Questions about marrying an american

[jordysmith01]

We are not even engaged yet, but we realized we should look into this sooner rather than later.
She was born and raised in Texas, I am born and raised in Canada. I will be back in Canada this summer where I will be for at least the next two years because of a commitment I made for a job there.
We would like to be married by about this time next spring and she would like to have the wedding in Texas. We would then go back to Canada for about the next year and a half. (After my 2 year commitment is complete we would most likely move back to America, although that isn't certain yet.)

So my questions are:
Should she start the process for Canadian Citizenship (including permanent residency), or could she just apply for a work visa as a temporary resident?
Will there be any problem if we are married in America but go back to Canada, or would we be required to have the wedding in Canada?

 

[Ponga]

She can't do anything until you are married ( or have lived together for 1 full year, to then apply as a Common-Law couple). You could then sponsor her (from Texas, since you are a Canadian citizen) and then she could come to Canada to `visit' you while awaiting the Permanent Resident application approval. This is very common and most Americans have very few problems doing this, unless there are criminal or other inadmissible issues that would prevent her from being allowed entry into Canada.


It's also important for you to understand that she will not be applying for Canadian citizenship. She will be applying for Permanent Resident status in Canada, which is similar to the U.S. Green Card. Once she has her PR, she could then work towards applying for Canadian citizenship (a few years later).


She can try to find an employer in Canada that would be willing to go through the LMIA process to hire her, but it's not easy.

Since she is an American, perhaps she would qualify for a job in Canada per the NAFTA agreement. Take a look around this forum and you'll find others in a similar situation and will hopefully glean information from their posts, regarding NAFTA.


Good luck!

 

[chakrab]

We are not even engaged yet, but we realized we should look into this sooner rather than later.
She was born and raised in Texas, I am born and raised in Canada. I will be back in Canada this summer where I will be for at least the next two years because of a commitment I made for a job there.
We would like to be married by about this time next spring and she would like to have the wedding in Texas. We would then go back to Canada for about the next year and a half. (After my 2 year commitment is complete we would most likely move back to America, although that isn't certain yet.)

So my questions are:
Should she start the process for Canadian Citizenship (including permanent residency), or could she just apply for a work visa as a temporary resident?
Will there be any problem if we are married in America but go back to Canada, or would we be required to have the wedding in Canada?

she can't be a canadian citizen if she is not living in Canada. needs to stay atleast 4 out of 6 years in Canada to be a citizen. she will however maintain her PR as she will be staying with a canadian spouse.