so take a close look at exactly what needs to happen. This might be a good place to start:

http://www.justice.gouv.qc.ca/englis...a.htm#criteria

They even regulate how your spouse can go about changing her name (ie, legal docs need to be in the birthname always...even if you were married outside quebec).

Good luck!