Hi Greg - Don't bother with CIC Call Centre, chances are you won't get accurate info from them anyway. It's not clear whether your wife is in Canada now, or still in Panama - so it's a little difficult to answer your question definitively.
IF she is in Canada and still has valid visitor status your best bet is to file an
inland PR application to sponsor her. To protect her temporary status and to help expedite her PR application process make
sure that you submit the PR application AND an
application to extend her stay (you can request a change of conditions to a work permit) TOGETHER to CPC-Vegreville BEFORE her current visitor status expires. (You'll need to be sure to pay all the fees: $75 sponsor fee, $475 applicant fee, and $150 (separate) work permit fee - plus you can pay the $490 RPRF fee upfront, or wait until it's requested later in the process.) Be sure you track the mailing so you have proof that it was delivered to CPC-V prior to expiration of her current temporary status. This will protect her temporary status and allow her to stay in Canada while her PR application is being processed. Once the first stage of approval is completed (6-7 months after CPC-V receives the application) she will be issued an open work permit so that she can get a job, if she wants, and that work permit becomes her new temporary status document. The second stage of processing will take another 6-12 months to complete. The inland application is processed entirely within Canada, so if you go this route she needs to remain in Canada the whole time. If she leaves she will most likely not be able to get another TRV to come back and the inland ap will be forfeited. You need to also be aware that there is no appeal option for an inland application.
If your wife is not in Canada now, it is highly unlikely (as above) that she will be able to get a TRV to come to Canada because of her marriage to you - so you will need to apply via the
outland application process. That process, through Bogota (as she is Columbian born), will take approximately 6-12 months total. (If she was initially admitted to Panama with legal status valid for at least one year, she could apply using her Panama residential address and her application would be processed via Guatemala City - but processing will take approximately 9-20 months!) Either way your wife will have to wait until she has her permanent status to come to Canada. The outland process does have the right of appeal.
