So I was at the vanilla job the other day talking to one of the store owners and I had been bitching about my mom and how broke I always am (we're kinda friends too) and she just says "Why don't you just marry some foreigner?"
And of course I am like "uhhhh wtf are you talking about?"
Apparently people will pay thousands of dollars to anyone who'll do it to pretend to be their husband or wife in order to fast-track permenant residency. And given the current state of the economy in the US and now what's looking to be Europe, the value of Canadian residency is at an all-time high!
Apparently a lot of her friends who are immigrants got their PR status this way. By way of either a 6-month travel visa or student visa. I'm not stupid, I know this stuff happens, but I had NO idea it was this commonplace like she was making it sound. Crrraaaaaaayyyy!!!
On the one hand, it makes me upset that our immigration system is so easy to cheat (oh yeah, she mentioned another friend that moved here to get away from the police in his country, where he has a criminal record....great system eh?)
On the other, I want to say fuck it and get in on this action before it's too late!
So: if you met someone that was at least kinda cool/fun and they were willing to fork over the cash would you?
I'm debating looking into this more, but I wanna say I would if I could see the other person as trustworthy and someone I could joke around with and develop a friendship with. I would have to get along with them, otherwise I don't know how you wouldn't get caught. But also I think getting "caught" is arbitrary...who says you need to love someone to marry them? Loveless marriages happen all the time. Marriage is really just a legal status when it boils down. Also I'd probably ask for 20k and aim to haggle to 15k. Because if someone has 10k to throw out on a CHANCE at residency (they can still be denied even as a spouse), I'd be willing to bet they have another 10k lying around somewhere. Or at least 5. For dipping into those grey areas of the law, I'd want to be well-compensated. Plus all the time it would take to get to know them enough and do enough things together over time to gather all the evidence.
Fuck I'd probably marry an american for free just to get residency privileges since it's so damn near impossible otherwise haha.



Reply With Quote


I do not think 10k would solve all my problems, of course not, but 10k is like 3-4 months full time salary (i dance and work part time to=full time work hours)...which is probably how long it would take you to "fake" a relationship, and you wouldn't be putting 30-40 hrs a week into this venture right? And fuck, I can only work that much during the summer. I barely work at all during the schoolyear as my program is so demanding. It's not a huge amount, and I totally see why lots of ppl wouldn't be phased by it, but it was a high enough amount to get me thinking!

Bookmarks