What route is best

[Jaeden85 0]

I am a Canadian citizen, currently engage to an American soldier and we have 9 month old baby boy. We have know each other for 5 years or more and been together for two, we plan to get married with in the next month. Since the baby was born it has been my fiancée coming here to visit, but being in the military his vacation times are obviously limited. Our sons birthday and Christmas is coming very soon and we want to be together for that. I feel like our best option would have been to apply for a fiancée visa, but he can not get his housing in the army for our family until we get married making this impossible. So that leaves a spouse visa, our issue is I would like to go down to visit him from approx. Oct.25- Dec.30. But am very concerned they will not let me across the border, I am a stay at home mom living with my parents right now so have no proof of ties to my country, even though I have every intention of returning to canada after the two months. I just really don't want my fiancée to miss more of his sons life (birthday,Christmas), it would break his heart, and because of his attachment to the military he can't come here. So my question is would it be best to wait on filing till I've gotten to the states, tell them I am just coming to visit friends/vacation? File once I am across the border, and then head back to canada after Christmas and take care of my end of the paper work? I know this is a little shady, but it would destroy my partner to miss these events in our child's life an I don't see any way around it? I'm convinced if I show up at the border w an I-130 pending, an American baby and no ties to my country, they will turn me away. Is there any other route I can look to take? Thank you

[Mollie09 1,543]

When are you getting married? Your fiance can't file for a spousal visa if you're not legally married.

[Jaeden85 0]

I plan to get married within the month, probably on a 4 day weekend for him. We will be getting married here in Canada, unless there is a better way of going about everything.

[Boiler 43,429]

Once you are married you always have the option of requesting to be paroled into the US. Something to bear in mind.

[Jaeden85 0]

Parole into the us? Is that cause he's in the army, I'm unfamiliar with what that is

[NikLR 13,220]

~~moved to Canada forum from IR1/CR1 progress reports. OP has not yet filed nor seems to be asking about a path or what path but on visiting issues unique to Canadians~~

Visiting for Canadians generally is not difficult honestly.

Have you applied for the CRBA for your son?

Feel free to look at the guides here

[Boiler 43,429]

Parole in Place - Military

My guess is that it is not an option used by many Canadians as they have an easy entry usually. But nice to have a back up.

[Mollie09 1,543]

Could you wait to file until after you're back? I don't think they'd give you a ton of grief regardless, but it might make it better not to have a pending I-130.

[Jaeden85 0]

You guys honestly think they woul let me threw fine with no proof of ties to Canada, I've just read some of the posts of threads here about visiting durring the visa process and everyone says it's a bad idea unless you have a bunch of paper work. Ideally we would like for him to fly here and then drive down with me, for safety and so at the boarder I for have to have a notarized letter for the baby. But I felt like that would look really bad on our part, I saw a post on here somewhere explaining the same situation (trying to drive across boarder with spouse) and they were denied. I just can't risk getting denied and not being there for these milestones in our babies life, so just looking for safest way to get across atm.

[AudreyND 14]

First of all, your fiancé needs to talk to his CoC about what they can do for him. He can get help with the base legal services (free) for your immigration. He can also get approved to move off base, at his own cost, until you get there and get listed as a dependant under DEERS. Then he'll get housing allowance.

If you guys really want to get this done quickly, go the k1 route, move there once approved, get married.

Side note: with a fiancé in the military, you need a thicker skin and think about him missing LOTS of birthday and christmas. If he deploys, get sent on TDY, trainings, etc etc. It sucks, but thats what he signed for!

Good luck with everything!

[keysjangle 145]

Tough spot you're in. My husband is also US military, and I was able to get B2 visas granted at the border (at Pearson airport) to spend entire summers with him. I don't remember exactly what they asked me about regarding my ties, but they asked me a lot about him (his branch, rank, his job, active/retired, shore/sea duty, etc). But this was always between semesters at university and I was working as well. I may have brought up school if they asked, but I never had to show them the letters my boss would write for me.

A friend of mine who met a guy in New Orleans got denied and sent home for not having any ties back to home (no job, not in school, etc). I think the picked up some ####### job at K-mart for like 2 months, then attempted to cross again and got allowed through. She hasn't come back since.

All I can really think of is if you spent a little less time, maybe one month instead of two. You absolutely want to have a return flight booked, and have your itinerary ready to produce. It doesn't mean a lot in the eyes of CBP sometimes (since you could always cancel it or change it once you're in the US), but it's better than nothing. Does dad have some leave time left (remember, they are supposed to have a minimum of 10 days saved up for emergencies, so he shouldn't be using every day) to come visit in October?

Definitely have him go to legal and see what his options are. Maybe he can get a notarized letter written up stating that he understands the consequences of fraudulent misrepresentation at the border, and intends to ensure that you follow the letter of the law, etc etc, but he really wants to spend Christmas with his family. Have that Fed-Ex'd to you, so you can have it at the border in case CBP asks for anything (I would keep it in the original Fed Ex packaging too and bring it to the airport in that). Don't ever present anything without them asking for it, by the way. Only give them what they ask for, and only answer what they ask of you, nothing more. Notarized letters from your family at home?

You really need to find some sort of ties - car payments, bills, a part time job, something.

DO NOT ever lie to CBP. It's better to get turned away than banned.