Information required asap

While you may not require a visa as a tourist, that simply means you can enter the country for an initial visit of 90 days to be just that - a tourist (no work permitted). In most cases you can extend a visa by going through the proper channels. It does not mean that since you are from the UK you can stay indefinitly in Canada. At what point do you think that you cease to be considered a "visitor", after a year, 5 years, 10 years?

However since you simply overstayed your visa you are in a difficult situation. You should contact a lawyer who deals with immigration matters to get legal advice on what you need to do.

If you contact a lawyer through the BC Law Society Lawyer Referal Service you will be allowed a thirty minute free consultation, this should be enough time to explain your situation and get advice. After that you can decide if you need a lawyer or not in order to resolve your problems.

At this point in time (while I haven't looked at the Marriage Act) I doubt that you will even be able to get married to your Canadian girlfriend, since you are no longer legal in Canada this might be an impediment to marriage according to the Marriage Act, only a lawyer can tell you about that.

Cheers,
William James Woodward - Brazil Animator, Expat-blog Team

Thank you kindly for your reply, however where are you justified in your response as making out we are stupid?

MANY people often travel for long lengths of time.

Have a good day.

stuntz wrote:

Thank you kindly for your reply, however where are you justified in your response as making out we are stupid?

Maybe I need new eyeglasses, but I don't see the word STUPID anywhere or even an insinuation to that effect anywhere in my message.

If you're sensitive about overstaying your visa and did so with exactly that intention it certainly was not through stupidity. What I asked was how long you thought you would be considered a "visitor"? I'm sure you already knew the answer to that question.

You are now in a very difficult situation entirely of your own making, that is going to be difficult to resolve without the assistance of a good lawyer who is experienced in immigration matters.

I gave you a good suggestion as to how you should go about resolving your situation, in fact the only viable way. It's up to you to either accept the advice or continue making excuses, do nothing about your problem and continue to risk deportation. Trust me, you don't want to know what that will be like.

You asked for help and information, which you got... you didn't ask for nor should you expect sympathy.

Cheers,
William James Woodward - Brazil Animator, Expat-blog Team

If your fiance is a Canadian citizen or permanent resident and you have been living in a conjugal relationship for at least a year, you are officially common-law partners (in terms of immigration law) and you have the right to apply for permanent residency in Canada even if you have overstayed your visa. The processing time will take for about a year and a half though. If you want to make it faster, you may apply for PR from England and the processing time shouldn't take more that 6 months.

You also have an option to apply for PR as a skilled worker, depending on your education and experience. In this case you don't have a choice of applying from within Canada, have to go back home.

If you are eligible to apply for permanent residency under family class (common-law partnership) and do it within Canada, you still "can" work. Legally you are NOT allowed to work without work permit, but you may become a freelancer and work under contract terms.

Employers need an employee to have work permit as they pay taxes for him. To do that the employer needs employees' SIN number which will be registered with revenue agency. You get SIN number when you have work permit.

In case of freelancing and contract working you take the responsibility of paying taxes on your own. You are allowed to be late with submitting your taxes for up to 4 years. That means
if you apply for PR and work as a freelancer and don't pay taxes for over a year (up to 4 yrs), you may still do it when you receive your legal papers (yes, even paying for the years you were working illegally). You will be charged fine for late tax payment which will be only about $30 for each taxation year.

You may find luck at small private companies as they are more willing to hire freelancers and release themselves from taxation work.

You also have an option of going back to England and coming back to Canada for another 90 days legal stay. I don't know if you overstaying in Canada 1st time will affect your second move to Canada, but if it doesn't then you have 3 months to find job and apply for work permit.

Hope that helps. Good luck!