Gosh.. i guess i lost my reply post.
Anyway... here's what i mentioned.. and if'll appear later.. sorry.
I'm an american citizen and i married a canadian citizen last year. I moved here to Winnipeg not knowing what to do or how to go about immigration, i learned everything the hard way. Hehehehe..
A month after we got married, which as July of 2004, i send my application for an in canada Permanent Resident. It cost about a good $1500 cdn for everything, plus your spouse have to meet the criteria of being to sponsor you. You can get the application at
www.cic.gc.ca. Only catch is, you have to be in canada when you apply for it. Anyway, 3 months later, my application was send back to me because I was missing a form. So when you send yours, make sure everything is in there. I was in LA at the time and i wasn't able to mail it back till mid December.
They started processing my application last around March.. and by June, they made a decision, which they send me the "Approval In Principle" letter. Once you get this letter, you can apply for an open work permit which allows you to work anywere you want. They also requested a police clearance from the FBI and the State of California. I did my figerprints at the local police station, in which i requested to do it an FBI fingerprint card. Mailed those suckers and 10 weeks later, i got it back from the FBI. I mailed the results back to immigration last week.. and so far... i'm waiting.
My advice to you is that, first, when you moved to Canada or travel out of Canada while your application is in progress, Don't canadian immigration that you are here to visit your wife unless you enough proof that you can legally stays here. Tell them you are visiting a friend... (NOT a boyfriend/girlfriend) or better yet... a relative. Make up a return date... or buy a round trip ticket.. you can always moved up the return date for a small amount of fee for a year. I travelled out of canada a couple of times, last time was last summer, when i went to London with my wife. The person who's maning the game for Air Canada gave me more of a hassle about my status than the immigration office in Toronto.
Once you summited your application... make sure it's complete. Do the Medical a month or two after you mailed your application... and start doing the background check 3 months later. FBI takes a while... so be patient. Make sure you write a nice letter to include be included with your fingerprints (2 sets) explaining it's for Canadian Immigration. California takes about a week. Funny thing is that they mailed the result to my old California address.. thank god my mom was there. FBI will mail the result back to your Canadian address. Once you get your Client Number from immigration... send them the result of the background ASAP(you need a client number or it'll be send back to you). Don't worry about the Medical since the doctor will take care of it.
As for your status in canada, last Feb, Immigration announced that it is okay for an applicant of an IN Canada application to stay in Canada over 6 months as long as they have a valid passport. You don't have to worry about renewing your visitors visa anymore.
There's plenty of website to help you out... and there's a really helpful group in Yahoo Groups that deals with Canadian Immigration. Just search for it. Good Luck.
