Leaving Canada During Three Year Undertaking Period

[chadmac]

Hi,

My wife and I were married on August 12th. She is an American in Canada on a student visa. As part of her schooling she will have to do a year-long internship after her dissertation. We want to apply for her to get permanent residency and we would plan to apply from outside Canada through Buffalo, which should take about 13 months according to the CIC website.

Since we don't know exactly when or where her internship will be yet, we are unsure as to whether we should proceed with the PR application process. More than likely, she will start her internship around the end of 2013, but there is a decent chance that she will have to go to the US to do it. So, while we will almost certainly be in Canada during the entire application processing time, we may need to move to the US for a year during the three year undertaking period.

I assume that leaving the country for a year during this time would affect her PR status, but I can't find any information for this specific case. If anyone has any advice regarding this matter, it would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
Chad

 

[PMM]

Hi

Hi,

My wife and I were married on August 12th. She is an American in Canada on a student visa. As part of her schooling she will have to do a year-long internship after her dissertation. We want to apply for her to get permanent residency and we would plan to apply from outside Canada through Buffalo, which should take about 13 months according to the CIC website.

Since we don't know exactly when or where her internship will be yet, we are unsure as to whether we should proceed with the PR application process. More than likely, she will start her internship around the end of 2013, but there is a decent chance that she will have to go to the US to do it. So, while we will almost certainly be in Canada during the entire application processing time, we may need to move to the US for a year during the three year undertaking period.

I assume that leaving the country for a year during this time would affect her PR status, but I can't find any information for this specific case. If anyone has any advice regarding this matter, it would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
Chad

It would have no effect, other than she would still have to meet the residency requirements of residing in Canada for 2 years in every 5 year period after "landing" That doesn't apply if she is accompanied by a Canadian citizen spouse.

 

[chadmac]

Thanks for the quick reply.

So, even if we were to end up moving to the US after her internship (ie: we both find decent jobs there) any time that we are living together would count towards her residency obligation due to my citizenship? Well, that would certainly be good news!

I guess we can go ahead with our application and hope that everything is processed before she would have to potentially leave for her internship.

 

[dakonej]

Thanks for the quick reply.

So, even if we were to end up moving to the US after her internship (ie: we both find decent jobs there) any time that we are living together would count towards her residency obligation due to my citizenship? ...

In general, yes. You can check more details on the residency requirements here: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/applications/guides/5445EA.asp