First you say you've retained your "Canadian residency" - what's most important to this discussion is whether or not you are a Canadian citizen. If you are a Canadian citizen, you can sponsor your partner while you are with her in Panama. If you are not a Canadian citizen, you have to be residing in Canada in order to be eligible to sponsor her.
Secondly, marrying her will make the application process a bit less complicated because you will not have to prove that you have a qualifying common-law partnership by submitting documentation that shows that you have lived together, in a conjugal relationship, for at least one continuous year. So, if you're willing/able to marry - do that first. It will not look like a "quick marriage just for residency" as long as you can demonstrate that the two of you have been a couple in a genuine relationship for quite some time and that this relationship was not entered into just to facilitate her entry to Canada.
You actually MUST apply to sponsor her daughter, too, when you apply to sponsor her. She is required to include her daughter on her application to immigrate, (even if she wasn't bringing the child to Canada), and she will have to show that she has sole custody or else get permission to immigrate from the child's biological father. And Leon is incorrect, there is no income requirement for spousal sponsorships - even with dependent children. You only fall under the minimum income requirement if your spouse's dependent child
has a dependent child of their own. See Section 10.3 of the
OP2 Processing Manual.
Sponsors of dependent children and of spouses, common-law partners or conjugal partners (unless they have dependent children who have dependent children of their own) do not have to meet financial requirements, but they do undertake to provide for the basic necessities of the sponsored applicants so that the applicants do not need social assistance.
Regardless, you should be able to show that you have a sufficient income to support them by including either an Option C printout for Canadian income, or tax returns filed in Panama. One of the things you will be required to do, as a sponsor living abroad, is provide evidence of your plans and intention to return to Canada, as well as demonstrating your ability to support them once you arrive. You say you're self-employed and your work is in Canada, so that should make things relatively easy in that regard.
The turn around time for a spousal application depends on the Embassy that will process the file. The whole package will go first to the Case Processing Centre in Mississauga, ON, where they assess your eligibility to sponsor. That takes about 44 days. If you are approved as a sponsor, the file will be sent to the overseas visa office for assessment of her eligibility to immigrate. I'm not entirely sure which visa office will be processing her file - you say you are in Panama, but that she is from Columbia. If she was, on her initial entry, legally admitted to Panama for a period of at least one year and she provides that documentation with her PR ap, her file could be sent to Guatemala City. Their processing timeline is 7-16 months. Otherwise (or if you both prefer) her case can or will be assessed in Bogota, because she is Columbian. Their processing timeline is 6-12 months. It's important to consider that, if an interview is required to authenticate the genuine nature of your relationship, it will be held at the Embassy processing the file . . . but spousal (as opposed to common-law) interviews are frequently waived as long as you provide sufficient evidence of your genuine relationship with your application.
Immigration Forum
