Question about Visitor Stays and Common Law Status

[KelseyTVS]

Hey everyone! So me (Canadian Citizen) and my partner (US Citizen) are getting closer to diving into this process.

She will be coming here to Canada on a one year work permit. During that one year, we will live together and establish ourselves as common law. The trouble is that on the same date we become common law, her work permit will expire. After that day, should we drive to the border and flagpole so that she has 6 months of visitor status? Is there a chance she will be denied entry, or a chance that her exiting the country will put our commton law status into doubt?

Or would it be safer to just apply for her to become a visitor online before the work permit expires? If so, is it the Applying to Change Conditions or Extend Your Stay in Canada application? I'm looking at it but it's talking a lot about temporary resident visas and visitor visas, which I don't think a US citizen needs.

 

[canuck_in_uk]

Hey everyone! So me (Canadian Citizen) and my partner (US Citizen) are getting closer to diving into this process.

She will be coming here to Canada on a one year work permit. During that one year, we will live together and establish ourselves as common law. The trouble is that on the same date we become common law, her work permit will expire. After that day, should we drive to the border and flagpole so that she has 6 months of visitor status? Is there a chance she will be denied entry, or a chance that her exiting the country will put our commton law status into doubt?

Or would it be safer to just apply for her to become a visitor online before the work permit expires? If so, is it the Applying to Change Conditions or Extend Your Stay in Canada application? I'm looking at it but it's talking a lot about temporary resident visas and visitor visas, which I don't think a US citizen needs.

Hi

She should apply online to extend her stay and change her status to visitor prior to her work permit expiring. The app is here http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/applications/visitor.asp. The app is generic, so some stuff doesn't apply.