My wife has a Canadian PR that’s valid up to June 2021, she did her landing in June 2016. I have applied for my PR and hopefully if everything goes well I will have it by mid 2019. We both live in US and planning to move to Canada in 2020.
Clearly if we move in 2020 she will not meet the residency criteria of staying in Canada for 2 years.
I have sorted it down to 3 options
Cancel her current PR and apply for a new Express Entry.
Take the risk and enter Canada and after I’m there I can sponsor her. (I’m not sure if she will still need to give up her PR for me to sponsor her)
Apply for her sponsorship when i receive my PR while we are outside Canada by showing that we have a convincing reason to move to Canada.
I’m not sure which of them is most feasible and if I’m missing out something. Advice appreciated.
Also, Will there be a problem while entering as the officer can figure out that she cannot meet the residency requirements?
PRs can’t sponsor others if they’re living outside Canada, only Citizens can and they’ve to prove they’ll return to Canada with the sponsored person.
Also, you won’t be able to sponsor a PR for a person who already has one. She will have to renounce her PR and then apply for new one.
If her 3 years outside Canada are finishing in June 2019, best option in my mind is for her to enter Canada while still having 2+ years on the clock if at all possible (your wife cannot leave Canada at all for two years in that case). Maybe work remotely or something. This is to maintain her PR. If she is in Canada she can sponsor you as a spouse, or you can get your own PR done, whichever way you choose. However remember that if her own PR is uncertain chances are if she sponsors you the application can go into secondary review. So you applying for your own PR is best option.
Again it’s your choice but if it’s only a matter of one year or so (June 2019-2020), if I were you I’d do whatever possible to keep both PRs intact.
@avj thanks for replying. As per our personal situation, I don’t think it will be easy for any one of us to move to Canada before June. Do you know what the proceedings will look like if she tried to enter Canada on a PR when she has less than 2 years remaining? If her PR is revoked (which I assume will take some time) can she stay in Canada with me on some other visa?
I believe our best option is to take IELTS again soon and calculate score, if it’s above cutoff we can apply for Express Entry and renounce the PR. Do you think renouncing the PR will work against her getting a new PR?
Not sure honestly. It depends on the immigration officer at the checkpoint. Sometimes they look carefully, sometimes they don’t. I have read of cases where people have both entered smoothly without issues and where they have been reported to CIC. If your spouse indeed cannot fulfill the 2-year requirement, it’s advisable to have a good reason for doing so, at immigration, possibly with proof. Else it’s a gamble.
Also, if your spouse does manage to enter without issues, when you submit your PR application using her points added, chances are they may look at the duration of her stay. I don’t really know how they do that, but I’m assuming they have some entry/exit database for such reasons.
thanks @avj. I don’t think there is a good enough reason we can prove. Honestly, the reason we are staying here is because me and my spouse are together after long, have jobs and scared of the unknowns.
BTW, I have already submitted my PR and AOR was Oct 17, 2018. Still waiting on the result. And I did not claim points for her PR but added her as non accompanying partner.
@avj We have decided that my wife will renounce her PR and we can apply together as we will have enough points together. My application has been in post AOR state for last 3.5 months with my wife mentioned as non accompanying spouse. I have following options now:
Wait for my application to get approved and then inform CIC that I have changed my mind and would like to add my wife in the application.
Withdraw my application and then create a new EE profile.
Inform CIC now and request them to hold on until my wife renounces her PR. I personally don’t want to do this as renouncing PR can take some time.
What do you think is the best course of action is?
Personally, I think you should go with option 1. Even if they do not allow to add her to your application you can still make the landing and sponsor her later.