Quick question about conditional PR and those who have to be away for work?

[dominokitty]

My husband and I have been married for less than 2 years, so after our PR is approved we will have the 2 yr cohabiting condition, which isn't a problem at all. I mean, we're married, we plan on living together for the rest of our lives after he gets his PR

The confusion I'm having is this: I live in Alberta and we'd hoped that after he gets here, one of us (or both) will go in to work in the oil fields for 6 months - 1 year. You can make a lot of money doing this and it would really help us to get set up for the rest of our lives together (buy a house quickly for example). The problem is, this kind of work often requires a 2 weeks on, 1 week off kind of schedule where the person travels up to Fort Mac and works out of town. My brother (who currently works up there) has already said it will be easy for my husband to get a job with him, and he will help him out.

I should also add that our home will be in southern alberta, we would much prefer to have our permanent residence there because a) living in fort mac is ridiculously expensive and would make it pointless for us to work out there, all of the money we could save would go toward living expenses, and b) all of my family is here in southern alberta and we chose to go the Canadian PR route (rather than me moving over there) specifically to be closer to my family.

Would this violate the conditional PR in some way?? For example, technically if my husband is working up north for 2 weeks at a time, he would be "residing" in the camp the employer provides while he is at work, and coming home to me for his week off.

Do any of you have any experience with this at all? We'd really like to do this because financially it would help a LOT but I'm a little fuzzy on the details as far as conditional PR is concerned. Does it still count as "cohabiting" if one person needs to be out of town for a couple weeks at a time for work? What if I'm the one who works up north? Would I have to quit my job to satisfy the cohabitation requirement?

 

[Ponga]

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/manuals/bulletins/2012/ob480.asp

See section 2.4 for more information.

This seems to be the crux of the issue, meaning if CIC understands your dilemma:

While the regulations require a “continuous” period of two years of cohabitation, from time to time, one or the other partner may leave the home for work or business travel or family obligations. CIC officers should follow existing guidelines when assessing a period of cohabitation where temporary or short separations have occurred. See OP 2, Section 5.35 for more information.

 

[truesmile]

That seems to imply that since he would be coming home on his week off, you will be satisfying the definition of cohabitation.

As for my personal opinion, I don't see the CIC using up resources tracking down couples in your situation, where no one has 'reported' a breakdown of relationship.

 

[canadianwoman]

It would probably be OK. The person working two weeks up north and then one or two weeks 'back home' is really residing at his or her permanent home. He or she is not 'residing' for tax purposes up north, for example. His or her mail will be going to the permanent home.

 

[dominokitty]

My concern is that they might look at our case and go, "well, we said from time to time but this has been an ongoing arrangement for 6 months or more". It is extremely, extremely common in Alberta for married couples to do this (I'd say over 50% of the men I know work away from home while their wife takes care of the house and works in town) so I'm not sure if they would consider that when evaluating us.

I mean, if there wasn't this condition 51 thing, nobody would bat an eye at one or both of us working away from home for half the month (except maybe if we had opposite schedules and never saw each other, lol). I'm just concerned that CIC would look at that situation and judge us differently because of the cohabitation rule. We don't want to break any rules unintentionally!

 

[Rob_TO]

My concern is that they might look at our case and go, "well, we said from time to time but this has been an ongoing arrangement for 6 months or more". It is extremely, extremely common in Alberta for married couples to do this (I'd say over 50% of the men I know work away from home while their wife takes care of the house and works in town) so I'm not sure if they would consider that when evaluating us.

I mean, if there wasn't this condition 51 thing, nobody would bat an eye at one or both of us working away from home for half the month (except maybe if we had opposite schedules and never saw each other, lol). I'm just concerned that CIC would look at that situation and judge us differently because of the cohabitation rule. We don't want to break any rules unintentionally!

CIC is not actively monitoring you. With enforcing Condition 51, unless you actually call CIC to report a breakdown in the relationship or that you're no longer cohabiting, or if you change address for tax purposes, they probably won't even be aware of the situation and after 2 years his conditional PR will just turn into a full PR.

CIC may do random checks on conditional PRs to make sure they are following the Condition 51 rules, but I imagine they will not put much effort into this and will go after reported cases instead, so chance of them knowing about you is slim to practically none.

 

[dominokitty]

Ok, thanks everybody! I feel much better now. It sounds like as long as we continue to live together (which we will), it shouldn't be an issue for one of us to work out of town for 2 weeks at a time. If we get a surprise visit (unlikely), I'd just have to say that he was currently travelling for work and show them some mail or something to show that he still lives with me, right?

 

[etienbjel]

Hi,

I work in O&G as well and I understand your concern re: conditional PR. I could potentially have the same problem when I return to Canada with my wife (assuming these gas prices get back to normal!).

I would suggest making your situation clear to your employer so that if they do send you out-of-town for extended periods, that you must be able to fly home every 2-3 weeks (weekends or rotational - not at all unreasonable). If you're both on out-of-town contracts at the same time, again, make this condition clear to your employers and make sure your weekends/rotations are aligned.

I would also keep a record of communication, so that if CIC ever investigate you, you will have evidence to show that you made every effort possible.