Going to Canada on a TRV before being granted PR?

[Egoyan]

Hi guys,

My wife and I live in China (I am Canadian and she is Chinese). We have applied for sponsorship and everything is going well.

We were wondering, since she already has a multi-entry Canadian visa, is it possible to go to Canada before the end of the processing of her PR file, and be granted PR status in Canada? We are worried that she would have to eventually come back to China to close the application, for example for an interview, or simply for "landing" from the country of origin, which would quite honestly be a strain financially.

If it is indeed possible, would we need to have our file moved to another office closer to Canada, or could we leave it in China, and simply change our mailing address to our Canadian one?

Thanks for your help! We would like to move to Canada as soon as possible, as I have a deadline to go back to school, but we would like to stay together.

Egoyan

 

[Sweden]

Hi guys,

My wife and I live in China (I am Canadian and she is Chinese). We have applied for sponsorship and everything is going well.

We were wondering, since she already has a multi-entry Canadian visa, is it possible to go to Canada before the end of the processing of her PR file, and be granted PR status in Canada? We are worried that she would have to eventually come back to China to close the application, for example for an interview, or simply for "landing" from the country of origin, which would quite honestly be a strain financially.

If it is indeed possible, would we need to have our file moved to another office closer to Canada, or could we leave it in China, and simply change our mailing address to our Canadian one?

Thanks for your help! We would like to move to Canada as soon as possible, as I have a deadline to go back to school, but we would like to stay together.

Egoyan

hey Egoyan,

You can choose to move to Canada if your wife already has a visa, and wait out the PR there. However, you can not move your file to another office, so if your wife is required to go for an interview, she will have to go back to China for that.

You don't need to land from the country of origin. You can exit the country to any border (if you are moving somewhere close to the US for example), or take an appointment at a CIC office to complete the landing procedures there ( this part I am less informed on how to do it, so wait until a senior member confirms that part with how to do it exactly). You can change the mailing address but I suppose that your wife would have to mail her passport to the VO - and in some countries, it is illegal to mail passports across borders, so you should check that before moving. As she is not from a visa exempt country, she will have the PR in her passport, hence her passport should be in the embassy.

One thing to check is also how the border officers would see the fact that your wife is "moving" to canada although she only has a visitor visa. I think it really depends in where in the process you are. If you have been approved as a sponsor, and you are "almost done" with the PR, then it might work. If not, you always risk being refused at the port of entry, even if she has a visitor visa, if the border officer doesn't believe that she will leave. There are quite a few threads with experiences from people doing that, but they mostly are from visa-exempt applicants.

I'm planning on moving to canada to wait out the rest of my PR, but I should be fairly close to the date of issuance by the time I move, and quite a few people from visa-exempt have done that without troubles - not sure for other applicants.

Good luck with your decision!
Cheers,
Sweden

 

[Egoyan]

Hi Sweden,

Thanks for the reply! It's been very helpful.

I've also heard that she might be refused entry at the border if she only has a one-way ticket. Does anybody have any experience with this?

If anybody has any experience in this situation with a person from a country that does require a TRV, I would really appreciate any more advice!

Thanks!

Egoyan