Hi there!
We are moving to Calgary, Alberta in August 2022.
We did our soft-landing in March 2020 and during that time our son was yet to be born. He born in 2021 and now is a US citizen. Since we are planning on moving to Calgary, Alberta shortly, I have a few question and looking for pointers
I am aware that he can visit Canada with his US passport for 6 months. Can we extend his stay beyond 6 months? If yes, how will we be able to achieve this?
We plan to sponsor him for his PR as soon as we settle down in Calgary. Currently the sponsorship processing times are around 24 plus months. While we wait for the processing to complete, will he be able to get health insurance coverage in Alberta?
Also, which are some good neighborhoods to settle down in Calgary? My work place is in downtown.
Thank you and appreciate you for taking the time to answer my queries.
Thanks, @arjun-humain. I went through the posts, but it still does not answer clearly how we can renew visitor status for a baby born in the US after 6 months. Also, can we sponsor the baby as soon as we land in Canada or do we wait till we file our taxes for the first year?
Any detail on recent experiences by community members here would be very useful.
(Sponsored my wife in 2019)
As long as you are a resident of Canada (as proven by Canadian job offer, lease, utility bills, tax returns etc) you can sponsor family members. There is an option where you can explain why you don’t have tax returns (you haven’t lived here for a year, as was the case for me), as long as you can prove support for the dependent (through bank statements etc) it will be OK.
Not sure about the visa (I believe upto 90 a child with US passport can stay without visa here in Canada). I have heard people applying for TRV and extending it, but others with experience can answer this better than me.
My daughter was born in the US after we had applied for our PRs and did our soft landing. We are planning to move to Canada next month. I had a question: At the border crossing, will the fact that we are permanent residents moving to Canada with my daughter who will be issued a Tourist visa cause issues. Wont there be a conflict of interest that we are moving permanently and applying for a tourist visa for my daughter when we have the intention of migrating permanently?
One of my friend in your situation (PRs, kid born in US after soft landing) gave me the following answer:
Since you are moving to Canada and can only sponsor a family member after you are physically here, the kid can be admitted as a visitor (on a US passport) for 6-months, during this permanent move.
30 days before the 6-month period expired, they applied for an extension (through a lawyer). The other option for them was to go back to US and come back, but the lawyer cautioned against that.
Once extension is applied the applicant can stay till decision is made. In their case the 12 month extension was granted.
At the same time they sponsored their kid for PR (which is still under process since it can take many months).
My guess is they (or anyone in similar situation) can apply for extension of stay since this looks like a valid reason. In such cases it might be prudent to consult a lawyer.
So in short they didn’t apply for any visa. If you want you can check the TRV (Temporary Resident Visa) which is like a tourist visa. But if the kid holds a US passport I don’t really know if this applies. As I said, might be worth investing in a lawyer.