haha -- have to laugh at the mention of in-laws -- it's true, you will be marrying the FAMILY, not just her. If you don't get on with the family and choose to opt-out of family events, you'll find yourself alone a fair bit!
You don't say where you're from in Canada, ie Quebec or Canada. But really it's the same deal -- even if you marry her it's not immediate that she can move back. You have a couple of options, one to apply with her inside of Canada after marrying, or to apply from outside. Either way you're going to have to prove that you have the finances to support her for 3 years -- during that time she's not allowed to apply for any benefits, loans etc. You can do the application from outside of Canada -- CIC has all the info, and somewhere on there it will tell you approx processing times. Ours took 13 months I believe to get my husband approved for his PR -- and then we still haven't used it (laughing until I cry....) so there goes a couple thousand bucks down the drain... if we don't move within the next 15 mos I think it expires and we have to do it all over again...
Anyway, the upside of the wait is, hey, why not move here for that time? You're going to have to have some finances in order first to apply anyway, but once you do, you could submit application from here. While it's being processed you can live here and see what you think. When it comes through you can fly the coop together, or else you have up to 3 years to move to Canada before it expires.
The only reason I ask if you're from Quebec is that they have slightly different paperwork and processing times (and you have to sign a declaration recognising the sovereignity of Quebec and that you agree French is the official language above all others -- no I'm not kidding, basically you have to say I will leave my culture at home I will join the PQ; if you have any leanings otherwise it is a bit uncomfortable to put pen to paper and sign).
