Canadian Citizen Marrying Illegal in USA

[Alex54321]

Probably not - but keep in mind that the Canadian immigration application does ask whether the applicant has ever been asked to leave or has been refused entry to any country. That said, there are a few other things I wanted to clarify.

First of all - the mailing address is not the issue . . . she can list her address in the States as her mailing address - or even your address in Canada - without issue. The residential address is the address that CIC uses to determine which overseas visa office will process the applicant's file. The residential address used in the application has to be an address either in the country of nationality/birth, a country in which the applicant has permanent residence, or a country to which the applicant was legally admitted for at least one year. Since it sounds as though your future wife was born in Grenada, and not only doesn't she have permanent status in the States, but she wasn't legally admitted there for at least one year either, she will need to list a residential address in Grenada on her application. That will send her application to the Port of Spain visa office once the sponsor's application (yours) is approved through the Case Processing Centre in Mississauga.

IF an interview is required, your wife will have to attend it at the Port of Spain visa office - and it will most likely take place sometime near the beginning of the assessment of her part of the application. But interviews are not always required of spousal applicants - if you provide good evidence and documentation of your 5 yr long genuine relationship, it is possible the interview will be waived. If it is, the only other "issue" with the application being processed at Port of Spain will be that she will need to get her passport to them when it's requested. Some visa offices request the passport early on - others wait until the end of the process, once approval is made. I would suggest that it's not advisable for her to remain in the US while her passport is overseas . . . so the time for her to return home would be once the visa office requests her passport. Then, once she has her Confirmation of Permanent Residence she can come back to Canada and officially "land" as a Permanent Resident.

- This is very old tread, but "...so the time for her to return home would be once the visa office requests her passport...". Who can guarantee that PA application gets approved? If not, she gets stuck in her country.
- What if the person is illegal in US for more than a year (like 15 years) and does not have ANY relatives in his country of birth at all? What if the spouse, kids, house, whole life are in US? Do CIC return application because the residential address is in US?
- Back in 1993 I came to Canada as visitor and after 2-3 months applied for what is now called "Express Entry" program. By that time my visitor visa already expired and I was called for an interview outside of Canada. Guess what - it was not in my country of nationality/birth, but in closest Canadian Consulate, which happened to be in Seattle, WA. So, I did not have permanent residence in Canada, neither I was legally admitted for at least one year and still an interview was not overseas...

 

[scylla]

- This is very old tread, but "...so the time for her to return home would be once the visa office requests her passport...". Who can guarantee that PA application gets approved? If not, she gets stuck in her country.
- What if the person is illegal in US for more than a year (like 15 years) and does not have ANY relatives in his country of birth at all? What if the spouse, kids, house, whole life are in US? Do CIC return application because the residential address is in US?
- Back in 1993 I came to Canada as visitor and after 2-3 months applied for what is now called "Express Entry" program. By that time my visitor visa already expired and I was called for an interview outside of Canada. Guess what - it was not in my country of nationality/birth, but in closest Canadian Consulate, which happened to be in Seattle, WA. So, I did not have permanent residence in Canada, neither I was legally admitted for at least one year and still an interview was not overseas...

- No one can guarantee that the PA's application will be approved. Whether it's approved or not is up to CIC. Yes, if the PA has to return home for an interview and is then refused, they will be stuck in their home country. Or at a minimum, won't be able to return to the US because they'll be banned and won't be able to get a TRV to Canada.
- The address history should be accurate and the current/residential address should accurately reflect where the PA is living now (even if they are living there without status). There's no reason for an application to be returned provided the address info is correct.
- That's almost 25 years ago. The rules have changed very significantly since then. Rules from 25 years ago are completely irrelevant now.