Applying for tourist visa with spousal sponsor application in process?

[BenA105]

Hi folks,

My wife and I have a spousal sponsorship application in process with CIC. Currently, I have received my Sponsor Approval status, and our application has been forwarded on to the appropriate CIC office.

My wife has since obtained a ten year multiple entry visa for the USA. Next month, we are meeting down in California to spend some time together. Whilst she is over in North America, we wanted to see if she could visit me in Vancouver too.

So, I was wondering about the whole "duel intent" thing about applying for a Canadian tourist visa? Of course, eventually she intends to settle in Canada, but in the mean time if we could spend some time together in Canada - however fleeting - that would be nice.

If she was denied a tourist visa - would it affect our residency application at all?

Thanks!

 

[mikeymyke]

It won't affect your application at all, especially since you've already submitted the application already, so even if she was denied a tourist visa, she wouldn't have to update those forms which asks if she's ever been refused a tourist visa.

While it is somewhat difficult to get a tourist visa while your spouse is married to you, it's certainly not as hard as some people make it out to be. My wife's from a difficult country to get a tourist visa from, she was also married to me at the time of applying and had her PR application already in process, but she was able to get a multiple entry for life of passport tourist visa. Some of it is luck, but I feel if you put together a solid application for your tourist visa to show that your spouse will plan on leaving Canada, then you have a good chance. Personally, I feel that it's more difficult to get a tourist visa if you're boyfriend/girlfriend since there's the possibility the couple would try to turn the tourist visa into a "permanent stay" visa by applying inland, which doesn't really show that the applicant intends to leave Canada. Because leaving Canada while applying inland will effectively void the PR application.

 

[BenA105]

Ah ha, thanks for all the info - very helpful

Yeah I think we have a fairly decent application. Glad it doesn't affect anything PR related!

We already have a trip booked to the USA (flights, everything). I'm flying back to Canada a week before she flies back to her home country - we wanted to get her a visa so she could fly back to Canada with me, spend a few days, before she flew back down to the USA and then onwards home).

Hopefully the fact that we have solid plans will make it easier

Thanks again!