Episode 20: Other Salisbury Adventures: Immigration Myths, Lies & Assumptions
Summary
In today's episode featuring "Other Salisbury Adventures" we will go through the lessons learned during the Salisbury's immigration nightmares over the years. With Mike as a Canadian, and Jen as an American, many folks assume things when cross-border folks get married. Myths that are not true: the other spouse immediately becomes a citizen, the non-native spouse can get the same benefits as the native spouse, and that all this happens pretty quickly, cheaply and easily after folks from two countries get married. The immigration myths are debunked in today's episode!
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Full Episode Transcription
Welcome to My Life as A Landlord, where we untangle all things housing and educate the curious. If
you're looking for some entertainment with some honest, awkward conversations, you've come to the
right show. I'm your host, Dr. Jennifer Salisbury. This is my life as a landlord. Welcome to it.
Well, hello and welcome to this week's episode of My Life as a Landlord. I'm Dr. Jen, your host, your educator, your
lesson teacher. And this week's episode is Other Salisbury Adventures immigration Myths, Lies, and
Assumptions. Mike is Canadian by birth, I'm American by birth. And when we got together, it was a little
bit questionable how this would all work. Especially we weren't sure where we were going to live, we
weren't sure what was going to happen. And that's for yet another podcast, because the recession was
happening in 2008 2009, and we had just gotten married and there were lots and lots of issues with
immigration, and of course, many of you remember that that's also when the economy globally was
imploding. But we've got some very important lessons learned to share with you about immigration.
Those of you who've been with me for a while, you know that I have five content buckets and I do them
on a predictable rotating basis. So we start with landlord issues, then tenancy issues, real estate
development topics, real estate investor advice, and then other solisbury adventures. So predictably, next
week is going to be a landlord topic. Last week was real estate investor and on a rotating basis, you can
just tell which the main topic will be. And that's the podcast. I also give three points usually, and then a
call to action, and then we wrap it up. I try to make the podcasts short and sweet so that you can listen to
them in your car. You can get some nuggets of education out of them. And I'm happy to do so. I'm
excited to do so. That brings me a lot of joy and significance to do these podcasts for you. This podcast in
particular, this topic, is very near and dear to my heart because it was so inconvenient. And I have to say
it that way. Nobody was dying, nobody was hurt. It was incredibly inconvenient. When we were trying to
get all the immigration issues between Michael and I straightened out, it took several years and there
were many of the items, people, when they would hear that we were having immigration problems, they
would say, oh, well, isn't this true? Isn't that true? And that's what I'm going to talk about today, because
most of what the public appears to believe about immigration and cross border marriages, cross border
courting is wrong. And there's a lot of assumptions out there where I just go, oh my goodness, no, that
that is not correct. And so let's just jump right into it. So, assumption number one, I'm finding that most
people think when you marry someone from another country, both spouses automatically become a
citizen of the other country. Let me answer that. Big fat no, that is not true. When you marry someone
from another country and you are trying to immigrate, you've got two countries who don't know who the
other spouse is. And there's a lot of qualification, there's a lot of reviews to look at. Who is this person
that you've married now? It is not automatic by any means. And the countries want to know who the
spouse is, so they'll do things like lots of paperwork, fingerprints, criminal records, check resumes,
sometimes even transcripts. If you've done education, your skill set, your education, and I liken it to as a
landlord, if you shift ads for a second, just follow me here. As a landlord, when one roommate moves out
and another roommate wants to move in into a unit, you qualify that roommate as if they are a brand new
tenant, as who is this person? It's the same thing with cross border marriages, cross border courting. And
you want to bring this person across the border and have them as your spouse. 1s The the country the the
country wants to know, who is this person that was not originally from this country? That's exactly what
happens. And so during this time, when the countries are checking each other, checking the spouses out,
the worst part of it is you can't travel, you cannot leave wherever you are, and you must be in a
convenient place to endure some of this work. And so if you're not in a convenient place where you can
have interviews and you can reach if you have to go to the embassy, 1s you've got to be in a place where
you understand how to get through this. So your location matters, of where you're going to do your
paperwork for your other spouse. It matters. 1s People don't tell you that, right? You have to fumble
through this because everybody thinks that this automatically happens, which is not true. So. As I
mentioned, I am a born American. Mike is a born Canadian. And we got married, and we got married in
the US. And then went back to Canada. After the marriage, and Mike was not able to come back into
the US. Because now he's married to an American, and he didn't have a green card, he didn't have a
fiance visa. And all of these are technical terms here when you're talking about going across the border.
And so he was stuck in Canada, at least outside of the US. He couldn't come into the US. For two and a
half years. St incredibly inconvenient. When he and I had just gotten married in 2006, he couldn't even
come across as a visitor. Nothing. He had to stay out completely and wait for all of the paperwork to be
caught up. So I find that that first assumption, that when two people from two different countries get
married, that they're automatically become a citizen of the other country, it doesn't occur to people most
of the time that that is completely false. That is a big myth. So let's go to the next one. Assumption
number two. Many people think it's very easy for the non native spouse to get the same benefits as the
native spouse. Ah, wrong. Wrong. The non native spouse, you can't usually can't work. You can't go to
school, you don't have a job, you don't have any credit. Usually there's no health care, there's no ID. You
can't really do anything. And you have to wait for the country to check you out. You have to wait for the
country to allow you to enter, to allow you to work. And in Canada, it's called a landed immigrant. I had
to wait almost a year before I was a proper landed immigrant. And when I was a landed immigrant, I was
able then to go get a job if I wanted. But it's a little bit difficult when the non native spouse is just here,
you can't really do anything because again, the country is checking out that non native spouse. The other
thing that happens is during that time, the native spouse, the person that's there so in Canada, it was
Mike, because he's Canadian, waiting for me to get checked out by Canada. That native spouse has to
declare financial responsibility for the non native spouse. You actually need a co signer. You need
somebody that is going to say, yes, I will financially take care of this person and their financial burden
because they can't work, because they can't go to school, because they're not allowed to do anything. And
we had to do that on both sides because at some point, Canada was checking me out, us was checking
Mike out. And so we had to declare financial responsibility for each other along the way. And it's a little
bit difficult. And then if you throw in anything fun, like a criminal record, any kind of criminal record at
all, especially if felony misdemeanors are looked at, but if there's anything involving assault or anything
violent crimes or drugs or alcohol, 1s the country that you're trying to become with your native spouse.
They can just straight up say no and say get out. And they can do that. And they do do that. And so it is a
very precarious time, it's a very weird time. And it is not easy for the non native spouse to get any
benefits, much less the same benefits as the native spouse. So you've got the second myth that it's
automatic and that it's easy. Well, no, it's not. So let's go into the third assumption. The third
assumption is that it's cheap, quick, easy to have the non native spouse in the native country and that it's
easy for this whole process to go through. It is not. It takes a long time. It requires original source
documents, including birth certificates, divorce certificates, death certificates, criminal records, checks,
original court copies of anything and everything that is required. And if you've got children involved, it's
even more complicated with an ex spouse then complicate it even further if it's in another language.
Right? With me and Mike, we are all speaking English. Not all by bad English, but English at least.
We're all speaking the same language. Sometimes, and very often to go through this whole process,
you need an immigration attorney to do the paperwork. I did all of the paperwork myself, with few
exceptions. There were a couple of times that I got stuck and I had to call on an immigration attorney just
for a consult. I needed them to guide me on what was next with all of the different things that were going
on, because it is a huge mass of form forms. There were lots of phone calls, lots of time on hold with
both Canada and the US. Trying to make sure we got the immigration paperwork right. And it took
months and months. I would say six or eight months just for an initial review. And this is on both sides. It
took a long time to get through this. And if your paperwork is wrong, then they'll kick it back and they'll
send you a letter. They might send you an email, but most often they would send a letter and they would
say, here is the problem with this, this, and this. Please fix it and send it to us. Well, okay, then you do
that. Might take another month to get that all fixed or request more additional original source documents,
and then you have to submit it again. Well, then you have to wait another six or eight months to get
things into review. And then at some point, if everything passes, then you've got to do an interview. They
still want to see who you are. Very often, that includes some travel. When we were in Canada, we
actually had to travel from British Columbia to Montreal. That was the only place in Canada where the
US. Was doing US interviews for immigration purposes. And so we had to travel to Montreal, both of us.
And Mike had to talk to the rate at the embassy. I mean, this is a very big deal, and it was not easy, it was
not cheap, and it certainly was not fast. But I did all the documents myself, so it is possible, but you've
got to be super organized to do this. Each time we did documentation and we did a submittal, there was a
cost to the actual application. Somewhere between 1000 and $1500 in the currency of wherever we were.
Plus there was always extra things like passport photos, travel, as I mentioned, and then you've got
sometimes there was health requirements. Sometimes we had to take an x ray, bring a chest x ray to
prove that we didn't have tuberculosis. There was a lot of moving parts to even get through some of this
immigration items. On the US side, when Mike was finally permitted to return to the US. He was given a
green card. This took two and a half years to get. We had to go through the Vancouver embassy because
he was stuck in Canada. And then finally, when he had enough days physically present in the US. I was
able to apply for his US citizenship, which, again, there's another fee, there's another health requirement.
He actually had to fly to Honolulu to get his biometric testing and take fingerprints, which took all of ten
minutes, literally in Honolulu, but he had to fly over and do it, fly back. And very similarly on the
Canadian side, when I became a Canadian citizen, I had to wait my physical presence days. There's a
certain number of days you have to be physically present in the country as an immigrant to qualify as a
citizen. On both sides. We both had to take a test on citizenship, which was really fun, because I grew up
learning US history and knew all about George Washington and the flags and all kinds of history items.
Well, Mike had never been exposed to any of that. And so it was really interesting, because when we're
studying for each other's countries tests, it was sort of so easy for the other one. For the native spouse, it
was so easy, it was almost laughable. Well, it was hard for me on the Canadian side, because, again, the
Canadian side, there is. All the whole lineage to the queen and the Governor general and the premier. I
mean, all the names are different. All the political parties are different, 1s the flags of all the province and
territories. There was a lot of history in British Columbia and history of the provinces in general and how
the trains brought all 1s the country together. I mean, the whole idea of this citizenship test is that you
have a basic understanding of the country. And, I mean, we lived in Canada for several years, and so I
thought I had a basic understanding of Canada. But the Canadian citizenship test was very simple, very
interesting. And of course, that test was not in British Columbia. At a convenient spot for me, actually
had to travel over to Vancouver Island. I had to meet somewhere. I think we were in the Naimo,
somewhere large, epicenter. And then had to take a test and then again had to do an interview. 1s And
then they would let us know. And so I think it ended up being six months or something before I was
notified that I could have my oath of citizenship for Canada. But of course, that was in Vancouver.
And so then, okay, here we go. We have to go back down to Vancouver. But ironically, that happened
September 29, 2014. And the reason I remember this is because we were on the ferry on the way down to
Vancouver, and I was notified at that time that my doctorate had been accepted. And so on that day,
September 29, 2014, I became not only did I become a Canadian citizen, I became Dr. Jen, which is kind
of crazy. If I had tried to plan it that way, you couldn't have made it that way. But I did both things. Both
major life events occurred on the same day, which is kind of cool. And after all of the heartache that
Mike and I had been through for all of our immigration problems, it was kind of a very nice way to end
all of this craziness. And so, again, there's so many myths on immigration where people just assume, and
honestly, they assume because they've not ever been exposed to it. Most of the time, Canadians are
dating and marrying Canadians, and Americans are dating and marrying Americans. And so I've got
friends who the gal is American and the husband is Brazilian. That is very difficult. And so when you
start looking into the issues that these cross border relationships cause, it's really critical that, you know,
1s you do some research, because these assumptions just seem to be the norm, and they're just wrong.
You don't automatically get citizenship when you marry somebody from another country. You don't
automatically get to be a citizen of the other country. It's not easy for the non native spouse to get the
same benefits as the native spouse. It takes a long time. It's not easy. It's not cheap. It is incredibly
inconvenient and usually involves a lot more costs than just the pay paperwork. It's the cost in time. It's
the cost in travel. And it's just a lot of work and patience, and you can't make it go faster. That's another
frustration. But you want to be real careful with your assumption. So here's your call to action. If you
have friends or family members who are in a cross border romance of any kind. Caution them to do
their homework first. In fact, please play this podcast for them. If I can help anybody avoid the problems
that Mike and I had in advance, that would have been amazing. But just like everybody else, we thought
these assumptions the same as everyone. We went into this relationship completely blind. And if I can
help anybody that can potentially be proactive and try to get like a fiance visa in the US. And there's
other likened things, and you see TV shows, right? Like on Discovery Channel, they've got these 90 day
fiance, well, guess what? That is all about what we're talking about. Now, of course, this is not drama and
reality TV doing it, but if you know, friends and family or you hear anybody, please make sure that they
do their homework on cross border immigration stuff. When it comes to marrying a non native spouse,
it's really critical. And if I can teach anybody even one thing from the years and years of heartache that
Mike and I went through and save a little bit of time and little bit of heartache, maybe even a little bit of
money, then I will chalk that up as a win. Thanks so much for listening. Next week's episode Predictably
Landlords, we're going to go into non pet animals, that is, service animals, emotional support animals,
that is Animals for Landlords part two coming up next week. We'll see you there. Thanks so much for
listening. Bye bye.
Thank you for joining us this week. To view the complete show notes and all the links
mentioned in today's episode, visit our website www.mylifeasalandlord.com. If you're looking for
educational resources for getting into real estate investing, becoming a landlord, or even a better tenant,
then I have a page on my website to get you started looking for a solution to the pickle that you're in, I've
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Thank you again for joining me, Dr. Jennifer Salisbury, in this episode of My Life as a Landlord.
I'll see you next time.