Help! We want to get married back home (Canada)

Have any of you Canadians been married to your Taiwanese husband or wife back home in Canada?

That’s what we’re planning to do, and I’ve read some things on the internet that confuse me.

Such as: Can we just rock up and get married in a civil service? I read that you have to make an announcement 20 days prior to your marriage in the community where you’ll marry.

If we fly into Canada as a citizen and a Taiwanese national, if we say we’re coming to get married, would customs and immigration have a problem with that?

I’ve read that you need to prove you;ve been together for some period of time before your spouse can get citizenship.

How long after the wedding can the spouse become a citizen?

Can all of these things be accomplished within a two week holiday?

Thanks, if you can answer any of these questions, you’d be doing us a huge favour!

In case any of you are interested in what I’ve found out so far:

  1. Marriage doesn’t confer citizenship. You still need to become a permanent resident for a period of three years before you can apply. The Canadian spouse has to live there as well, I think.

  2. The Canadian spouse applies to sponsor the spouse and has to prove that they have enought income to support the spouse for 3 ~10 years.

  3. The 20 day announcement thing is for Quebec only.

  4. You could potentially rock up and get a civil ceremony done within 2 weeks, though the 20 day thing in Quebec might make that impossible unless you can find an authorized official to make the announcement before you arrive.

So, to answer my own question: you can get maried quickly, but the citizenship part takes years and you have go live there in order to get it going.

I’d still love to hear from any Canadian/Taiwanese couples (Maoman? Chewycorns? Anybody?) if I’ve got any of this wrong, or if I’m missing anything essential.

Thanks

My understanding is that if a foreign spouses reason for living outside of Canada is to accompany her Canadian spouse, that time still counts towards the three year permanent residency requirement before citizenship. However, it appears that one still has to apply from within Canada. :s

Thanks Maoman!

Do you know where I could get more information on this topic – specifically that permanent residency requirements could be fulfilled when living abroad to accompany your Canadian spouse?

The Canadian Trade Office in Taipei referred me to provincial web pages, none of which covered this topic.

Is there a website, or an office I should focus on to get this information?

My mother lived in Canada for over 20 years before becoming a citizen. She raised me during this time…and got her citizenship when I was almost 20 years old. Didn’t seem to affect her lifestyle not being a citizen.

This should be the site

I could not find anything about the permanent residency requirement being fulfilled overseas but the answer may be there. If not contact info is provided for queries and such.

Thanks Damafen!

I’ll check out that site.

The citizen vs. non citizen question is important in our case, because tuition is different for foreigners and citizens (and maybe permanent residents) and we figured that while we’re here, why not work towards eventual citizenship while married instead of staying as we are and then having to pay more tuition etc… since we plan on marrying at some point anyway.