Permanent residency requirement for landed immigrant couple

[Baff]

I would love to get advice on this.  Is it possible for a married couple to meet their 730 day residency requirment with one spouse out of the country?  In other words, can a couple maintain their permenent residency based on the residency requirement being met by one of the two  or does each spouse need to individually meet the 2 out of 5 year residency requirement?  Any insight would be much appreciated!

[scylla]

Each spouse needs to individually meet the 2 out of 5 year residency requirement.

So the answer to your question is no - the out of country spouse cannot meet residency requirements based on the other spouse's residency.

[Leon]

I would love to get advice on this.  Is it possible for a married couple to meet their 730 day residency requirment with one spouse out of the country?  In other words, can a couple maintain their permenent residency based on the residency requirement being met by one of the two  or does each spouse need to individually meet the 2 out of 5 year residency requirement?  Any insight would be much appreciated!

They both have to meet the requirements in order to keep their PR but if one of them loses it, the other can sponsor them again.  It would also be possible for the one of them to stay long enough to get citizenship and then move and join the other one where they are living.  The one who is a PR can meet the residency requirements again if they are staying with a Canadian citizen spouse in another country.

[Baff]

Thanks for your responses!  It's pretty clear and straightforward.

[cheerup]

They both have to meet the requirements in order to keep their PR but if one of them loses it, the other can sponsor them again.  It would also be possible for the one of them to stay long enough to get citizenship and then move and join the other one where they are living.  The one who is a PR can meet the residency requirements again if they are staying with a Canadian citizen spouse in another country.

I have almost same situation:

I work in new York and settling my family, wife and three children in Canada. Once my wife get her citizenship, she will move back to new York and I will be o.k for PR residency requirement. But it will be very close call to complete two years out of five as she has to complete three years and process her citizenship before she moves back. Right?

[Leon]

Your wife can apply for citizenship and then leave Canada if she wants to but she should keep an address for her mail and be ready to go back in an instance when she gets called for the test/oath.  After she becomes a citizen, even if you have by that time not met the residency requirements and should actually have lost your PR, as long as you have not tried to enter Canada and been reported for it, you still haven't actually lost your PR.  In that situation, if your wife lives with you for 2 years, your PR status is re-instated because if you at that point apply to renew your PR card (can however only been done from within Canada), you would say that for the past 5 years, you spent 2 years with a Canadian citizen spouse and therefore you meet the requirements.

[cheerup]

Thank you so much. This is a million dollar answer. You are awesome.

[cheerup]

Thank you so much. This is a million dollar answer. You are awesome.

After completing two years with citizen spouse, when I return to Canada for PR renewal, my first PR card would have been expired, how would I handle that at the border.

Thanks

[Leon]

After completing two years with citizen spouse, when I return to Canada for PR renewal, my first PR card would have been expired, how would I handle that at the border.

You say that since you have been living abroad with your Canadian citizen spouse and have not been in Canada since your PR card expired, you have unfortunately not had the chance to renew it yet.

If you are visa exempt to Canada, you will not have any problem getting on a plane with just your passport or if you are not visa exempt, either go by private car or apply for a PR travel document at the Canadian embassy.