questions about applying for my wife immigration while working abroad

[jigga79]

Hi I have a couple of questions that couldn't be answer by CIC as they just gave me a canned email and was wondering if anyone here can help me get some answer. So just a bit of background on our situation first of all.

I'm a Canadian citizen for 31 years and my wife is a Hong Kong citizen that study in Vancouver, Canada for 10 years. We've been together for 7 years and got married last year. We are now starting the process to get her a PR status and ultimately become a Canadian citizen. So here are a couple of questions I couldn't find answer to and would like some help

1. I'm currently working in China, and there's a question on the sponsor form that ask "Are you a Canadian citizen living exclusively outside Canada?" Well I'm living outside Canada right now for work but I still use my Canadian address as my permanent address and I have not declare non-residence in Canada. So how should I answer that question?

2. My wife was an international student in Canada for 10 years and she remember that she read somewhere that if she applied for permanent residence in Canada, that she does not have to live out the full 3 years as she gets one less year due to being an international student in Canada? Is this true or not?

3. Is it better for us to apply for her as inland or outland? As she is living with me in China right now for work. I read if I apply for her as inland it makes it more difficult for her to travel? She would have to stay in Canada?

3.Upon approval of starting her permanent residence in Canada for 3 years, and if I'm still working in China, do we both need to move back to Canada to live out the 3 year to apply for citizenship or if she is living with me in China while I'm working in China counts towards her Permanent Residence time?

Thanks ahead for any help anyone can lend me.

 

[fandv]

1. I'm currently working in China, and there's a question on the sponsor form that ask "Are you a Canadian citizen living exclusively outside Canada?" Well I'm living outside Canada right now for work but I still use my Canadian address as my permanent address and I have not declare non-residence in Canada. So how should I answer that question?

Welcome to this amazing forum .

How long have you been in China? When do you plan to return to Canada?

I'm kind of in a similar situation as you are, except I'm in Indonesia since Sept 2012, but going back to Canada next month. And I'm not working in Indonesia (my employer is in Canada). Basically in our application, I was as honest and open as possible to the CIC. I provided an additional sheet in which I wrote that I'd been in Indonesia for some months and explained the reasons why, and I also mentioned that I was going back to Canada very soon.
So I think you should do that too (write a detailed explanation in a separate sheet, and explain about your future plans).

Another very important to keep in mind is, the CIC wants you to demonstrate/prove that you will resettle in Canada when your wife gains Canadian permanent residency. Some example proofs that they accept include things like job acceptance letter by a Canadian employer, proof of enrollment in a Canadian educational institution, copies of Canadian mortgage/lease paperwork, etc. I didn't have any of those, but what I included were: 1) an employment letter from my Canadian employer (which is one of the required documents anyway for the sponsor), 2) a letter from my parents stating about their awareness of my imminent return to Canada, and that my wife and I are welcome to stay at their place till we buy our own house, and 3) other supporting evidence such as the most recent bank account and credit card statements, etc...which show that I am still maintaining ties with Canada...

2. My wife was an international student in Canada for 10 years and she remember that she read somewhere that if she applied for permanent residence in Canada, that she does not have to live out the full 3 years as she gets one less year due to being an international student in Canada? Is this true or not?

I'm not too sure about the rules for international students...the more senior members can probably advise better .

Btw, the official permanent residency requirement is that one has to be in Canada for 730 days (exactly 2 years), out of every 5 rolling years, in order NOT to lose the PR...

3. Is it better for us to apply for her as inland or outland? As she is living with me in China right now for work. I read if I apply for her as inland it makes it more difficult for her to travel? She would have to stay in Canada?

There's no good or bad...it depends on everyone's personal circumstances . Some things to keep in mind:

* if you applied inland, then there's no chance to appeal, should the application be rejected
* if you applied outland, then you can appeal if rejected
* although it's a common belief that outland applications take shorter to process, sometimes it takes as long as, if not longer than inland...it depends on many factors such as: 1) where your application will be processed (some visa offices work faster than others. For example Sydney (Australia) and London (England) are known to be fast, whereas Singapore is known to be kind of slow. 2) How complete your application is (some people forget to sign and/or date the forms, forget to send required documents, thereby causing unnecessary delays, and 3) Luck ;D

An important thing that brand new applicants may not be aware of: it is in fact possible to apply outland EVEN IF both of you are in Canada. So that's an option you might want to consider too. The catch is that in order for this to happen, the foreign spouse (the non-Canadian) has to apply for a tourist visa in order to stay in Canada, until the PR is issued. That's a problem for people from non-exempt countries, as usually the tourist visa application will get rejected when the immigration finds out that the applicant is married/common law with a Canadian. However your wife is lucky...being a HK citizen, she's visa exempt, which means it'll be easier for her to stay in Canada as a tourist, should you both decide to go for this option .

That's right: if applying inland, your wife can't exit Canada at all till she gets the PR, and if the CIC finds out, they will cancel the application...

4.Upon approval of starting her permanent residence in Canada for 3 years, and if I'm still working in China, do we both need to move back to Canada to live out the 3 year to apply for citizenship or if she is living with me in China while I'm working in China counts towards her Permanent Residence time?

Not sure about this...the more senior members can probably advise better

Thanks ahead for any help anyone can lend me.

You're welcome! You might want to give this guy, Fencesitter, a personal message to ask about stuff...he may be able to help you better, because he went through the exact same situation as you...i.e.: Canadian citizen having a wife from China, both living/working in China, etc. If I remember correctly, I think his wife already succesfully obtained the PR though...so he may be able to give you some useful tips

http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/profiles/Fencesitter-u161785.html


And you're going to want to read this: a list of things that he provided, to demonstrate that he was going to resettle in Canada once his wife became a PR:

http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/dependant-children-application-refusal-t109721.0.html;msg1573675#msg1573675