Canadian wanting to marry an American

HappyBunny
New Member



Joined: 14 Sep 2008
Posts: 1

Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2008 11:41 am

 

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I have known my American boyfriend for over 5 years now and we have met a couple times. Planning on visiting each other again this year.
Our long range plans are for him to move here and for us to get married.
Being I am religious I would love to marry him first before we go any farther in our relationship. We also have to settle out lives first as we both care for aging parents and want to have a good savings.
So would it be ok to get married, then to apply for Canadian citizenship?
Even if we have to live seperate(him in the USA and me in Canada) while waiting for us to figure out the paperwork and any waiting involved in him becoming a Canadian thats fine, as then it gives us time to save and tie up loose ends.
I just am wanting to know the best way for us to go about it legally and smartly.

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Reba
Moderator


Canuck in NC

Joined: 16 Jul 2004
Posts: 1448
Location: North Carolina

Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2008 3:06 am

 

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He can't directly apply for citizenship just because he marries a Canadian. First he has to apply for permanent residency, and after 3 years living in Canada he can apply for citizenship.

For info on marriage based immigration to Canada see http://roadtocanada.com for message boards and support, and for the forms and whatnot, the Canadian Immigration website http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/index.asp
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Steven
CanuckAbroad VIP



Joined: 28 Sep 2007
Posts: 1582
Location: Calgary

Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2008 9:01 am

 

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My advice on this one is to make up where you want to live if you have family problems, etc. If he moves to Canada and after a few months you both decide the US makes more sense, it's going to be a pig with the immigration and tax paperwork. Think it through carefully, because either way you do it, it will take the best part of a year to get the immigrant visa, then another three years to qualify for citizenship and then several more months to get it, either way you do it. Until one of you gets citizenship in the other country, it's not really practical to do the process over and move again.

Figure at least five or six years before you could move country again (because getting another immigrant visa will take another year).

You need to figure out whose family can cope without you being there for that long.
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Steve.

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