Advice please?

If your girlfriend wanted to move to Canada and you still don't want to get married, your options are about the same. She'd have to find some sort of work visa that she's eiligible for first.

You would only qualify for common-law partner sponsorship if you've already lived together for a year. Which is obviously quite difficult, considering you're in different countries.

She would have to get a work permit, they're easier to get on the Canadian end as the labour certification is simpler in Canada, but I wouldn't go as far as saying it's "easy". She needs a firm job offer and the certification from Human Resources Canada to get a work permit, takes a month or two to process.

Would she need any special skills to get a job in Canada, or would she need to show that there are no available Canadian workers? Would it have to be a job that her degree qualifies her for, or just any old job?

I read up on this last night and it seems like we would definitely qualify under "conjugal partners", if I chose to sponsor her. Should I do that, or should we go the employment route?

Thanks again. I'm sorry for all the questions after questions - Hopefully this thread will stay less than 5 pages long! Your help is very much appreciated here.

The conjugal partner sponsorship is *really* hard to do according to any immigration lawyer and Canadian IO I've ever heard from. Conjugal is difficult to prove, and the paperwork usually takes a lot longer than a prove-able relationship.

I think they primarily created the conjugal sponsorship for same-sex partners, before same sex marriage was legalized.

She doesn't have to prove that there are no qualified Canadians for the job, her prospective employer would have to do that, and apply thru HRC.

Check out http://roadtocanada.com/ for info about immigrating to Canada.

Just updating the situation. With the impossibility of obtaining a work visa and doing things that way, I decided to ask my girlfriend to marry me, and she said yes. All we have wanted is the opportunity to live our lives together, and this seems like the best route to go, even if it complicates the wedding planning process and such.

Unfortunately, now we have to wait to be together. Hardest thing I've ever had to do was to watch her drive off, knowing that I may not see her again for 4-6 months (as I was told not to get a visitor visa while my I-129F is in processing). But, at least there's light at the end of the tunnel now.

Thanks again to both Reba and Steven for your responses to my many questions! Is there anything I should be doing now while my girlfriend/fiancee gathers the evidence required for an I-129F? Anything I can do that might help speed along the process? I've read claims from immigration-based law firms that they can get these things processed faster than just regular people on their own. Is this true, or simple propoganda?

There's no reason you can't visit each other while you wait for the I-129F to be completed. I dunno who told you you can't, but there's no law against it.

The port director at a POE near here informed me that I wouldn't be able to enter the U.S. as a visitor while my I-129F was pending. There's also a website that seems to indicate the same. I can't post the link yet, but here are the quotes that make me nervous:

"All persons traveling to the U.S. as visitors or students, Canadian or other nationality, under U.S. law are deemed to be intending immigrants and thus inadmissible for temporary purposes until they have an immigrant visa in hand."

"While intending immigrants may have and lawfully seek to exercise a dual intent to be a visitor or student now and an immigrant later, it is against U.S. law to enter the U.S. as a visitor or student with the intent to wait for or seek immigrant status while in the U.S."

If there's any doubt at all, I'd probably lean towards not trying it, as I don't need any more bad stuff on my record (in addition to my previously denied TN Visa and visitor visa). Also, with the cost of airline tickets, it would suck to spend $600 only to be turned away while trying to get on board the plane.

If you're doing consular processing, they're not aware of it at the border. At least they don't seem to be.

Besides you're not seeking immigrant status in the US while you're there, are you? You're just going to visit her while the application is processed. The point is your *intent* when you visit. If you intend to leave, get a visa and come back, there's nothing illegal.

I-129Fs petitions are not processed by the consulate, they're processed in the US by USCIS at a service centre. After the petition is approved by USCIS, then the beneficiary (CMac83) will receive an interview package to go to the Consulate in Montreal to apply for his visa.

And what Steven said is correct. You'd not be entering the US to get married on that trip and then stay to adjust status. You're just there to visit and then leave. The burden of proof is on you to prove that you will not be staying illegally, but if you have proof of ties to Canada you should be fine. Like a job, home, car, return ticket etc etc etc.Although if you don't want to take the chance on losing the money paid for airfare, your girlfriend can always visit Canada and should have no difficulty whatsoever.

People who're in the sytem waiting on K1s, K3s, CR1s travel to the US all the time, some on a weekly or monthly basis. Check out http://www.visajourney.com for more information on the K1 processing.