Apply for PR for spouse who lives abroad

[maronvomra]

Hi,

I am a PR (since June 2012) in Canada residing in Montreal. I am working in multinational firm here for almost 2 year and filing my tax returns and all. Also did my MS when I first came here in 2009.

Now I am getting married this June,2013 and I need your help for my below questions:
1. whether my wife can come with me after weeding on a visit visa (before I apply for her PR) in July?
2. once she is inside Canada, can I apply for her PR from inside Canada or she needs to go back home for me to apply for her PR?

FYI, we are from Bangladesh.

Thanks.

 

[Reflectoman]

Hi,

a lot of posts have been put forth for similar question, but here is what applies to you in short,

- you are not from a visa-exempt country, so a visa is required, and you know that already. However, when processing your spouse's visit visa, one thing that the VO will look at is the applicant's ties to her home country and the ties to Canada. Your wife will have a very strong tie to Canada, ie. being married to you, so her ties to Bangladesh need to be very strong (house, family, job, school, etc.) and you need to prove that to the VO. Otherwise they might think that she has no intention to leave canada at the end of her visa, and refuse it. a letter from her employer stating that she is getting a leave of vacation and that she will be gone for X weeks and that she will be resuming her employment on date XXXX would work, so would if she had a business or house in bangladesh, etc. the family ties sort of balance out, since her husband would be in canada, so you do need some other strong ties to show that she will be coming back to bangladesh. in my opinion your current idea of getting a visa and then apply for PR once in canada will most definitely result in a refusal of the visa.

- if you do an inland application, then the applicant cannot leave canada. if they do leave canada, and then are refused re-entry for whatever reason back into canada the PR application is denied since it is considered abondoned. versus in the outland application the applicant is expected to be outside of canada so can freely travel but will need to be in bangladesh if an interview is required. an appeal is possible for outland applications but not in the inland, if for whatever your are denied initially. for inland you need to enter canada legally, and the chances of getting a visit visa for a newly married spouse dont' seem too high.

one suggestion that i have seen on this forum is that after you apply for your outland sponsorship (ie means apply via bangladesh, which is covered by singapore) you can make a sepearate application for a visit visa, again showing all the ties to home country, and that she will be returning and proving that and also including proof of your PR application and explaning that you don't want to jeopardize this PR application so that is even more proof of you not wanting to overstay. however, this is also at a slim chance since the VO may still assess that your wife will overstay her visa and not leave canada.

i just had a glance at the singarpore timeline (26 months) and i feel for you (my wife had to go through islamabad which is at 28 months), but remember that these timelines are for 80% of the applications. Looking at the breakdown for singapore (latest data is till sept 2012 only), they completed 50% of the applicants within 15 months. so keep strong, gather all your proofs, look at your application with a very critical eye and anythign that stands out as somethign that the VO might question address it right away. with straight forward applications the timeline could be less ...

 

[maronvomra]

Hey, thanks a lot for the quick reply.

I think I will go with the normal process now. after I come back in July in Montreal, I will apply for her PR.

One more question, after I apply for her I can visit Bangladesh right or until her application processing is done I can't?

And she is a medical student in her final year and so not done with her studies yet but still will not take that chance. Hope it won't take long and will be lucky :'(

I will start looking in the application forms carefully form now so that I don't make any mistakes filling it up.

Let me know if you can think of any other suggestions for me. It would be a great help.

Thanks.

 

[Reflectoman]

only citizens can leave Canada during the sponsorship process. Since you are a PR, you must reside in Canada during the sponsorship process, you can chance short vacations but if immigration finds out that you are not in Canada, you risk getting your application refused. Remember that in general canadian vacations are like 1-2 weeks only.

There is also a lot of good information on Leon's post here, http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/spousal-sponsorship-t46995.0.html;msg344291#msg344291

Since you are in Montreal (QC), you also will need to apply with the MICC, http://www.immigration-quebec.gouv.qc.ca/en/index.html after you get your stage 1 approval from mississauga. You can view those documents at the link i gave, and keep in mind that they charge $266 for the application of a spouse. This is on top of the fees to CIC .. sucks, i know.

i think a good idea would be for you and your wife to fill them in together one afternoon while at home, it will save a bit of back and forth via emails once you are here. Also, it'll allow her to start gathering any documents that she needs right away, getting certified english translation of birth certificates if needed, and you can bring with you since the whole application goes as one package to mississauga and after they approve you they send the whole file to singapore for stage 2. not sure about bangladesh wedding traditions, but in pakistan arranged marriages are common, so in some questions where they asked about relations before marriage, etc. we just clearly indicated that it was an arranged marriage (there is also a question for that). basically answer truthfully, be detailed where you need to be, and don't leave any gap in the timelines for schooling or residence without an explanation. have plenty of proof/pics of the ceremonies, and any outings or gatherings you did afterwards with family and friends to include with you application.

if you are stuck at any question, just ask on the forum, plenty of people available to help out.

best of luck!

 

[maronvomra]

Are you serious !! what if an emergency comes up in the family back there !! I can't leave?

Thanks for the links. I will go through them and if have any questions will ask for all of your help.

Thanks.

 

[canadianwoman]

Are you serious !! what if an emergency comes up in the family back there !! I can't leave?

You can leave for a short time. A vacation for two or three weeks will be no problem. A long stay, let's say of 6 months, will mean your wife's PR visa will be denied, in all likelihood.

 

[maronvomra]

Hey everyone,
Just to get the things staright, my wife is in Bangladesh and I will apply from here (Canada) so its an outland application.
Based on Leon's post I need to fill up all the forms inthe outland application link.
So I have to fill all the forms there right?

Thanks.