Hello everybody. I am on Post Study Work Permit. I will applying for PR in the first quarter of this year. In the last quarter, I may be getting married to an Indian passport holder. She has a tourist visa for Canada. I have three queries :
(a) By the time I get married, if I receive an approval of PR, and she accompanies me to Canada post marriage on tourist visa - can she apply for spousal PR sponsorship from within Canada ? If it is approved, can the entire process be done without her moving out of Canada?
(b) Will she need to show a return ticket to India to the Immigration officer or can she say she plans to apply for spousal PR sponsorship?
(c) If I do not get selected for PR, what type of visa do I need to apply for my wife for her to stay in Canada.
Thank you in advance.
a. Yes - if you get PR first, and then get married, you can sponsor her for PR. And sponsorship can be done inside of Canada.
However, if you get married first, you need to tell Immigration somehow (usually through a webform on IRCC’s website) that you got married and then they need to include her on your PR application. After that, the two of you will either be approved together, or denied together. Again, can be done both in and out of Canada.
If you get married first, then get PR without telling them you got married, there will be problems. Worst case is that you lose your PR - and second worst case is that you become ineligible to sponsor her for PR.
b. Don’t know this. Would get a fully refundable return ticket just in case.
c. You can still apply for an open work permit for your wife after you get married, based on your own open work permit, IIRC. Visa is just to be allowed to enter Canada and a visitor visa will be just fine for that, afterwards you can get her the OWP once she is in Canada.
Thank you so much for the detailed reply. This makes things very clear.