K Visa Marrying a canadian with conviction (complicated?)

[molek]

I live in Seattle and have a girlfriend that lives in Vancouver, BC. I go to visit her on a regular basis and it has come to a point where we would like to get married. I would like to move to Vancouver and stay there permanently. I have no desire to ever come back to the U.S. again and would like to renounce my American citizenship altogether once I am a citizen of Canada.
We plan to get married in November in BC.
I currently am on federal probation. I have 2 non violent misdemeanors from a few years ago and a felony charge that I am currently on probation for. The felony was possession of 15 or more access devices (fraud) and I served ten months starting Feb 06. I am paying off all of my fines this week and I have kept a job, not tested dirty or had any incidents while on probation. I plan on asking my probation officer to release me from probation at the one year mark (January) so I can move past all of this and start a family with the girl I have been seeing for years.
I have a Canadian bank account with my savings in it already and am applying for a SIN card. Will my convictions provide any problems in our being married and me having the chance to work there once I get there? I love everything about Canada and it is a dream of mine to be able to move there to be with the girl I love to start a family. I just hope my past transgressions wont create a problem with the path I have now chosen.
thank you.

 

[mafioso]

Your answer has two parts…………Current Canadian law does not care if you committed your offenses out of Canada. They are concerned only with offenses committed in Canada. That would make you eligible for Canadian citizenship. However, there is a new law they have been trying to pass since 2005 (modernizing the Citizenship Act).If it passes, it would prevent anyone who has committed a crime out of Canada which would not let someone who has committed the same crime in Canada, from becoming a citizen. So you might want to ask your GF if the law has a chance on passing……………and if crimes are covered by the exceptions in Canadian immigration law. But for now you are good to go! Go to this website. It has everything you need to know about your move and the proposed changes in Canadian immigration law and current law. Unfortunately I am not familiar with exceptions under Canadian law………Just USA law.
http://www.cic.gc.ca/English/department/media/backgrounders/2005/2005-11-17.asp

 

[molek]

Your answer has two parts…………Current Canadian law does not care if you committed your offenses out of Canada. They are concerned only with offenses committed in Canada. That would make you eligible for Canadian citizenship. However, there is a new law they have been trying to pass since 2005 (modernizing the Citizenship Act).If it passes, it would prevent anyone who has committed a crime out of Canada which would not let someone who has committed the same crime in Canada, from becoming a citizen. So you might want to ask your GF if the law has a chance on passing……………and if crimes are covered by the exceptions in Canadian immigration law. But for now you are good to go! Go to this website. It has everything you need to know about your move and the proposed changes in Canadian immigration law and current law. Unfortunately I am not familiar with exceptions under Canadian law………Just USA law.
http://www.cic.gc.ca/English/department/media/backgrounders/2005/2005-11-17.asp

So it sounds like getting married should be done sooner than later. Once married I am allowed to work, pay taxes and so on, right? I already have a friend who can line a job up for me there so I can hit the ground running. How long does it take to gain full citizenship, passport and all? I want to renounce my American and get rid of this passport, I get alot of grief for it when I travel and frankly do not wish to be American anymore anyway. thanks again...

 

[lilhoneybear]

I'm new here but was curious how on earth do you get by crossing the border into Canada..why i'm asking this question is my b/f he's from Oregon and i'm from BC tried to cross the border back in 2001 he's got a felony charge and he got turned back they would not let him into canada...thanks

 

[mafioso]

You might want to search from the website…….I personally have not studied Canadian immigration law. You need to talk to an immigration lawyer in Canada. He would tell you if the law I told you about in my previous post passed and how you guys can work around it. He might suggest you get married to him in the US and file for him via your embassy in the US. If the law I talked about is still valid, he would be given a waiver and embassy relevant papers to move to the US. Only a specialist in Canadian law can help you.