Citizenship application when spouse may not be able to live in Canada

[ski]

Hello all,

This may be a question asked several times before, but google searches didn't get me anywhere.

My wife was a student at a university in Canada and we got married while she was studying. After graduation, she has taken up a job with the United Nations which is outside Canada (Africa). She intends to work for the UN in different roles which means moving between different countries. She is not a permanent resident of Canada and since there are hardly any jobs for her (she graduated with social sciences degree) she doesn't plan to live long term in Canada. I might apply for a permanent residence for her as a spousal sponsor.

My question: I will be eligible to apply for my citizenship in 2 years. Will it affect my application if it appears my wife will not be living with me in Canada? Will they reject it on the basis that I may leave too? It is still a while to go and the laws may completely change either in or against my favor. But was asking this question well in advance in case there was anything I could do to avoid problems.

Thanks in advance.

 

[nope]

Other people will give you a more authoritative response -- I thought the following things:

- you might want to wait until you have been married for more than two years, before beginning the sponsorship process. Otherwise, your wife will receive conditional PR, which would require her to live with you for two years. It doesn't sound like you are going to do this.

- your relationship is going to receive a fair amount of scrutiny -- you're a PR, possibly with weak ties to Canada depending on your situation, and your wife has come and left, without you accompanying her. Take some time to be married, and collect evidence of that.

- I don't think that this should affect your citizenship application, except informally (they eyeball it harder than they would otherwise) -- you'll want to have as much evidence as possible that you are going to 'continue to reside' here, since that's now a clause. It depends partly on the mood of the bureaucrat your application draws: Happy Citizenship Officer might assume that living here in Canada without your wife displays commitment; Grouchy Citizenship Officer will think you're planning to join her as soon as you can, with a shiny new Canadian passport that will let her live with you and keep her Permanent Residency status forever.

 

[Canadiandesi2006]

Hello all,

This may be a question asked several times before, but google searches didn't get me anywhere.

My wife was a student at a university in Canada and we got married while she was studying. After graduation, she has taken up a job with the United Nations which is outside Canada (Africa). She intends to work for the UN in different roles which means moving between different countries. She is not a permanent resident of Canada and since there are hardly any jobs for her (she graduated with social sciences degree) she doesn't plan to live long term in Canada. I might apply for a permanent residence for her as a spousal sponsor.

My question: I will be eligible to apply for my citizenship in 2 years. Will it affect my application if it appears my wife will not be living with me in Canada? Will they reject it on the basis that I may leave too? It is still a while to go and the laws may completely change either in or against my favor. But was asking this question well in advance in case there was anything I could do to avoid problems.

Thanks in advance.

I support the other reader's comment, while most of us can only share our opinions or thoughts which might or might not be correct.

I heard that the UN employees falls under special category where physical stay criteria for Permanent Residency or Citizenship might be relaxed or exempted. Its worth checking with the HR department of UN, their offices in Canada and CIC as well.

 

[PMM]

Hi

I support the other reader's comment, while most of us can only share our opinions or thoughts which might or might not be correct.

I heard that the UN employees falls under special category where physical stay criteria for Permanent Residency or Citizenship might be relaxed or exempted. Its worth checking with the HR department of UN, their offices in Canada and CIC as well.

1. You heard wrong, there is no "relaxation" of the rules for PRs working for international organizations. Has been determined a couple of times by the IAD. http://www.canlii.org/en/ca/irb/doc/2012/2012canlii99737/2012canlii99737.html?searchUrlHash=AAAAAQA5IlBlcm1hbmVudCBSZXNpZGVuY2UgT2JsaWdhdGlvbiIgIndvcmsiICIgVW5pdGVkIE5hdGlvbnMiAAAAAAE&resultIndex=1

 

[ski]

Hello all,

Thank you so much for the quick responses. Yes I was worrying a little about the fact that my wife living abroad and that too for a long time will be seen an me possibly leaving too. Nothing much to do other than apply when the time comes and see what I can do to prove my case. As for my ties with Canada, I have a good job here. But other than that nothing else. So not easy to prove my ties either.

Thanks again.

 

[nope]

Hello all,

Thank you so much for the quick responses. Yes I was worrying a little about the fact that my wife living abroad and that too for a long time will be seen an me possibly leaving too. Nothing much to do other than apply when the time comes and see what I can do to prove my case. As for my ties with Canada, I have a good job here. But other than that nothing else. So not easy to prove my ties either.

Thanks again.

Citizenship isn't a question of you proving your ties -- if you live and work in Canada, you'll get citizenship. It's more a question of whether having an expatriate wife would delay your processing.

 

[walmzd]

It's too early to judge, since there are not many people applied for the citizenship under the new rule lately.
I have a lot of friends with similar situation, who have a spouse working abroad (mainly the husband in UAE and other countries) and the rest of the family are living in Canada and waiting to acquire the Canadian Citizenship and return back to live with their husbands.Of course, they are not going to admit that during citizenship interview.
Almost all the people I knew with similar situation, who applied under the old citizenship got a questionnaire, but with the new rule these families may not be granted the citizenship at all!

Hello all,

This may be a question asked several times before, but google searches didn't get me anywhere.

My wife was a student at a university in Canada and we got married while she was studying. After graduation, she has taken up a job with the United Nations which is outside Canada (Africa). She intends to work for the UN in different roles which means moving between different countries. She is not a permanent resident of Canada and since there are hardly any jobs for her (she graduated with social sciences degree) she doesn't plan to live long term in Canada. I might apply for a permanent residence for her as a spousal sponsor.

My question: I will be eligible to apply for my citizenship in 2 years. Will it affect my application if it appears my wife will not be living with me in Canada? Will they reject it on the basis that I may leave too? It is still a while to go and the laws may completely change either in or against my favor. But was asking this question well in advance in case there was anything I could do to avoid problems.

Thanks in advance.

 

[ski]

Thanks again for the responses. I guess best to wait and watch how the new law affects these cases.

 

[aloksh25]

Well its bit tricky situation as even if you will get citizenship and you sponsor your wife she will have to fulfill PR obligation and i she keep on continuing abroad then she might loose her PR status ..

What my suggestion is go get married and start her Pr process one she gets PR , fulfill the citizenship obligation and get Citizenship once she get citizenship she is free to work anywhere in the world ..

 

[ski]

We are already married. I am considering first applying for a PR for her under the Express Entry program. She has a PhD and lot of work experience which being international though she can't qualify for CEC. But it is worth a try in case she does get it. If not, I could apply for a spousal sponsorship.

 

[eileenf]

Hi Ski,
Having a spouse who lives abroad may bring your application under higher scrutiny. No one can say for sure whether it will, but it would be wise to prepare for it along the way by keeping meticulous records of any time you leave the country, keeping all your official documents from your housing, work, etc such as rent receipts, pay stubs, tax records, banking records, etc. Download bills, credit card statements, etc along the way since many online bill payment systems only keep the last 12 months on file. You want to be able to prove that you were actually present in Canada during your residence qualifying period.

That said, you will not be denied citizenship because your spouse lives abroad, assuming that you intend, in some larger sense, to live in Canada for the long term. If you're totally against living in Canada and plan on leaving the moment after you apply, you will likely have a hard time.

Finally, why do you want to apply for PR for your wife if she doesn't want or intend to live here?

 

[ski]

Thanks for the advice about maintaining records. I will do so and make sure they are up to date.

As for my wife's PR, she applied for PR a few years back under the PhD category and the application got rejected. She let it go. After graduating she had been considering applying again but the new EE system gives the most weight to LMIA which in social sciences is next to impossible to get. Most jobs in social sciences are either university jobs or government jobs for which either PR or citizenship is needed. So became a chicken and egg problem. But my hope is if she does get a PR, maybe she might consider coming back if a good job comes along due to her PR. Anyway, having a PR won't hurt except for the application fees and the hassle in processing the application.

Thanks again for your input.

 

[links18]

They don't ask you on the citizenship application where your spouse lives and in my experience they don't ask you at the interview either. It could become an issue if there are other reasons to doubt your application and you get an RQ, but how would they know your spouse doesn't live in Canada if you don't tell them? For all they know, your spouse could be a natural born Canadian.