F1 Student Visa for Canadian Fiance

[bubbles38 0]

Greetings!

I have a question that's been touched on briefly, but I feel my situation is unique. I have a tendency to look through forums when I'm nervous about a certain topic, so this is my attempt at calming my nerves.

My current boyfriend (soon to be fiancé) and I have been dating for nearly two years. I am an American, he a Canadian. Recently I've been accepted into a master's program here in the United States. The program provides me a one-bedroom apartment, at no cost, for me to live in while I pursue my degree. My boyfriend has been wanting to go receive his undergraduate degree for quite some time now. He would be able to live with me while a student at the same university for no cost to him (i.e. he would only need to pay for tuition and food). Obviously this is incredibly cost-effective for him, proving it rather inexpensive for him to study down here as opposed to up there.

The reason I'm concerned is the fact that we'll be engaged by the time he attempts to cross the border under an f-1 visa. In order for him to live with me he must be my fiancé as stated by the university providing me the apartment. We have no problem with this, as we see ourselves being together forever (aww). However, with that being said, we have no plans of getting married any time soon. We don't know if we want to live in the United States or Canada, let alone knowing a potential date for a wedding. Will it be difficult for him to prove he will not immigrate to the United States if he is living with his American fiancé? All of his family lives in Canada, his student loans will be through Canadian financial institutions, etc. I've never dealt with anything like this before, so advice is most certainly needed.

[Penguin_ie 5,993]

It will be an issue, but he seems to have strong ties to Canada, which will help. Definitely worth a shot!

[canadian_wife 1,822]

I've studied in the US so if you have specific questions please let me know

Indepenent of you, he'll need to prove to his school that he meets the financial requirements. It is very expensive for a Canadian to attend school in the US. He'll need to show that he has upwards of $20K of liquid assets plus medical insurance to attend. This is before he crosses with his F-1

Good luck

[bubbles38 0]

I've studied in the US so if you have specific questions please let me know

Indepenent of you, he'll need to prove to his school that he meets the financial requirements. It is very expensive for a Canadian to attend school in the US. He'll need to show that he has upwards of $20K of liquid assets plus medical insurance to attend. This is before he crosses with his F-1

Good luck

We have no real fear that he will be able to prove those things. Both of us are fairly sure he will be accepted into the university through the research we've conducted and the people we've talked to at the school. Our main concern at this point is that we'll look fishy to the border patrol. I realize we could apply for a k-1 visa, but as previously stated, we don't know if we'd want to get married here! It's all so far off in the distance that we're not even discussing that at this point. The fact is we've waited to see where I'd go to graduate school because I could support him by providing him a place to stay. He's not coming here until next January to study because he missed the deadline for the fall semester. I feel like this at least proves we're not in the business of trying to get married quick while he's on an f-1 visa! We could've just practically applied for the k-1 in that amount of time (April-January(!

[Weronika 0]

Hi there! My situation was quite different, but I was also living & studying in Canada when I got engaged to my current husband.

First of all, how you deal with the border security & the consular services, and the university government is two completely separate things. That being said, when you cross the border you can declare yourself girlfriend and boyfriend - no need to say you are engaged. The border security does not need to know that you are engaged, unless it is somehow stated in any of the documents provided by the university which your fiance will need to show in order to cross the border. When you deal with the school authorities you can let them know that you are engaged - its not like they report it anywhere.

When I got engaged to my husband he was living in the US, I lived in Toronto. We had a long-distance relationship and each time we visited each other we would always say that we are dating. Even when I applied for my tourist visa (I'm not a Canadian citizen), I said that I would like to be able to visit my bf in the States - no one hassled me about it.

We actually got married in the US while I was on my tourist visa, but we moved to Canada afterwards. Later on when we returned to the US, I actually entered on a F1 visa, and again - no problem.

I wrote a series of blog posts about the process on blog, so check it out if you are curious how the whole thing worked out! Cheers!