Sabre said:
Hi everyone. I was hoping someone would be able to provide some insight on a little issue my wife and I are having. We applied for her PR in May and just recently received my sponsor approval. The problem is, we included my wife's 19 year old daughter on the application. However, a couple weeks ago she informed us that she's pregnant. Now that she has a dependent of her own I'll need to meet the financial requirements, which I don't know if I will. Since she wasn't pregnant at the time of her medicals, and CIC has already received them, do we need to contact them to have her removed from the application? She chose not to come to Canada with her mom but we left her on the application in the hopes she would change her mind. Anyway, any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
There's a few things that come to mind from what you describe:
* She won't have a dependent of her own until she has a live birth. Therefore, the situation and what you need to do depends on when she gives birth, when you receive the PPRs, and when she lands.
Let me elaborate:
- If you receive the PPR and they land before she gives birth, then no changes will be made to your family composition and your application would remain as is.
- If you receive the PPR after she gives birth, then you'll need to update your application to reflect the new baby as a dependent's dependent and submit an updated application (new forms, etc to reflect the additional family member). At that point the application will be evaluated on its merits and you'll need to meet LICO. So you have a bit of time to get there.
- If you receive the CoPR and visa (if relevant) before giving birth and she gives birth before landing, they should not land until you advise the visa office so they can add the baby to the application.
- If she hadn't done her medical exam yet, you could choose to postpone it and put your application on pause so she had the x-rays after giving birth. However, in your case (since medicals were done already) your application shouldn't be delayed/put on hold simply because of the pregnancy.
What VO are you applying through? Looking at the processing time figures may give you a sense of what scenario you'll likely face. The 2011 figures are at: http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/case-processing-speed-at-visa-offices-step-2-t102206.0.html
* Since you "left her on the application in the hopes she would change her mind" consider encouraging her to land. That will buy her a bit more time to decide what she really wants to do since she'll retain her PR until she cannot be in Canada 2 years out of every 5.
* If she chooses to give birth in Canada, her baby would be a Canadian citizen. Otherwise, if she chooses to move to Canada she'll have to sponsor her baby in the future before moving. As a PR, she would have to be living in Canada to sponsor her baby (as the rules stand).
* You don't mention any marriage plans and depending on whether she's lived with someone so far may not even qualify as a common-law partner before landing, but if this comes up you'll have to watch out for implications on eligibility and make sure you communicate to the VO. It's probably easiest to wait until after she lands if possible.
* If she marries or enters into a common-law relationship (12 months of living with someone and intertwining their affairs), then she would cease to become your dependent and you would need to let CIC know. In this case she would be removed from the application.
There's a lot of moving pieces to this and I've just addressed what came to mind as I read it. Please don't hesitate to ask additional questions.
