Waiting time for Marriage Certificate will exceed visit

kaelti

New Member
Hi there! I'm a Canadian and my fiance is Colombian. We are getting married here in Ontario on June 30th (yay!)

He is currently here on a 10 year TRV and entered Canada Feb 16th. It is my understanding that he can stay until August 16th (6 months).

When we applied for our marriage license today, the clerk informed us that it takes approximately 12 weeks after our wedding date to receive a marriage certificate...this is alarming to me as that will exceed the 6 month time limit for his current visit. I also read on the application information that the marriage license/record of solemnization is not accepted in substitute of a marriage certificate.

I'm not sure what we should do... I would be nervous for him to overstay while we wait for the documents and have that reflect badly on the application. If he were to leave Canada (we live on the border of the US, so he could even go there for a short time), how long do you think he would need to be gone for? I know it's most likely the discretion of the border officer, but I just really don't know what to do. We both don't want to be apart, so that would suck if he has to leave, and of course finances are tight as I am the only one working at this time.

What have people done in the past in these situations? Any guidance is much appreciated.
-Kaelti
 

Riley Haas

Administrator
Staff member
Location
Toronto
Hi,
Whatever he does, he should not overstay.

One of the things you could try is you could travel to the US together and he can re-enter at the end. There is no time limit for the trip but an actual trip is better than just going shopping for the day. The border guard will determine his length of entry allowed, which could be 6 months, but it could also be less. This depends on the guard but there used to be a rumoured entryformula regarding Americans (not other citizens, unfortunately), which was something along the lines of:
  • First entry: Six months
  • Second entry in the same year: 3 months
  • Third entry in the same year: come back next year and depending when you come back, admittance would be based on how long you were out of Canada.
Like I said, this was rumoured to apply to Americans so the assumption is it was stricter for non-Americans. Still, if this is at all correct, he should be admitted for at least 3 months when you re-enter. (There's no telling for sure until you try, though.)

Once you get the marriage certificate you can submit the inland sponsorship application and then he does not need to worry about overstaying.

This is the best option I know of, but keep in mind I'm just the forum admin.
 
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