Dear all
I would like to kindly ask you for your experience in immigrating to Canada. The situation is as follows:
We are a German couple (both 25 years old and German citizen) planning to go to Canada (province Ontario) for the next four years. We both just received our MSc degrees from renowned German universities, and I have been offered admission to a PhD program at a Canadian university. My partner is currently looking for a job opportunity in a quantitative field but applying for a job from outside Canada doesn't appear to be easy so that he hasn't offered admission to any job yet. In fact, Canadian employers seem to prefer to meet candidates in person before they hire them so searching for work from inside Canada may be more effective than trying to find a job from Germany. He is also in contact with universities for potential PhD positions but it is still in progress and it does not seem to be clarified within the next weeks. Since we are planning to go to Canada in late December, visas should contemporarily be processed. Now, we are not sure what is the best visa option for him to enter Canada. Due to the fact that my partner hasn't received any job offer or PhD position yet, applying for a study or work permit is not possible.
I have red on the website of the Canadian immigration services that common-law partners of full-time international students with a valid study permit are able to apply for a so-called open work permit under certain conditions, where no specific job offer is required at the time of application. In this case, we would need to prove that we have been living together for more than one year. However, since we were studying in different cities, we were only able to live together for 5 months during our joint semester abroad although we have been in a stable relationship for 6 years now. In fact, we do not necessarily fulfill the requirements of a common-law relationship.
What would you recommend us to do? What is the best visa option for us to live in Canada? Would you prefer a joint application or separate applications? Do you have any experiences in proving common-law relationships?
Thanks for your feedback!
I would like to kindly ask you for your experience in immigrating to Canada. The situation is as follows:
We are a German couple (both 25 years old and German citizen) planning to go to Canada (province Ontario) for the next four years. We both just received our MSc degrees from renowned German universities, and I have been offered admission to a PhD program at a Canadian university. My partner is currently looking for a job opportunity in a quantitative field but applying for a job from outside Canada doesn't appear to be easy so that he hasn't offered admission to any job yet. In fact, Canadian employers seem to prefer to meet candidates in person before they hire them so searching for work from inside Canada may be more effective than trying to find a job from Germany. He is also in contact with universities for potential PhD positions but it is still in progress and it does not seem to be clarified within the next weeks. Since we are planning to go to Canada in late December, visas should contemporarily be processed. Now, we are not sure what is the best visa option for him to enter Canada. Due to the fact that my partner hasn't received any job offer or PhD position yet, applying for a study or work permit is not possible.
I have red on the website of the Canadian immigration services that common-law partners of full-time international students with a valid study permit are able to apply for a so-called open work permit under certain conditions, where no specific job offer is required at the time of application. In this case, we would need to prove that we have been living together for more than one year. However, since we were studying in different cities, we were only able to live together for 5 months during our joint semester abroad although we have been in a stable relationship for 6 years now. In fact, we do not necessarily fulfill the requirements of a common-law relationship.
What would you recommend us to do? What is the best visa option for us to live in Canada? Would you prefer a joint application or separate applications? Do you have any experiences in proving common-law relationships?
Thanks for your feedback!
