How does my SO move to Canada?

December 26, 2015 8:10 PM

I live/work in Toronto as a permanent resident. My queer SO is a US citizen through and through, and lives in Maryland. Long distance sucks, and we are hoping to move her here next academic year...but logistics are complicated. I need your ideas, expertise, experiences etc of moving North across the border!

The premise:

I am working on my PhD; she's getting her doctorate in the performing arts-- so we are both on the infamously meagre grad student salaries, and I won't be able to support both of us with my income if she moves here as a traveller (and therefore can't work, at least not above board).

We would both really like to finish our respective degrees in 2017, although if we both take another year and finish in 2018 it would not be unusual for either of our disciplines. She would be ABD by the summer of 2016. Right now she does not have a job offer.

I am in theory willing to move, but I am planning on applying for Canadian citizenship in the Fall of 2016 and have to remain in Canada after I've submitted the application. I've also been promised a significant amount of TA work at my university for 2016-2018, while her assistantship runs out at the end of this academic year. The Canadian citizenship is extremely important to me. Also, we would still be facing all of the same issues since my original citizenship is not from the US.


Considering all of the above, it seems to me that we really only have a few options:
1) She would apply for a job and get a work permit. This seems to be a bit of a long shot though- the kind of part time teaching/adjunct positions people with her background/qualifications get don't typically work very well for applying for a work permit. Not to mention that the employer would need to demonstrate that no Canadians qualify for the job.
2) She could go to school and get another Master's. We are in the process of figuring out if she could be getting a MA while finishing a DMA though, if we can manage the tuition.
3) We stay put, endure another year of long distance, finish our degrees as quickly as possible, and then she could apply for a legit job in Canada. Which might still be a long shot, but probably slightly better than as an ABD who still has to worry about finishing.
4) We could get married. Neither of us are ready.

Did I miss any thing? It seems to me very bleak, and the likelihood of no.3 is quite high, but maybe I missed something glaring. Are there any other ideas? Has any MeFite been in similar situations? Would you share your experiences? I would appreciate just about anything. I've been pulling my hair out over thing, and honestly-- and heartbreakingly--it seems like staying put might be the most sensible decision.

posted by atetrachordofthree to Law & Government (10 answers total)

Yep, I've been in a similar situation. We chose 4). We also weren't ready, and chose to think of it as the only real chance we had of staying together, which we both deeply wanted. We then had a family ceremony a few years later. This turned out to be helpful a few years down the line when doing US immigration, since the longer you've been married the less restrictions are on your green card.

...we did end up separating, but that's not really relevant. Were I in the same situation again I'd get a pre-nup, but we would have certainly changed that after the family ceremony anyway.

To sponsor a partner for canadian PR you only need to live together for a year, so if you can figure out a way to do that you should be good.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 9:08 PM on December 26, 2015 [5 favorites]

There is a class of visas called NAFTA TN visas. Is she eligible for any of professional classifications? University/College teacher is one for example, as is Librarian if she wanted to get a MLIS.
posted by saucysault at 9:20 PM on December 26, 2015 [2 favorites]

Depending on previous degrees, your partner could qualify for Express Entry. It's the newer version of PR that came in this year, and is almost entirely points based. See the calculator here: CRS tool.

The draws have ranged in points from 600+ down to the most recent at 450. I'd have your partner play around with the tool with and without being married and before/after degree to see how likely they are to get the required points. You might have to guess at English test scores etc.

There are points for having a common law spouse in Canada, so you could try playing with that in the tool. You can apply as an immigrant without being sponsored by your common-law partner but still get "adaptibility points" from them as you have someone you know in Canada (this was what I did). You will have to sign some forms declaring common-law which have the same legal effects as being married though.

There is a post-doctoral exemption for LMIAs - basically this means if you get hired as a post-doc you don't need to prove you arent taking a Canadians job. This may be helpful once your SO finishes their PhD. Here's a page from UofT about it. I would think this is your best bet for getting your SO into Canada and working, and from there you can do express entry or marriage. You also get a lot of CRS points for having worked in Canada. For non-post-doc work, I would guess you have a more or less zero chance of a job offer as a TA - it would need and LMIA which won't happen.

Depending on points and NOC code, you could also think about the Provincial nomination program. This let's provinces give people 600 CRS points if they have a in demand NOC and a certain number of points. I think Ontario has been giving them to 400 points plus if you are involved in IT. This may or may not be relevant to your SO. Proving a link to you in the relevant province would probably help a lot here too.

If you are considering marriage, please be aware it isn't as simple as married, done. You will have to sponsor them, and if they are not in Canada at the time you might have an up to 2 year wait before they can come - see the CIC site. This will likely be much slower than express entry, and while bridging work permits are available for some, I;m not sure you'd qualify if you come to Canada after marriage.

Lastly, check out the forums at Canadavisa.com. They are down at the moment, but in the times they are up you can get great help there.
posted by scodger at 10:17 PM on December 26, 2015 [4 favorites]

Family reunification is another option. Though it might be difficult to make the case for sponsorship if your promise to support them if they can't support themselves isn't backed up with an actual job. Because you would be common-law spouses, not married, you would need to show that if it weren't for circumstances, you would live together.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 10:48 PM on December 26, 2015 [1 favorite]

This is something that is easier said than done, but if either of you can apply for and get a fellowship or grant that is not location-dependent (meaning that you get the money but don't have to be in residence), then you would be able to live in the same place without having to confront the marriage question. My grad school had a bunch of these fellowships that were meant to support doctoral students through the final stages of writing up and finishing. They weren't much advertised and if you didn't ask you might never know they existed.

Regarding marriage, I know I am not the only person here who got married earlier than planned because of immigration and financial issues, and it has worked out fine. Having those issues affect the timeline is not a bad thing, but marrying someone whom you are not sure about is definitely a poor idea. Listen to your heart on this, because a divorce is a lot more expense and trouble than just finding another solution to the long distance problem.
posted by Dip Flash at 5:45 AM on December 27, 2015 [2 favorites]

Best answer: As a U.S. citizen, your significant other may be eligible for a streamlined work permit process under the International Mobility Program: North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). You can apply at the border and a Canadian Border Services Agency officer will adjudicate your application while you wait. You will need a pre-arranged offer of employment in one of 60 professional occupations approved for this program. I don't know how the officer is likely to feel about part-time employment. I recommend speaking with a Canadian immigration lawyer about this.

Not to mention that the employer would need to demonstrate that no Canadians qualify for the job.

Entry under the NAFTA program is exempt from the Labour Market Impact Assessment program (International Mobility Program: Labour Market Impact Assessment exemption codes).

You will have to sponsor them, and if they are not in Canada at the time you might have an up to 2 year wait before they can come - see the CIC site.

U.S. citizens are authorized by law to enter Canada as temporary residents (but not to work or study!) without applying for a visa. If you sponsor your significant other for a permanent residency application, she would then be eligible to apply for an open work permit (International Mobility Program: Open work permit) under a program that ends in December 2016. Again, talking to a Canadian immigration lawyer about this would be a good idea.
posted by grouse at 7:49 AM on December 27, 2015 [2 favorites]

I've been through both the NAFTA work permit process and the applying for a spouse's open work permit process (in the simpler case where the sponsor is a temporary foreign worker rather than a permanent resident). Both cases went by very smoothly but I also had a stack of documentation from my immigration lawyer.
posted by grouse at 8:04 AM on December 27, 2015 [1 favorite]

My American girlfriend postdoced in Canada on a NAFTA work permit, as described by grouse. It was very simple, except perhaps for the getting the job part. She also taught one semester as a sessional instructor, and while this was during the postdoc, I suspect that would've been doable on its own as well. All that was needed from the university to obtain her work permit was a job offer letter.
posted by snorkmaiden at 8:51 AM on December 27, 2015 [1 favorite]

To sponsor her on a family class sponsorship you do not need to be married, you need to either be married, be common law spouses, or in a conjugal partnership (basically long distance common law spouses) . This is the kind of thing to consult an immigration lawyer for. First you may want to peruse the CIC website, which is fairly good on sponsorship eligibility.
posted by hepta at 10:37 AM on December 27, 2015 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Family sponsorship sounds like a really viable option for you. My partner and I went through this process a few years ago and had very similar circumstances to you:

-He is an American citizen and was living in the US
-I'm a Canadian citizen who was a student in Canada
-we had never lived together prior to his obtaining PR status in Canada

You're eligible to sponsor someone permanent resident yourself and you could continue on your path to citizenship, uninterrupted. Additionally, the timelines for the PR process might work out quite well for you. The entire process from starting the application to approval took about 2 years for us.

I wanted to mention a few other comments as well, prompted by responses given by others:
-an immigration lawyer is not necessary for this process in Canada. It's navigable on your own as long as you read all the directions and forms carefully.
-There was no need in my case to prove the ability to support my partner - I was just required to agree to do so if he could not support himself.

Feel free to Memail me if you have specific questions about the family sponsorship process. I can give you some more insight and/or details privately.
posted by bkpiano at 5:59 PM on December 27, 2015 [1 favorite]