As said previously, you cannot take the PhD offer and continue to sponsor your family, regardless of how much you visit Canada or any "collaboration" with a Canadian university. You would no longer be residing in Canada, a requirement for PRs when sponsoring, so your sponsorship app would be cancelled.JMOBhatti said:I have talked to the CIC help line and have been advised that if I can manage to visit Canada once in the year and dont stay out of Canada for extended period of 3 years, I can manage to meet my residency requirement. With fingers crossed, I am figuring out to enhance my stay in Canada while availing the opportunity of PhD by having some internship or collaboration with a Canadian university. I yet have to communicate with my supervisor but I believe there might be some options. Need seniors opinion please.
If (and that's a BIG if) you manage to meet the RO while completing the PhD and return to Canada, you would have to start the sponsorship process again. That means it will be at least 5 years before your family would become PRs.
If you don't meet the RO while completing the PhD but manage to get back into Canada after it's done without being reported, you would have to wait until you once again met the RO before being able to sponsor your family, so it would be even longer than the above scenario.
Worst case, you don't meet the RO and you get reported when re-entering Canada. Going to school outside of Canada is generally not seen as an H&C reason, so you would most likely lose your PR status.