Accompany Canadian citizen spouse abroad

[connieyes]

Hello everyone,

I have a question that I can't find clear answers on the IRCC website. Hope someone here could help me out.

I got my PR in Feb. 2018 and my spouse is a Canadian citizen. Now he may be relocated to southeast Asia for work. I plan to go with him but I don't know if that would affect me applying for Canadian citizenship in the future.

I checked IRCC website, under "Residency Requirements", it says:
Time spent outside Canada may also count towards the two years if you are:

• travelling with your spouse or partner who is a Canadian citizen

So I think this relocation won't affect my PR status.

However, I do plan to apply for Canadian citizenship after Feb. 2020. And on IRCC website, under "Can I count any time I’ve spent outside of Canada toward the physical presence requirement when applying for citizenship?" it says:

The time you spend outside of Canada doesn’t count toward your physical presence requirement, except in some cases.

You can count time spent outside Canada toward the physical presence requirement for citizenship if you:

• were a permanent resident employed in or with the:
  • Canadian Armed Forces
  • federal public administration
  • public service of a province or territory
• lived outside Canada with your Canadian spouse or common-law partner or permanent resident spouse, common-law partner, or parent who was employed in or with the:
  • Canadian Armed Forces
  • federal public administration
  • public service of a province or territory

My spouse doesn't work for any of these three mentioned.

So what I think is that I can maintain my PR if we relocate but I won't be able to apply for Canadian citizenship. Is this an accurate interpretation? I am confused so hopefully someone could clarify this for me.

Thank you all so much in advance!

 

[keesio]

So what I think is that I can maintain my PR if we relocate but I won't be able to apply for Canadian citizenship. Is this an accurate interpretation?

yes, exactly.

 

[dpenabill]

Now he may be relocated to southeast Asia for work. I plan to go with him but I don't know if that would affect me applying for Canadian citizenship in the future.

Days abroad will NOT count toward meeting the citizenship presence requirements.

As long as the two of you are living together, those days SHOULD count toward complying with the PR Residency Obligation.


Small (probably not relevant) Possible Reason for Caution:

Since you just became a PR this year, there are possible scenarios which might affect this. In particular, if the country the two of you will be living in is your home country or a country where you have long been living until recently, you may want to read discussions about who-accompanied-whom considerations when relying on credit for time abroad accompanying a Canadian citizen spouse. If for example you obtained PR status through family class sponsorship, and he was the sponsor, as long as he was living in Canada at the time the application was made and has remained living in Canada since, and you have been settled in Canada since February, NO PROBLEM. Otherwise, if the country you are moving to is your home country, for example, there could be this or that detail which might warrant closer consideration before relying on the PR RO credit for "accompanying" a citizen spouse abroad. If so, see discussions about potential exceptions to the credit for PRs living with a citizen spouse abroad which are addressed in depth in other topics.

Also be aware that rules like this are always subject to change. There is no indication of any impending change regarding the accompanying a citizen spouse exception to the obligation to be present in Canada, but if you are likely to be living abroad for many years, this is something to keep track of . . . especially if a Conservative government is elected next year. It is obvious, for example, that during the last Conservative government CIC (before it became IRCC) shifted toward a more strict approach in SOME cases (in certain types of cases which, again, are addressed in depth in other topics), looking at who-accompanied-whom when determining whether to allow this credit.

 

[connieyes]

Days abroad will NOT count toward meeting the citizenship presence requirements.

As long as the two of you are living together, those days SHOULD count toward complying with the PR Residency Obligation.


Small (probably not relevant) Possible Reason for Caution:

Since you just became a PR this year, there are possible scenarios which might affect this. In particular, if the country the two of you will be living in is your home country or a country where you have long been living until recently, you may want to read discussions about who-accompanied-whom considerations when relying on credit for time abroad accompanying a Canadian citizen spouse. If for example you obtained PR status through family class sponsorship, and he was the sponsor, as long as he was living in Canada at the time the application was made and has remained living in Canada since, and you have been settled in Canada since February, NO PROBLEM. Otherwise, if the country you are moving to is your home country, for example, there could be this or that detail which might warrant closer consideration before relying on the PR RO credit for "accompanying" a citizen spouse abroad. If so, see discussions about potential exceptions to the credit for PRs living with a citizen spouse abroad which are addressed in depth in other topics.

Also be aware that rules like this are always subject to change. There is no indication of any impending change regarding the accompanying a citizen spouse exception to the obligation to be present in Canada, but if you are likely to be living abroad for many years, this is something to keep track of . . . especially if a Conservative government is elected next year. It is obvious, for example, that during the last Conservative government CIC (before it became IRCC) shifted toward a more strict approach in SOME cases (in certain types of cases which, again, are addressed in depth in other topics), looking at who-accompanied-whom when determining whether to allow this credit.

Thank you for the detailed explanation. This shouldn't be a problem for me because if we leave Canada, it would be next year in March. And we are not going to my home country, also because this is absolutely because of his work, so I'm definitely accompanying him. It's just the fact that this will slow down the process of me becoming a Canadian citizen bothers me very much. I really hope they actually change the requirements, although I know it's very unlikely.

 

[dpenabill]

I really hope they actually change the requirements, although I know it's very unlikely.

Possibility of any change to give PRs abroad with a citizen spouse credit toward citizenship requirements is extremely remote. Technically possible. Virtually no more possibility than that. That is, there is NO practical chance this is going to happen . . . and to be clear, "unlikely" is a big understatement. After more than three decades of virtual chaos while there was a highly controversial and unevenly applied residency requirement (allowing a grant of citizenship without meeting a minimum physical presence test), largely resolved by an actual presence in Canada requirement (with very narrow exceptions) since June 2015, NONE of the political parties have any appetite to widen the path to citizenship any more than what was adopted by the current Liberal government in 2017.

Indeed, there is a far bigger possibility the requirements might be changed if the Conservatives win in next year's Federal election, but that would be to make the requirements MORE strict. Recent Ontario and New Brunswick provincial elections are signalling cause for concern. That said, even if the Conservatives form the next government it is probably unlikely they will again implement big changes to citizenship, not for the next several years anyway. The presence requirements are likely to remain in place for a long time. (If the Conservatives form the government and are inclined to make some changes, re-introducing an "intent-to-reside" in Canada requirement seems to be among the more likely changes, probably in a slightly modified form compared to the one that was briefly applicable pursuant to the Harper era Bill-24.)

Potentially it is more possible (not quite likely, but not far short of that) a Conservative government could make changes to the requirements and obligations applicable to PRs. As noted in my previous post, there already has been some movement toward more strictly applying the availability of credit toward RO compliance for PRs abroad. The current leader of the Conservatives, Andrew Scheer, has expressed some views leaning toward tightening rules for immigration to Canada and has, in particular, been under quite a lot of pressure from some of the Conservative constituency to take even a tougher stance. I am guessing you hope they do NOT change these requirements. (I am hoping there is NO Conservative government at all, but I tend to be on the oft-disappointed side of the political spectrum.)