Moved to Canada

Hi guys, I wanted to briefly share my experience. I just moved to Canada in October under spousal sponsorship from my wife. Shes a Canadian Citizen and we met while she worked in the US for a few years.

I am one of the original DACA Recipients. I applied back in 2012 maybe the 2nd day they started taking applications. I've had it since then.

DACA has been a blessing and very helpful, and i'm sad to see the uncertainty it's in now. I really hope there is a permanent solution to help us. I think it's worth fighting for it, but I think it's also worth having a backup plan. Canada does have express entry and you can check your eligibility without taking any risk.

But wherever you backup plan is, it's good to have one.

Thus far, Canada is nice I feel welcomed. I have PR status and it feels good to have a non temporary status for a change. It also feels good to be welcomed somewhere.

Feel free to ask me questions.

what part?

I moved to British Columbia. I chose it initially because the lower parts have milder winters, and Vancouver has a lot of IT jobs.

So you can travel to your home country now?

Congratulations man. Do you ever see yourself coming back to the US to visit?

For the next few years, I am not able to. I tried to get a visa to come back and tie up a few loose ends, but there is the 10 year ban due to overstay, when I came as a child.

My AP request was refunded due to the Sep 5th announcement.

I don't he can do that for 3-10 years depending on the age that he received his DACA.

Yup. As a part of the Canada immigration process I had to go to my home country (Jamaica). I loved it there, and now i'm free to travel.

I'm trying to go on the path you've went through. Am an overstay, received DACA in 2012. Am now married to a Canadian citizen and am trying to gather up documents, etc. Do you mind answering a few questions?

1. What extra documents did you use to show the strength of relationship between you and your spouse?

2. Were you given an interview in the US?

3. How come you had to go back to your home country during the process? For how long did you go back for? And how did you get back into the US after? Or did you go straight to Canada after going back home?

4. How long did the whole process take?

Thanks in advance!

Hi Bama_kay, I hope it goes well.

You can PM me for more details.

What extra documents did you use to show the strength of relationship between you and your spouse?

1. Part of it is that they request pictures. We had awesome wedding pics, and pix dating up to 2 years before we were married. We also had pix in diff settings, with different family members. For instance me meeting her sister, brother, she meeting my mom, niece, and so on.

I showed apt lease with both our names, insurance card with both of our names, phone bill both of our names.

Were you given an interview in the US?
2. Unfortunately not. They insisted that my interview be in a country where I have legal residence. I tried and tried but they made me have the interview in my home country. But I loveeed my time there. I hadn't seen it in 22 years.
(BTW not everyone requires an interview, the instructions tell you who don't need one)

How come you had to go back to your home country during the process? For how long did you go back for? And how did you get back into the US after? Or did you go straight to Canada after going back home?
3. You go to your home country, to the Canadian embassy, and they give you a single entry visa into Canada. Once you get that visa you are free to go to Canada. (you have to go before it expires) Once you arrive in Canada you become a PR. I was not able to go back to the US since my AP was closed. I went straight to Canada.

How long did the whole process take?
4. I mailed it in about January 2017. The interview was Sep 2017. So about 9 months.
But be careful, getting things like medical police report can take long. I started doing that stuff back in December.

This is the process for I went through for spousal sponsorship, for Express entry I don't think you have to go back to home country.

Hope this helps.