I got my invitation to apply for PR (ITA)

Oh well congrats in advance then :slight_smile:

may be others would know what to do in that caseā€¦

btw what was your CRS score and IELTs score to get ITAā€¦just asking for data point as reference

Hmmmm :thinking: tricky situation. Iā€™m not married and never had this issue but these are my thoughts:

The most important thing about ā€œsignificant changes in your situationā€ during this EE process is that your CRS points should still be over the cutoff of when you received the ITA, compared to after the change in your situation. For e.g., if you had a Canadian LMIA job offer because of which you got 600 points and got an ITA, but then you lost that job before you filed your paperwork, that could potentially reduce your score below cutoff and you no longer would be eligible.

There are a bunch of scenarios I think: if you had selected, while submitting your EE profile, that your spouse is accompanying you to Canada, they would consider spouseā€™s points. If not, they probably wont (@anon25417004?). I read somewhere that adding spouse reduces points, unless spouse has excellent IELTS scores, and maybe higher education.

The best thing to do - if you get married in the interim - is to inform CIC of the change (I think they have an online form to do this, or maybe thereā€™s an Edit Profile option when you login to CIC), and see what they say. If they determine that this change in status would not clear your cutoff, in worst case you will have to reapply with both of you, after marriage. If your points donā€™t go below cutoff, they will inform you to add your spouse in the application. One option is to explain that you will get married and spouse wonā€™t be accompanying you to Canada. Then later when you become a PR you apply for spouse separately. Will that work @anon25417004?

However, you canā€™t tell them ā€œOh, I might get married so please add not-yet-my-spouse to the application.ā€ They need proof of marriage.

Another thing to consider is that after you submit your final documents, it takes 4 months on average to get the PR visa. Your situation could likely change those 4 months, if not now. Then you will have to submit a change in status form anyway. On your CoPR it asks you specifically whether your status has changed in the interim. Iā€™m not sure how it works after you submit your documents. Better before submitting documents than after (I think). I donā€™t think anyone would want to postpone getting married for 7 months :grinning:

If I were in your place I would accept ITA, prepare documents, if I got married before submitting final documents I would submit the change in situation form, and wait for their reply. Remember that you only have 90 days to do all of this. If you donā€™t get a reply from them before the deadline, you can tell them in the Letter of Explanation about this change. Worst case, you can resubmit new EE profile after marriage, and get IELTS, ECAs for both of you.

@anon25417004 any thoughts on this?

Adding a spouse on your application after ITA means your CRS calculation is now very different as the points are different for with and without spouse. You may go ahead and add the spouse just be sure that your points are above the cut off or else the ITA will be cancelled.

Changes to your personal situation
If your situation (or that of your spouse or partner) changes, you should re-calculate your score before applying online for permanent residence.

If your recalculated score is less than the lowest score in your round of invitations for an invitation to apply, you should decline the invitation. If you decide to apply anyway, we may: refuse your application, not refund your application fee

https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/immigrate-canada/express-entry/become-candidate/invitations-apply.html

Additionally I would contact them (explain in detail short and point based) through the client support center as it will stay on your file that your situation has updated and that youā€™ve informed them. We did this when we had a child who had to be added to the application they are pretty responsive.

Thanks everyone. So then the status change should happen before the landing, right?

No thatā€™s not what I meant. When your status changes, i.e., when you get married is upto you, but CIC should be notified as soon as that happens if your PR is in process at any stage. Look at the following scenarios:

  1. The simplest way was to submit EE profile after marriage in which case everything wouldā€™ve been in order from the get go.

  2. More complicated way is to add spouse to your profile after you get the ITA but before you submit final documents. In this case you have to inform CIC/modify your submitted application/profile to add your now-spouse to the application. If you points fall below the cutoff score (the day of when you got the ITA), then youā€™re ineligible; if not, then nothing to worry. You can inform CIC and ask for appropriate action; they may tell you to decline the ITA and re-apply (or they may not if they recompute and determine youā€™re still above the cutoff).

  3. If you get married after you submit final documents and before your application is processed (so usually a 4 month period), Iā€™m guessing the procedure is similar to (2); contacting the CIC to add your spouse.

  4. If you get married after your application is processed and after you receive CoPR, you have to notify them of your change in marital status in which case you will have to return the CoPR (because now the CoPR and PR visa are no longer valid since they say ā€œsingleā€) and CIC will have to add spouse to your application and send you a new CoPR which means additional processing time. If your medical tests expire in the meantime youā€™ll have to redo them.

What you absolutely donā€™t want to do is to get married after your CoPR and PR visa is received (which says youā€™re single) and then tell the officer during the landing that your situation is now changed. In most likelihood you will be denied entry. The point is that as soon as your status changes youā€™ve to let CIC know, if youā€™ve already applied, and theyā€™ll ask you to take the appropriate action. This is so that they donā€™t construe this non-disclosure as misrepresentation any time in the future. Because any misrepresentation can affect all future PR/Citizenship applications for you and other family members.

Note that in all these cases the spouse will have to get medical tests done and police clearances done, at the minimum, before you submit his paperwork.

According to the research we did when we were applying was that youā€™re correct with 1 and 2 but 3 and 4 is a more complicated situation. We were to have a kid so we just waited and added the kid to the application.

After you submit final documents you will have to rush and ask them to hold off on the whole application (Iā€™m unsure how this works) if that works then technically you are still at stage 2 and will possibly miss the deadlines and have the ITA withdrawn.

As for getting married after CoPR you are obviously free to get married anytime and also to move to Canada since you have a PR. Your spouse (or newborn) however at this points does not have a PR nor can they get one on your application since that process is completed. This means you will have to either work on sponsorship, get long term visas or redo the application (if possible)

Long story short please ensure everyone you want to move to Canada with are on your application or else it will get very complicated.

If someone gets married after landing (they are now a PR), I presume they can sponsor their future spouse?

If so, an easier option for people who have CoPR is to land asap and then get married.

Thanks so much @anon25417004 and @avj

As a PR you can as long as you are living in Canada. Only citizens can sponsor from abroad. That also means the PR cannot leave the country while the application is underway. The current timeline for sponsoring a spouse in India from Canada is 12 months.

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/times/

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Little off topic, how long is the PR valid for? And what is the renewal eligibility and duration?

5 yearsā€¦ you need to be in country for minimum of 2 years (which can be cumulative of multiple visits)

Correction. PR is valid forever if youā€™re living in Canada continuously and/or satisfying the Residency Obligation (RO). PR card is valid for 5 years and can be renewed every 5 years assuming you meet the RO. PR card expiration has no impact on your PR status; only RO does.

RO for PR is always calculated for the last 5 years from the day you submit your immigration requests to CIC (PR cards, citizenship, etc), i.e., itā€™s a rolling 5 year period. From any point in time you should be able to look 5 years into the past and must have been physically present in Canada for 2 cumulative years of those 5 years. The only exception is the first time you get PR in which case you can live outside the country for the first 3 years and in Canada for 2 and still satisfy the RO.

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Thanks for clarifying that.

Got my ITA today. Now the document submissions begin!

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Congratsā€¦ today was a surprise draw

Would love a score breakdown with you have some time.

Overall Score: 484

CRS - Human Capital - Age: 100
CRS - Human Capital - Level of Education: 126
CRS - Human Capital - First Official Language Proficiency: 128
CRS - Human Capital - Second Official Language Proficiency: 0
CRS - Human Capital - Canadian Work Experience: 0
CRS - Spouse - Level of Education: 10
CRS - Spouse - First Official Language Proficiency: 20
CRS - Spouse - Canadian Work Experience: 0
CRS - Skill Transferability - Education: 50
CRS - Skill Transferability - Foreign Work Experience: 50

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Thats a really good score.

Thanks, @avj. As you and @anon25417004 have stated numerous times, IELTS was a make or break on the profile. Getting top scores there make a real big difference!!

Next round of ITA was issued on May 9 (today) and I have a higher CRS score than the cut-off. How long does it take for the ITA to appear on your profile?

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