simonfiction

Hi,

I'm sponsoring my girlfriend for PR and she is currently in the country on a Bunac work visa from the UK. This visa will expire before she has the PR through. I know we have to get her status in Canada to a visitor but just not sure of the simplest and easiest way to do this. She is working right up to the very last day of her visa (31st Oct) in Vancouver. It appears the simplest way might be to go over to the States and re-enter the country, but when should she do this? Does getting the visitor status before she finishes work mean she's illegally working? And does getting it the day after her visa expire mean that she's breaking the law by overstaying her original visa? I don't want to do anything that may jeopardise our application to sponsor her (e.g. breaking immigration law).

Any advice?

simonfiction

No one can help?

ESarge

Or she could have applied to Vegreville for a change of status and not leave the country at all.

However, CIC wants this done 30 days before expiry and you've run out of time.

She won't be able to work once she has the visitor's visa so I would flagpole on the first.

You should realise that there's a risk the immigration officer won't let her back in.

cornmatthew

They say that, but it's not a hard requirement. I suspect it's to avoid argument when somebody miscalculates by a day or two.

See http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resourc...p/ip06-eng.pdf under 'Eligibility'.

Quite. Applying for an extension is much safer.

Kynn

They LIKE 30 days, they don't require it though. What they DO require is that the application is in their hands PRIOR to the expiry of your existing status. We sent my bf's application to change status to Alberta 2 weeks before his visa expired, requesting change to visitor status for a 6 month period. It was granted in September (3 mos after we sent it in) and they actually gave him one year from the date it was issued (so actually more like 15 mos total). Hopefully we won't need it much longer though. Btw, we sent it registered 2 day mail so we had confirmation of delivery.

simonfiction

Thanks for the replies. I have to confess I've been a bit naive when it comes to this and assumed there couldn't possibly be a problem.

Any advice for helping to ensure the flagpole visit goes smoothly? Should I just be brutally honest, explain I missed the 30 day period to apply for a status change, explain we have a PR sponsorship application in process, etc? Will I need to prove income to support her or anything like that?

ESarge

Never lie to immigration about anything. You can get deported for lying about a situation where the situation itself would have been okay.

That said, you don't necessarily need to tell them everything.

The question the border officer will have in mind is: will she go home afterwards?

Tickets for travel are the common way to do this but you may need more. Why don't you think up a plan for what would happen if she didn't get PR.

How far along is the PR app anyway? I hope you went the outland route.

simonfiction

Yea, we went the outland route. It's probably around 2 months into the process, so still have a few to go. It's a fairly simple common-law sponsorship (if there is such a thing as simple immigration), no dependants or anything like that. We both have return flights to go home at Christmas. Would they frown upon it being a return flight and not a one way ticket back? Any tips on what else I could provide to ensure them that we'd leave the country?

lucieg

I wouldn't bother flagpoling just send your request to change to visitor status into vegreville...as long as it gets there before her current permit has run out you're fine and dandy. Saves the worry of leaving Canada and then potentially not being let back in.