PR of US wanting to move back to Canada (to AOS or not to AOS?)

[TrueNorth 0]

Ack I'm sorry I posted this twice! I'll report it for the mod to remove.

Edited May 2, 2010 by TrueNorth

[TrueNorth 0]

My Canadian husband is a permanent resident in the US and we need to file for LOC in about 3 or 4 months. Everything was on schedule and fine until his father had a talk with him about how he wants us all to move back to Canada so we will be with the family (they really REALLY want to be near our daughter, their only granddaughter) and Dad is offering my husband a full time job at the family business. Now my husband has had no luck getting a job in the US because he's only ever worked for his dad's business in Canada and has no experience doing anything else. He's been applying for everything under the sun he can find with no luck (he's gone on interviews, he's even gone to the workforce commission).

I am working 2 jobs while he takes care of our daughter and we're doing okay but we can't afford health insurance and cut things close financially every month. We don't have any money saved up and I am about to file medical bankruptcy (I'm fine but it took a lot of years and a lot of money to find that out).

So here we are and here's the problem:

My husband and I aren't really keen on moving to Canada. The things that are compelling for us are the opportunity for him to have a great full time job in an area he's familiar with while I and my daughter have access to his HUGE family and we will be better off financially. I have a very small family and don't see them hardly ever so I like the idea of my child being able to be around family, having her grandma and grandpa plus she has a cousin who is just 2 months older than her and so on. It would be great for her, and I'm thinking of her first.

If it were just a question of moving from one state to another, no one would ask questions or wonder why -- it would be obvious and simple. But because we have a border in the way, it's a huge complicated thing. The issues:

I don't know if Canada is even going to want me with my bankruptcy pending.

If we're staying in the US, we have to file LOC or hubby will get deported.

If we are going to Canada, how will that look to the US?

If we file LOC while intending to move to Canada, that doesn't seem right at all. Immigrating to Canada it will probably be a long drawn out process and I can't figure out how it would work considering we have a time limit for LOC for the US. If Canada rejects me, I want to obviously stay here and just make the best of things.

How do I find out if Canada will let me in before the time limit for LOC is up?

We worked so hard and spent so much time, effort, money and put so much emotion into getting my husband into the US that I feel it would be such a waste to just go up to Canada. At the same time I'm working 70 hours a week and it's wearing me out.

Any thoughts or advice?

Edited May 2, 2010 by TrueNorth

[Lia792 5]

I'm guessing you mean removal of conditions since from your timeline it appears your husband did AOS in 2008. If I were you, I would wait until my husband had become a citizen so you don't have to ever go through immigration again if you want to come back. I'm not an expert on citizenship, but it can be applied for after 3 years of permanent residency...check the guides and that will correct any errors in my language or knowledge. The rest I guess depends on your priorities and what is good for your family.

[Otto 83]

Ack I'm sorry I posted this twice! I'll report it for the mod to remove.

No problem - it happens.

**Duplicate topic merged (looks a bit out of sync, but its there).

[TrueNorth 0]

I'm guessing you mean removal of conditions since from your timeline it appears your husband did AOS in 2008. If I were you, I would wait until my husband had become a citizen so you don't have to ever go through immigration again if you want to come back. I'm not an expert on citizenship, but it can be applied for after 3 years of permanent residency...check the guides and that will correct any errors in my language or knowledge. The rest I guess depends on your priorities and what is good for your family.

I don't think that would work because he'd have to give up his Canadian citizenship and without that I don't think he can sponsor me (?).

[wowswift 3]

He would not have to give up his Canadian citizenship. He can be dual, and your kids most likely are dual too. (You have to have your husband report the child's birth abroad with the appropriate Canadian authorities and get this child their passport). and Canadian immigration will not care about your bankruptcy.

As far as immigrating to Canada, there are two ways, in country and out of country. out is faster.

[TrueNorth 0]

He would not have to give up his Canadian citizenship. He can be dual, and your kids most likely are dual too. (You have to have your husband report the child's birth abroad with the appropriate Canadian authorities and get this child their passport). and Canadian immigration will not care about your bankruptcy.

As far as immigrating to Canada, there are two ways, in country and out of country. out is faster.

We're definitely out of country right now Yes, our child is dual already as she was born in the US but Canada gives her citizenship because of her father being a citizen. She has a US passport but not a Canadian one yet (I wonder, do we need to be in Canada to get her one? That may be a question for another thread.)

[trailmix 77]

That's correct about your Daughter, of course, but wowswift is correct as well. Your Husband doesn't need to give up his Canadian citizenship - he can be dual as well.

As for your Daughter's passport, you don't have to be in Canada to get one, have a look at this page and click on Canadians living in the U.S. - all the details are there.

Check out the Citizenship and Immigration Canada pages for answers to your questions - their webpages are quite comprehensive - and good.

As for how the U.S. will look at you leaving - or him rather - well if he isn't a citizen of the U.S. and he leaves, for any length of time, he will lose his U.S. permanent residency. Nothing to stop you reapplying later if you decide to move back.

Edited May 3, 2010 by trailmix

[nane1104 146]

All the Immigration issues aside- moving to Canada sounds like a great opportunity for you guys, at least for now. It would give yourself a break, you could recover financially and you already mentioned the benefits for your daughter.

Just by that I would say move, unless you have some personal issues with moving up there. You can always file again when you decide to return to the US.

If you file for removal of conditions now and decide to move, that would be a total waste of money since your husband would lose his status again within the first year of moving back to Canada.

I am not sure if you can do DCF in Canada, but if so, that would be a good solution when you want to return.

All the best wishes to you!

[TrueNorth 0]

All the Immigration issues aside- moving to Canada sounds like a great opportunity for you guys, at least for now. It would give yourself a break, you could recover financially and you already mentioned the benefits for your daughter.

Just by that I would say move, unless you have some personal issues with moving up there. You can always file again when you decide to return to the US.

If you file for removal of conditions now and decide to move, that would be a total waste of money since your husband would lose his status again within the first year of moving back to Canada.

I am not sure if you can do DCF in Canada, but if so, that would be a good solution when you want to return.

All the best wishes to you!

Thank you:) We're just worried because if we don't file to lift conditions, he will be deported at the end of October. So there's a small window of time to file it, and I have no idea how long Canadian immigration could take for me. I don't want to have us get separated after all we've been through to be together. Ahh borders:( If only he'd been American we'd just pack up and drive to another state with no mess and no fuss but this is just stressing all of us out. His dad is talking to a lawyer but he himself doesn't understand the whole "conditions" thing. I tried explaining it to him but he seems to think lawyers are like pixies who make everything all right;) He's a great FIL but he is stubborn in a lot of things and doesn't always listen.

[TrueNorth 0]

All the Immigration issues aside- moving to Canada sounds like a great opportunity for you guys, at least for now. It would give yourself a break, you could recover financially and you already mentioned the benefits for your daughter.

Just by that I would say move, unless you have some personal issues with moving up there. You can always file again when you decide to return to the US.

If you file for removal of conditions now and decide to move, that would be a total waste of money since your husband would lose his status again within the first year of moving back to Canada.

I am not sure if you can do DCF in Canada, but if so, that would be a good solution when you want to return.

All the best wishes to you!

BTW What's DCF? I have a migraine and I just can't remember what that means.