Maintaining legal status while inland spousal sponsorship (PR/OWP) is processed

[espg_007]

My wife came to Canada in January as a student and we got married on June 15th. Her student permit expires on October 26th and we are hoping to submit our PR/OWP inland spousal sponsorship application in the following weeks. She holds a valid visitor visa (expires 2023) from a previous visit in 2019. I'm a Canadian citizen.

Our question is about what is the best way to maintain her legal status while OWP is approved. We want to avoid using implied status to avoid future issues.

Extending her student visa would be the easiest option, but it involves paying for more English lessons, which are pretty expensive. We are considering extending her stay by applying for a visitor record and switching from student to visitor. We have a few questions in that case:

- As a visitor, would she be able to take part-time online English lessons? Or would that be in contravention of her legal visitor status?
- Once the visitor record change is approved, would we be able to go on short vacation trips? Or would she be denied entry back into Canada as a visitor given that she essentially lives in Canada now.
- Can the visitor record be extended again in the likely event that the OWP takes more than 6 months?

Thanks so much in advance!

 

[bian07]

The visitor record would not be valid anymore once you leave Canada. She would just get a new visitor status again when she gets in. And she can always be denied entry back into Canada, which is why it's recommended to not leave the country during inland sponsorship, since that could result in the application being seen as abandoned & you'd have to reapply.

And yes you can extend the visitor record multiple times

 

[espg_007]

Thanks!

which is why it's recommended to not leave the country during inland sponsorship

Does that hold after she gets her OWP?

 

[bian07]

Thanks!



Does that hold after she gets her OWP?

Yes. An owp is not a guarantee that you can enter canada. Its always the decision of the border officer. 2-3 weeks out of the country seem fine most of the time, but it can still be a risk