Citizenship requirement

[traumasurgeon]

Dear friends,
1-) If I send my wife and kids (who are all permanent residents) to Canada and I stay at my home country and I send them money monthly until they fulfill citizenship days, will they require anything else for application.(By meaning anything else, else than days) And what about the tax issue that my wife will declare as she gets the money from me only and not working. Thanks for the responses

 

[dpenabill]

Dear friends,
1-) If I send my wife and kids (who are all permanent residents) to Canada and I stay at my home country and I send them money monthly until they fulfill citizenship days, will they require anything else for application.(By meaning anything else, else than days) And what about the tax issue that my wife will declare as she gets the money from me only and not working. Thanks for the responses

The revised residency requirements prescribed by Bill C-24 will come into force later this year, and will apply to anyone now arriving and settling in Canada. In addition to extending the required duration of actual physical presence, the new requirements include two provisions which will be of particular import in this situation:

-- compliance with CRA tax requirements for at least four calendar years in the six years preceding the application

-- intent to continue residing in Canada

The latter opens the door to a very, very broad inquiry into the applicant's ties abroad. Beyond the extent of physical presence and the applicant's own "residence" and employment, there is probably no bigger tie than the place where one's partner lives and works. How this will play out in a situation like you describe remains to be seen. I suspect a significant risk of problems for couples living in separate countries, but to what extent one can only guess. It will probably take decades, not just years, for the courts to explore the major aspects of how the intent-to-continue-residing-in-Canada provision will be interpreted and applied.

 

[dpenabill]

I should have also noted that similarly, the interpretation and application of the compliance with tax law provision, being totally new, remains to be seen, and here too it will take at least several years for this to unfold, from CIC devising policy and practice, and its own interpretation, to the courts reviewing CIC's policies, practices, and interpretation.

That said, it seems a safe bet to assume citizenship applicants may be required to submit copies of at least CRA Notices of Assessment for four calendar years. Alternative explanations, such as a return not required due to lack of income, may suffice but will likely raise other issues, such as indicating source of income or funds is from abroad, leading back to questions about whether ties abroad indicate a lack of intent to reside in Canada.

The latter, though, again, is largely speculative. These provisions, the tax law compliance provision and the intent to reside provision, are brand new in Canadian citizenship law, so there is no history, no precedents. How it will unfold really remains to be seen.