Immigration Secrets Revealed!

I've kind of been at a loss of what to write the past few weeks, but today it dawned on me that I'm totally forgetting probably one of the most noteworthy and unique experiences I'll have in this country: immigration. Jeff and I have been dealing with this process for so long now that it just seems like a normal part of our lives, hence my neglect of addressing this issue earlier. I get a lot of questions about it from family and friends, and over time I've noticed that there are a couple major misconceptions in regards to what we're actually doing, what rights I do and do not have in this country at this moment, and what my status and rights in the country will be once the process has been completed. In this post I thought I'd address the popular misconceptions regarding immigration and explain more of what the process involves in a later entry.

Misconception #1: Once my application to immigrate has been approved, I will be a Canadian citizen.

No. The road to citizenship is significantly longer than the road I'm now traveling. Right now I'm trying to achieve permanent residency, which gives me the right to stay in the country indefinitely, the right to live anywhere I want within Canada, the right to legally work and study in Canada, and the right to receive publicly-funded health care. I currently have none of these rights. To put it in American terms: I'm trying to get a green card and have to go through another process later in order to obtain dual citizenship. I cannot even start this process, however, until I have lived here as a permanent resident for at least 3 years. Thus, the belief that one can automatically apply for citizenship upon entering a foreign country is false.

Misconception #2: Now that I'm married to a Canadian, I have the right to live and work in Canada.

Have you ever seen the movie "Sicko" where an American marries a Canadian just so she can receive free health care? There are many who try to manipulate the system, so getting married to a Canadian gives me nothing from Canada under the law. The country obviously recognizes the marriage as legal, but nothing more. This may come to a surprise to some people, but Canadian custom officials have every right not to let me or anyone else who is not a permanent resident or citizen into the country if they don't want to. I doubt this would ever happen, but the fact remains that just because I'm married to a Canuck doesn't mean I have any legal right to enter or stay in Canuckland. In fact, Tulip has more right to be here than I do, and she's just a silly cat.

So why did we get married? Well first: we love each other; and second: we could not even submit the immigration application until we could submit our marriage certificate along with it. There are a variety of ways that one can immigrate to Canada (more on that later), but being sponsored under the "family class" was the only one for which I could be eligible at the time, and I wasn't even eligible for that until we got married.

Anyways, if my entry into the country were to ever be refused (heaven forbid), Jeff and I would have absolutely no legal footing upon which to stand in order to counter this refusal. In order to help ensure my smooth entry into the country, in addition to my passport, I always bring a copy of our marriage certificate with me so that if worse comes to worst, I can at least show that my claims to being married to a Canadian are true. I also bring the letter from immigration confirming the receipt of our application and the approval of the sponsorship portion. I carry my passport with me everywhere just in case the mounties might feel the need to detain me if they suspect something amiss. Again, the chances of this happening are slim, but I believe one needs to be prepared for anything when traveling or living in any foreign land.

When I went through customs last month, after questioning me for about an hour in this big scary room where they go through people's luggage, the officers gave me what's called a "visitor record," which gives me a visitor number that any customs official can look up and see all the times I've been over the border and why. It also puts a deadline on the amount of time I can spend in Canada with "visitor" status, which seems to make the customs folks more at ease when deciding to let me in. I've driven over the border twice since then with no problems or confusion, unlike before. At the end of the deadline (which I currently the end of December) I can apply for an extension on my visitor status if need be.

Again, I never expect this to happen (knock on wood), but you can never be too careful. Being kept apart from Jeff would be absolutely devastating to us both. I'd also be homeless, which sounds incredibly unappealing.

So those are the major misconceptions regarding immigration that I've been experiencing. I'm sure many more questions will be answered in my later entry on the process itself.