Questions About Foreign Travel as a PR

[lulubeans9]

Hello All!

I am a USA citizen applying for family class PR with my Canadian citizen spouse sponsoring me. We will be married for less than two years at the time of application, so we will have conditional PR.

We are both avid travelers and have some questions regarding how my PR status will limit our travels.

I have read some different things regarding how much time one must spend in Canada once spousal PR has been approved.

Must I live in Canada for a consecutaive period of months or years following approval?

If my spouse and I travel to forgeign countries together, does that time count as time spent in Canada?

If we travel to a foreign country for a period of 1-5 months, will this affect my PR status? Could we live, work or study in a foreign country together with my PR status? Must we maintain a residence in Canada if we travel for extended periods of time outside the country? Could my spouse and I travel to the USA for pleasure for an extended period (within the 6 month restriction)?

Could I travel outside Canada without him for pleasure or to visit family alone, and if so for how long?

I currently have a small face painting business in the USA. I work out of the Seattle area and will be moving to the Vancouver area upon PR approval. I plan to register a business in Canada once there, but could I continue to have my business in the USA and take occasional day or weekend jobs in the states?

Thank you so much for your help!

 

[QuebecOkie]

You must reside in Canada for at least 2 out of every 5 years to maintain your PR status. If I'm not mistaken, traveling with your Canadian spouse counts as time spent in Canada (I know it does if it's for the spouse's Canadian job - mine's military, so it's a possibility I researched, but if I remember correctly, it's for all travel).

You can travel alone, no problem. You just must maintain a residence with your spouse for at least two years to satisfy condition 51.

 

[Rob_TO]

If my spouse and I travel to forgeign countries together, does that time count as time spent in Canada?

Yes, any time spent anywhere in the world and for whatever reason, with your Canadian citizen sponsor/spouse, counts towards your 2-in-5-years PR residency obligation. You could live for 20 years together in some other country, and still maintain your PR status no problem. Key is living together.

Could I travel outside Canada without him for pleasure or to visit family alone, and if so for how long?

The cohabitation rule for 2-yr conditional PR, follows the same cohabitation rules as a couple trying to qualify for common-law status. So this means that you must live/cohabit together, but "short and temporary" breaks are allowed when 1 partner is traveling for whatever reason. Following common-law qualifying rules, the breaks shouldn't be more than 3-4 weeks in duration at a time.

Though in reality as long as you are a genuine couple, I don't think you would have PR revoked if you ever travelled for longer. Nobody has seen any cases yet of the conditional PR rules being enforced, so nobody can say exactly how strict or lenient they will be.

I currently have a small face painting business in the USA. I work out of the Seattle area and will be moving to the Vancouver area upon PR approval. I plan to register a business in Canada once there, but could I continue to have my business in the USA and take occasional day or weekend jobs in the states?

I don't see any problem with that at all.

 

[fandv]

You must reside in Canada for at least 2 out of every 5 years to maintain your PR status. If I'm not mistaken, traveling with your Canadian spouse counts as time spent in Canada (I know it does if it's for the spouse's Canadian job - mine's military, so it's a possibility I researched, but if I remember correctly, it's for all travel).

You can travel alone, no problem. You just must maintain a residence with your spouse for at least two years to satisfy condition 51.

Correct.....well it's like this:

- If accompanying a Canadian citizen spouse abroad, then the sponsored spouse's time outside of Canada is counted towards maintaining PR status (but not citizenship). It doesn't matter who the sponsor works for. It doesn't even matter whether or not the sponsor works at all.

- If accompanying a Canadian PR spouse abroad, then the sponsored spouse's time outside of Canada is counted towards maintaining PR status (but not citizenship) only if the sponsor works for a Canadian business or public service.

More details here:

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/applications/guides/5445ETOC.asp#appendixA

 

[lulubeans9]

Thank you so much! Excellent answers

Must we maintain a residence (as in have a lease/rent agreement/ownership) in Canada while we travel abroad? We like to go for long stretches (5 months or more), and to be paying rent while not actually living in a place is so expensive. Could we switch our "residence" to a Canadian family member's address while we travel? Do we need to do this? Does anyone involved with CIC need to be notified?