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Joining Canadian girlfriend for duration of her studies

Joining Canadian girlfriend for duration of her studies

Old Apr 13th 2020, 1:27 pm
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Default Joining Canadian girlfriend for duration of her studies

Hi all

I am trying to figure out the best/easiest way for me to join my Canadian girlfriend for two years during her studies, and am hoping someone can point me in the right direction. Details of our situation:

My Canadian/Swiss girlfriend is planning to start her 2 year masters degree in September, at Queen's University, Kingston, ON. I am hoping to accompany her and live and work in Canada for those two years. We currently live in Switzerland, where she grew up and I've lived for the past 3.5 years. I am a British/German dual citizen, and grew up in the UK. I have a masters degree in biology and have worked for the past 1.5 years as a data scientist, and will be looking for similar 'highly skilled' scientific-related work. We have been together for 3 years and by August will have lived together for 1, so will be classed as common law partners.

I've been looking into Express Entry or Family Sponsorship options, but these seem overly complicated and lengthy considering that I am only planning on going there for two years, not permanently. I've also been looking at the (Spousal?) Open Work Permit, which seems like it would fit our situation if my girlfriend was an international student? But I'm not sure if its applicable given that she is Canadian. Can anyone offer me any more insight into any of these options, or let me know if there's another option that I've missed?

Many thanks!

p.s. I have already entered the UK IEC pool as I'm currently 25 so it seems like that would be the easiest option, however it sounds like the chance of receiving an invitation is fairly low so I'd rather not rely on this approach.
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Old Apr 13th 2020, 1:53 pm
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Default Re: Joining Canadian girlfriend for duration of her studies

Hi, welcome to BE.

Sorry to ask a personal question, but is your gf your common-law spouse i.e. have you lived together as spouses for a year or more and can you prove it?

Your chances of IEC are actually very good, very few invites have gone out for 2020 so far due to this crazy world!

You can't get a spousal open work permit, that's only for spouses of visa holders i.e. study permits, work permits, etc, and as you rightly say, as a Canadian citizen your gf can't get any of those visas.

You have three options from what I can see - spousal sponsorship, IEC, or a work permit in your own right. IEC is probably your best best, finding an employer prepared to sponsor you/apply for your LMIA/wait for you to be able to start work could be tricky, and even harder if there are lots of Canadians out of work after Covid-19. Spousal sponsorship would be worth looking at, even if you think you only want to stay for 2 years now. That may changed, and once you've got PR via that route, then as long as you're accompanying your gf abroad, you'd never lose PR, so once you've got it, it's sorted if you ever wanted to return to Canada to live.

Express Entry may also be an option, depending on your score - what do you score on the CRS?

You do need to be prepared for nothing to be possible before Sept I'm afraid, you've left it a bit late particularly given processing delays at the mo. Could your gf defer her studies for a year if needed, if you wanted to go together maybe?
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Old Apr 13th 2020, 2:55 pm
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Default Re: Joining Canadian girlfriend for duration of her studies

Hi, thanks for the quick and informative response!

Spousal sponsorship: As of 1st August this year we will have lived together for a year and can prove it, so this would be a possible route. However, would we be able to start the application already? I assume we might have to wait until 1st August...

Express Entry: I haven't taken the IELTS but assuming a decent score, I think I should get a CRS score of 456. Do you know if I'd stand any chance with that?

I am aware this might all take longer than half a year, would've started looking earlier if I'd realised how much trouble this would all be but my previous experience of moving within Europe was so easy! Fingers crossed for IEC otherwise I suppose!
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Old Apr 13th 2020, 3:23 pm
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Default Re: Joining Canadian girlfriend for duration of her studies

No, you couldn't apply under spousal sponsorship until you've lived together for a year or more, you're simply not eligible before then.

456 is a reasonable score but a bit below the cut off at the moment, the last time it went that low was last August. You can see all of the recent draws here - https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration...-previous.html. But I'd say definitely worth applying with that point score.

One thing to be aware of is that to qualify as your gf's common-law spouse, your cohabitation must be uninterrupted - so in other words, she couldn't go on ahead in Sept whilst you wait in another country, without risking losing that status. So ideally you'll go with her, even if just on a visitor status until you can sort out another visa.

Best of luck.
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Old Apr 13th 2020, 3:47 pm
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Default Re: Joining Canadian girlfriend for duration of her studies

Ok, all very good to know. Thank you again for your help!
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