2Ps

If you don't have any need to return to Canada after the citizenship oath, you could leave once you have the natz cert in hand, or even leave before that and have your sister forward it to you in the US. (i.e. she receives the envelope, then FedEx's it to you in the US), you can then use that to apply for a passport from the US. Not sure if it's more complicated or not. I believe you can use the natz cert to re-enter Canada by car.

Do not give up. You are allowed to live abroad as long as you meet the requirements to continue with the citizen process. Other will come along who know more about the process then I do. Good luck. 

*** Moved from General Immigration-Related Discussion to the Canada regional forum ***
 

This is untrue. 

Thanks for the info, I will keep this in mind for when I apply! 
 
Yes, you are allowed to work as soon as you cross, the stamp in your visa works as temporary evidence until you receive your SSN -- the below reference is not from Canada, but works same for Canadian immigrants. 
 
https://www.siam-legal.com/US_Visa/cr1-visa-requirements.php
 
 
 
 
 

I called the general EI office yesterday and they gave me this no. 1-877-486-1650. They called me back the next day after I left a voicemail. And they walked me through the necessary steps.
 
Btw, does anyone know if we are eligible to work as soon as we cross the border on CR1 visa? or do we have to wait till we get the SSN?  (see question below from the form)
 
I only crossed the border on March 14th and SSN office says wait at least 3 weeks after your Is the date the day I crossed the border or when I receive the SSN? Any advice from people who have already gone through this process would be super helpful as I don't want to wait around....
 

I called the general EI office yesterday and they gave me this no. 1-877-486-1650. They called me back the next day after I left a voicemail. And they walked me through the necessary steps.
 
Btw, does anyone know if we are eligible to work as soon as we cross the border on CR1 visa? or do we have to wait till we get the SSN?  (see question below from the form)
 
I only crossed the border on March 14th and SSN office says wait at least 3 weeks after your Is the date the day I crossed the border or when I receive the SSN? Any advice from people who have already gone through this process would be super helpful as I don't want to wait around....
 

I FEEL THIS 1000% 
 
I literally cried my eyes out when my husband received his passport/visa and then again when he actually arrived. Only took 3 years for us, but the feeling of being DONE is simply out of this world!

I called the border before I crossed and they confirmed that it is only required for air travel. I crossed the border on March 14th.  Also see the FAQs here. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/testing-international-air-travelers.html#:~:text=On January 12%2C 2021%2C CDC,airline before boarding the flight.

I called the border before I crossed and they confirmed that it is only required for air travel. I crossed the border on March 14th.  Also see the FAQs here. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/testing-international-air-travelers.html#:~:text=On January 12%2C 2021%2C CDC,airline before boarding the flight.

I called the border before I crossed and they confirmed that it is only required for air travel. I crossed the border on March 14th.  Also see the FAQs here. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/testing-international-air-travelers.html#:~:text=On January 12%2C 2021%2C CDC,airline before boarding the flight.

I was in the same boat, but I crossed the border 3 days before our 2 year anniversary (March 17th) after spending some time with my family in Canada. I was pretty bummed that we didn't get to celebrate the 1st one, so I crossed to celebrate our 2nd anniversary. At least, we would be together when we remove the condition, and hopefully won't be much of a headache like this past year.
 
Also, as you mention when I crossed the Peach Arch border, there were only 2 people behind me. And I was at the border for less than 1/2 hour. Good Luck!

Hello, 
 
New to this thread. Just moved to US on March 6th to live with my spouse on a CR-1. Is there an FAQ or some document I can use that summarizes this? I am trying to file EI till I get a job here. I called Service Canada EI and they told me that their system says I can't claim Canadian EI when I have moved to US. I had to then tell her that it is on the Government of Canada website and she said that's completely different than the information they have in their system on EI benefits in US. So... now she is checking again because I directed her to the link on the canada.ca website...
 
Thanks!

It is possible to maintain both US and Canadian Permanent Residency. For Canadian PR you must be on Canadian soil for 2 years out of every rolling 5 year period, you do not need to maintain Canadian Residential Ties. An exception to this requirement exists while accompanying a Canadian citizen spouse or common-law partner outside of Canada. To maintain US permanent residency, you must make your principal home in the US, be resident of a US state or territory, file taxes as a resident alien and spend more time in the US than outside.
Therefore it is possible to maintain both, albeit hard to maintain both requirements to keep those statuses.
 
Canada does not require you to be a resident within a province or territory to acquire citizenship as after 2017 the Canadian Government changed the Citizenship Act to remove the requirement to live in Canada after gaining citizenship, you must only continue to maintain your PR status by complying with the 2 out of 5 year requirement. You just need a Canadian address in order to receive mail from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.
 
As you do not have to break your US residential ties to acquire Canadian citizenship, this will not negatively impact on your US PR status. I have spoken to a Immigration lawyer (not as strict legal advice) in Blaine who also confirms this position.
 
However, you must ensure that you have solid proof of your US residential ties and it definitely doesn't hurt to be in possession of a re-entry permit as well.
 
She will need to use her Canadian PR card to enter Canada, and use her US PR card to enter the US. She must continuously assert and demonstrate that she is a resident in the US.

Hello, my wife got her Canadian citizenship on June 2014. She didn't get questioned about her US PR. 

It really will depend on how the Canadian government processes her application. If they look into her current residence and see that she's living in the US then likely they would deny her application. I would suggest that she enter Canada with her Canadian PR card, typically at the border they will ask where you live though, so they will likely find out.
I am in a similar situation. I am a USC and have CDN permanent residence. I applied in May for CDN citizenship, but my husbands visa to the US was approved so we will be moving to the US before the citizenship application is finished. Luckily even if my citizenship application is denied I can maintain canadian permanent residence as long as while living outside of canada it is with a canadian citizen. My husband and child are both Canadian citizens so that shouldn't be a problem.
Good luck figuring it all out. I would imagine that your wife will have to at some point choose to either keep the Canadian PR or US PR.

Just dropped my husband off at the airport and he's off back to Canada....missing the birth of our first child since he should be in the next batch of interviews. Please pray for me you all! I think I'm beyond depressed at this point. 

Hi VJ family! I'm back to (finally) share some positive news. After many emails explaining why the Consulate made an incorrect decision on refusing my husband his immigrant visa, they finally fixed their mistake and ISSUED the visa. We just received the tracking number today. It's been such an emotional roller coaster for us these past 3 years and even more so in the past 3 months alone since our interview in December. I'm proud of us for staying strong and fighting our case to the Consulate and never giving up! We're so grateful that the end is now here. @Hawk Riders - time to change our place in the tracker to be highlighted in GREEN (approved). I hated seeing that highlighted in RED these past couple of months. 
 
 Thank you all for your support and guidance throughout our journey. WE DID IT! ❤️ 
 
 

I already knew about this before I even considered moving out here to the states.
Hopefully once my partner and I decide to have children, he's making enough money allowing me to completely stop working and just be a full time mom.
I really don't want some stranger raising my child. It's really ridiculous that you can't have at least 6 months, 6 weeks is a joke. Maybe we should just both move to Canada before we have kids, it will cost us a lot less in the end, and heck, he could even get some time off to be with his kid

Back in the olden days..... I received 6 weeks maternity leave at 35% of my pay. (I'm pretty sure it was 35%. It was a long time ago, after all. ) It was the most traumatic thing, ever, to return to work. Very shocking to discover the US was so far behind the times.

I'm doing U-Haul, it's actually super reasonable probably because I'm driving from like 20km north of the border to like 10 miles south of the border.  They also rent dollies and can even provide movers for 2-4 hours to help you get the stuff into the truck, which I might pony up the money for so I don't break myself trying to do it myself (save my 2 friends who are coming to help and truck-sit).  The truck, tow dolly for my car, and the dollies and some furniture blankets it's $228 CDN tax in.  Adding the movers doubles that.  I also will have move in/out fees from my apartment building which will add on another $100.  It's not *free* but it's pretty reasonable for a move.  I'm not taking much furniture though (mostly boxes/totes of possessions) so I can go with a smaller truck, but even the larger ones were like 10-40 bucks more.
 

Approved. 
 
Thank you visajourney for your continued support for the past year. I don't know what I would have done without you guys. I can't believe that 15 mins of interview determined your fate and we had to wait 2 years to get to this point. I feel like I saved a lot of therapy bills by joining this group. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Can't wait to start planning our lives now. 
 
Just wanted to let people going for future interviews that they have lifted the lockdown since Monday, but they were very strict about only essential trips. I went to the mall to get some food and use their washroom and the security guard at the mall asked me what my purpose of the visit was...so just be careful. I tried to get back to my hotel by 6:30 pm and there were cops patrolling the streets toward the evening. I really loved the art around the city and I definitely want to come visit in future as this was supposed to be a trip that me and my hubby had planned for years, until this stupid virus affected all our lives...
 
Also, our lawyer emailed us and congratulated after my interview and he told us to write him a review on every other platform and I really want to tell him, you need to learn from a lot of people from visajourney....I don't know if I will write that but he only helped us with the basic minimum (I guess coz it was fixed fee)...Was it not for visajourney, I would not have had the courage to travel to Seattle 2 times and spend 3 months with my husband during this pandemic. So thank you all for sharing your stories and really great advice. My lawyer told me not to go. Anyways you guys are the best and for those of you waiting, good luck. There's light at the end of the tunnel 🤞 .

@legendqueue @2Ps
Congratulations & best of luck for your next chapter of life.

Approved. 
 
Thank you visajourney for your continued support for the past year. I don't know what I would have done without you guys. I can't believe that 15 mins of interview determined your fate and we had to wait 2 years to get to this point. I feel like I saved a lot of therapy bills by joining this group. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Can't wait to start planning our lives now. 
 
Just wanted to let people going for future interviews that they have lifted the lockdown since Monday, but they were very strict about only essential trips. I went to the mall to get some food and use their washroom and the security guard at the mall asked me what my purpose of the visit was...so just be careful. I tried to get back to my hotel by 6:30 pm and there were cops patrolling the streets toward the evening. I really loved the art around the city and I definitely want to come visit in future as this was supposed to be a trip that me and my hubby had planned for years, until this stupid virus affected all our lives...
 
Also, our lawyer emailed us and congratulated after my interview and he told us to write him a review on every other platform and I really want to tell him, you need to learn from a lot of people from visajourney....I don't know if I will write that but he only helped us with the basic minimum (I guess coz it was fixed fee)...Was it not for visajourney, I would not have had the courage to travel to Seattle 2 times and spend 3 months with my husband during this pandemic. So thank you all for sharing your stories and really great advice. My lawyer told me not to go. Anyways you guys are the best and for those of you waiting, good luck. There's light at the end of the tunnel 🤞 .

Approved. 
 
Thank you visajourney for your continued support for the past year. I don't know what I would have done without you guys. I can't believe that 15 mins of interview determined your fate and we had to wait 2 years to get to this point. I feel like I saved a lot of therapy bills by joining this group. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Can't wait to start planning our lives now. 
 
Just wanted to let people going for future interviews that they have lifted the lockdown since Monday, but they were very strict about only essential trips. I went to the mall to get some food and use their washroom and the security guard at the mall asked me what my purpose of the visit was...so just be careful. I tried to get back to my hotel by 6:30 pm and there were cops patrolling the streets toward the evening. I really loved the art around the city and I definitely want to come visit in future as this was supposed to be a trip that me and my hubby had planned for years, until this stupid virus affected all our lives...
 
Also, our lawyer emailed us and congratulated after my interview and he told us to write him a review on every other platform and I really want to tell him, you need to learn from a lot of people from visajourney....I don't know if I will write that but he only helped us with the basic minimum (I guess coz it was fixed fee)...Was it not for visajourney, I would not have had the courage to travel to Seattle 2 times and spend 3 months with my husband during this pandemic. So thank you all for sharing your stories and really great advice. My lawyer told me not to go. Anyways you guys are the best and for those of you waiting, good luck. There's light at the end of the tunnel 🤞 .