Can I sponsor my wife to immigrate to Canada while I am still working abroad?

[CanadianEd]

Looked through a lot of pages in the immigration site but don't seem to have gotten a clear answer for this. My situation:

- Canadian citizen (naturalized in 1992)
- Working in Japan since 2009
- Married my wife (Japanese) in 2011

We have been living in Japan till now but recently we made the decision to have her go abroad for a while to study and get a feeling for what it will be like if we decide to move back to Canada down the road, and it would be better for us to do this earlier rather than later while it is easier to pick up the language due to age.

After she finishes the plan is either for her to stay in Canada or stay with me so according to what I can tell it will fulfill the residency requirements for maintaining PR.

I looked at the requirements for sponsoring under the family class and it looks like we fulfill most of the requirements, but the question I had was whether I can sponsor her to immigrate to Canada (and be eligible for local tuition, etc.) alone as I need to stay in Japan due to my job.

So the question is: To sponsor my wife to immigrate to Canada, do I need to be living in Canada (and hence making the petition for her to come with me), or can I sponsor her to go to Canada before me as I have work, but still with the eventual goal of settling in Canada as a family?

 

[zardoz]

As a Canadian citizen, you do NOT have to be in Canada to sponsor your wife. You will however be asked to show that you intend to reside in Canada after the application process is successfully completed. If you can't or won't show that you intend to reside in Canada, the application will most likely be refused. As you have declared that you don't intend to return, because you have a job outside Canada, it would be a waste of time and money applying at this point.