Extension of Stay while waiting for PR - confusion with IMM5708

[EmmaShazma83]

Hi everyone,

Our situation: me (PR) and husband (USC) currently both living in Canada. He came in March 2019, so his visitor status will expire in September 2019 when 6 months is up. We have sent his PR application this month (July 2019) and now we are working on applying for his extension of stay. We have some questions as below:

1. Should we apply for extension now or wait until next month? I've seen some forum posts that say you should wait until the last minute possible, but I prefer to do things early especially I will be busy with exams come August.

2. IMM 5708, clarification on how to fill up the forms:

a) "COMING INTO CANADA - Original Purpose"

He first visited me in Jan 2018 and stayed with me for 5 months until June 2018. Is it okay to answer "Other - visiting girlfriend" or should we answer "Tourism"?

b) "DETAILS OF VISIT TO CANADA - Purpose of my visit"

Is it okay to answer "Other - Waiting for PR Application (Spousal Sponsorship)" I ask because when he came to Canada in March 2019, we are not yet married at that time. We got married during this visit in April 2019.

c) "Indicate how long you plan to stay"

since we are waiting for PR approval, should we put the date range from the expiry of his status + 12 months?

d) "Funds available for my stay"

he has some funds in his bank account not much though, and most of our household expenses is being provided by me. How should we fill this part up? I can provide payslips and employer letters, should I include this in supporting documents?

e) "Have you previously applied to stay / remain in Canada"

we put down "In July 2019, I applied for Permanent Residence under Spousal Sponsorship (Family Class)." is this correct?

f) There is a question about family members having tuberculosis - his mother was diagnosed with inactive TB recently, will this adversely affect our application?

I thank you all good forum members in advance for helping us out.

 

[Jnicole45]

So I (American) entered Canada in January to live with my now-husband, applied for PR in March (had to re-send in May because it was returned due to missing document). I was advised at one of our border crossings (my family lives about 2 hours away so we cross frequently to visit) to apply for a Visitor Record/extension earlier rather than later, and just for my own peace of mind I'm glad I did. So to answer your questions:

1. Apply now. They say at least 30 days prior, but mine took 80+ days (51 days was the est. time when I applied). If you wait till the last minute, he'll still have implied status and be able to stay in Canada until a decision is made, but if it gets denied and he's in overstay territory, he'll have way less time to make arrangements for leaving Canada. Idk how long they would give him to leave the country if it's rejected, but it's definitely a risk.


2a) if he came specifically to visit you, I would classify it as "other" with your clarification.
B) I would again call it visiting girlfriend/spouse instead of saying you're waiting for PR
C) yes. They can give you less if they want to, but feel free to ask for the longest you need.
D) Because I dont work, I put my husband's estimated income for the time period I requested. So take the amount he has saved and add what you will make in the amount of time you'll be supporting him (so your monthly income x number of months you're requesting he stay). If I remember correctly, there should be something in the checklist of documents you need that is about proving your financial ability while in Canada, so I had my husband write a letter stating that, since I cant work in canada, he is my full financial support, and then we attached pay stubs going back 6 months and the letter we uses for our PR app from his employer stating how long hes been employed and what he gets paid, etc.
E) yes. Try to include the actual date you mailed the application (they seem to like specificity)
F) Honestly, I can't tell you. They could ask him to go have a medical done just to confirm he's not bringing TB to canada.

Also, as a supplemental document, I wrote a full explanation of my reason for wanting to stay (a brief history of my relationship with my husband, when we submitted our PR application and OWP app, that I did not intend to work while in Canada unless/until my OWP was approved, and that I would return to the US if my application was rejected), stuff that they ask about but dont give you an opportunity to explain in the regular forms.

Best of luck!

 

[starnaenae]

We stated that he was waiting for his or to be processed and included the app number sponsor approval and transfer notice to the VO. We also were expecting a baby so that helped as i wanted him here and provided medical notes and ultrasound pictures.

We sent each extension with about a week left to go and there were no issues at all. For income we provided copies of the money we had in our accounts as well as my employment letter and t4

Its best that you be honest on the application. They could cross reference applications as well... pr to trv app etc

 

[EmmaShazma83]

@starnaenae and @Jnicole45 thanks for sharing your experiences, I really appreciate it.

I'm going to go ahead and write a letter and say I'll be responsible for his expenses, attach my paystub and employer letter and a little background on our relationship in the Proof of Means of Financial Support Section. Then on the optional Client Information, my husband will write a letter to say that he understands that he has to leave if the application to extend is denied, or if approved but PR is denied, he has to also leave then. He will also say that he has the funds to purchase a ticket home if needed, and he attach his own bank account statement here.

We haven't received AOR since we only just sent the PR application last week, so we are attaching the receipt of payment of Fee for proof of application of PR since we don't have any UCI number or any other reference like that.

Please let me know what you guys think! Thank you.

 

[Jnicole45]

Sounds to me like that should be sufficient! My application package contained roughly the same stuff and I was approved. I hadn't recieved my AOR yet either so I attached my receipts like you plan on doing.

Hope it works out!

 

[EmmaShazma83]

@Jnicole45 oh one more thing, did you guys submit the Schedule 1 - Application for a Temporary Resident Visa Made Outside Canada (IMM 5257) ? I figured this is inapplicable since my husband is already in Canada with me right now, but is my understanding correct? This document shows up on our online application document list but was listed as "Optional".

 

[Jnicole45]

Yes I did. I tried to submit without it and it gave me an error and told me it was required. You can always try to submit without it since it says it's optional, but you might have to do it anyway like I did.

 

[EmmaShazma83]

Oh okay, in that case we will just fill it up and send it in to be safe. Thanks for the heads up!