Canadian wanting to move home with American Husband

[Peggy 1]

I am Canadian and my husband is American. I have been living in the USA since 2005. We are wondering what steps we have to take for him to move to Canada and be able to work in my Country. I have my 10 year GC now since 2008. We want to move home this summer but can not find any information on whether he can work in Canada.

[raymaga 25]

Hi Peggy:

My husband and I would like to do the same, so I will be very interested in any responses you get.

We are not planning on moving back to Canada any time soon, but in retirement in about 7 years. I have tried doing some research on the Canadian immigration website, but don't seem to be able to find much information about when the Canadian citizen (me) lives with my U.S. citizen husband in the U.S. Most of the information seems to be for Canadian citizens who are living in Canada and want to bring their spouse to Canada to live with them.

In our case, we would like for us to both move to Canada together.

[Kathryn41 3,205]

Hi Peggy and Raymaga,

The easiest way to move back to Canada and have your husbands able to work upon arrival is to start the process here in the US. You would be applying as 'returning residents' to Canada and their applications for Permanent Residency would be filed and processed through the Canadian Consulate in Buffalo. Then, when they were approved, you would physically move back to Canada and they would 'activate' their PR status when they cross the border and officially 'land' in Canada. The process involves many of the same activities as immigration to the US does - security checks, medicals, interviews, etc.

Here is a link to the applications, http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/applications/fc.asp'>http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/applications/fc.asp although it would be useful to read over the Sponsoring Spouses to Canada sections in the Citizenship and Immigration forum - there is a lot of information contained there that you can browse through by opening different links: http://www.cic.gc.ca

There are other VJ members who have done this process as well and I am sure some of them will be along to talk about their experiences.

[Udella&Wiz 325]

Are you considering getting your US citizenship before leaving? Just out of curiousity....then you wouldn;t have to worry about immigration if you ever chose to move back to the US.

[warlord 72]

Are you considering getting your US citizenship before leaving? Just out of curiousity....then you wouldn;t have to worry about immigration if you ever chose to move back to the US.

Yes moving to live and work in Canada on a Greencard would abandon it's status and if you ever wanted to move and live in the US you would then have to start again from scratch. The Greencard only allows people to temporarly visit other countries (generally under 6 months, though that depends on the situation). Living and working outside the US regardless of time out if it's not for a US company, military service etc. would jepordize your Green Card and it very well could be considered abandoned and you would be denied entry if you ever tried to live back in the US.

If you don't care to ever live in the US again then it doesn't matter. If you do, then the only way to do this is by becomming a US citizen which then would allow you to live and work abroad...

[raymaga 25]

I'm very glad that I have my U.S. citizenship, just for the reasons you both describe. We may chose to move back to the U.S. at some point after we have lived in Canada for a while, so we won't have any problems doing so.

[trailmix 77]

It's not dissimilar to applying for U.S. PR. For Canada you get all your stuff together in one go though - no back and forth with documents and payments (why do the American's do it that way )

If you apply within Canada you can apply for a work authorization as well, at some point during the process, can't remember exactly when (we applied for my Husband's while we were both living in Canada).

For applications within Canada - they apparently take longer and from what I have read you just have to appear at the border and claim that you are entering to immigrate. Now, I have never been able to find any information on doing that - I really think if that is the plan you need to call them and get details.

To apply from outside Canada, those links Kathryn gave you should give you any info you need, the Canadian website is really quite easy to follow.

Once approved the new Canadian PR will receive a 5 year permanent resident card - they don't issue them for a longer period ever - yet. That's about it. The other great thing about Canadian permanent residents married to Canadian's - if they leave Canada they don't lose their Canadian PR, as long as they are living with the Canadian spouse. Time out of the country can't be counted as though it were time in Canada though - towards Canadian citizenship.

[warlord 72]

Once approved the new Canadian PR will receive a 5 year permanent resident card - they don't issue them for a longer period ever - yet. That's about it. The other great thing about Canadian permanent residents married to Canadian's - if they leave Canada they don't lose their Canadian PR, as long as they are living with the Canadian spouse. Time out of the country can't be counted as though it were time in Canada though - towards Canadian citizenship.

Yeah that's definatly a bonus then if you are doing it in Canada like that. There have been so many people thinking that their Green Cards worked the same way and then upon comming back to the US found that they have no status anymore and their Green Cards are no longer valid for breaking the residency requirements. Other people have been lucky to get back in and then caught when applying for Citizenship and been deported and such as well...

[rae_and_scott 1]

Yup, read up on the links Kathryn provided. All the info is there and it's pretty straight-forward. We found it much easier to navigate than the US process.

As others have suggested, you might want to consider staying in the US till you can gain citizenship. I know you said you want to move this summer, and of course not everyone wants to naturalize, but it will certainly make your life easier should you ever decide to move back to the States.

What you want to do is apply 'Outland' vs. 'Inland' (apply while you are both in the US). It is in fact much faster. My process actually took only 3 months (though I think I just got lucky; that was super fast). I had figured it would take about 6. Whereas applying inland takes approximately 18 months.

[ashenflowers 5]

What if you don't want to move and live in the US again, but just want to come back to visit? Is this grounds for denial at the border?

[warlord 72]

What if you don't want to move and live in the US again, but just want to come back to visit? Is this grounds for denial at the border?

No you just hand in your Green Card when leaving and enter as any other Canadian citizen when visiting the US...

[HannahP 119]

and from what I have read you just have to appear at the border and claim that you are entering to immigrate.

Kind of OT but my MIL's fiancé had to do this and we had to drive him to the border. The drive from Edmonton to the ND/Canada border is NOT fun.