Sorry if this topic has been discussed elsewhere; I'm completely new to all of this. I'm a US citizen finishing a MA in Canada and would like to start a PhD at the same institution next year. However, if, a year from now, my foreign (not Canadian) fiance and I are married (after he comes here on a k1), at what point in the immigration process can he live and work in Canada. I know that normally, my spouse (if he were a U.S. citizen) would be given a work permit while I'm in school here. I'm concerned that he'll have to live in the U.S. without me while we wait for the forms to be processed (or that I'll have to postpone school to be with him), or that if he is able to come to Canada, he won't be able to work legally for some time.

Thanks for your help!

S

After marriage under K-1 status (and subsequent filing of Adjustment of Status), your new spouse will be unable to leave the U.S. without forfeiting his petition for AOS until the greencard is approved. The only exception is through Advance Parole...which is intended for emergency travel (and has lately been accepted to be used for international visits/vacations), but I don't think that would be suitable for actually working in Canada. Use of AP carries an innate risk....it is not a guaranteed ticket for re-entry but rather a document which gives the CBP an option to let you in. If they feel that the terms of the AP have been abused, or have some other issue...your new spouse will be denied entry and the AOS will be abandoned. There are several cases going through the courts on this issue. There is no statuatory declaration of how long an absence on AP is "too long", but the consensus is that anything over 1 month is risky.

If your fiance is admissible to Canada for work (which is completely outside the scope of U.S. Immigration processes) and the plan is to spend next year together there...it seems as though the better option would be to get married now and file for the K-3 which will allow him to leave and enter the U.S. basically at will while AOS is being processed.

There was another post about this recently.. too tired to search for it, sorry. Answer had to do with tax implications, so it would be well worth the search....

Jen

You would also have to receive permission from Canadian Immigration for your husband to live and to work in Canada. Employment authorizations are only given after the employer has proved to Human Resources Development Canada that there are no Canadians who are available to do the job, so he can't just go and work there. The employer has to initiate the process. He will not be allowed to live in Canada without permission to be there as well. He may qualify for a temporary visitor's visa if he is there while you are in school, but he would not be allowed to work. Canadian Immigration may also deny him a visitor's visa as well if they believe that he does not have strong ties that will ensure his return to his home country. As an applicant for a US Green Card he would have no ties to his home country. I am not sure if the ties to the US would be sufficient, and I am also not sure how living outside of the US during the time his AOS is pending would impact his AOS - he would have problems meeting US residency requirements. Is the University you are attending close enough to the border that he can live in the US and you travel back and forth to school? That might be more realistic.

Thanks for all the suggestions and advice! The University is in Montreal, so not far from the border, so yes, I could travel back and forth, but a daily commute would be too much. If we only saw each other during weekends or long weekends, wouldn't our marriage look suspicious to the immigration authorities? Otherwise, it sounds like i should consider the K3 or taking a year off from my studies. So many borders and laws and restrictions!

S

even if you get married now and apply for K3, and then he goes to Montreal to be with you, this could affect his domicile in the US and his application for AOS could be denied.

I'd seriously consider pusuing your degree at a US school, or wait a few years until your husband has received US citizenship. He cannot have applications for residency in 2 separate countries, either or both of them will at some point find out, and deny him.