Reentry as a visitor - Any way to know in advance?

[Eyal]

Hi
I'm currently in Canada on a 6 month visitor visa, and in the process for PR by outland sponsorship by my common-law wife, which, thanks to COVID-19, is turning out much longer than expected...
In march (before my visa expires) I plan to go back to my home country, and I'm hoping to go back to Canada in May to be with my partner. I have a couple questions to understand if it's possible-
- The 6-month visa is per visit, not per year, right? if I come back I would end up staying more than 6 months in the same year... (I'm from Israel, which means normaly I just need the ETA prior to coming)
- Is there any way for me to get my visitor before coming, so I don't have to fear refusal at the border?
- Last question is not really for this forum, but if anyone knows that would help - is there any way I could "convert" my outland sponsorship to an inland one? would that be a stupid thing to do that would end up prolonging the whole process?
Thanks in advance. I'm stuck in a bit of a limbo here as my partner cannot visit my country and I cannot work or stay too long in Canada, so just looking for a (proper, legal) way to do this...
Eyal

 

[scylla]

Hi
I'm currently in Canada on a 6 month visitor visa, and in the process for PR by outland sponsorship by my common-law wife, which, thanks to COVID-19, is turning out much longer than expected...
In march (before my visa expires) I plan to go back to my home country, and I'm hoping to go back to Canada in May to be with my partner. I have a couple questions to understand if it's possible-
- The 6-month visa is per visit, not per year, right? if I come back I would end up staying more than 6 months in the same year... (I'm from Israel, which means normaly I just need the ETA prior to coming)
- Is there any way for me to get my visitor before coming, so I don't have to fear refusal at the border?
- Last question is not really for this forum, but if anyone knows that would help - is there any way I could "convert" my outland sponsorship to an inland one? would that be a stupid thing to do that would end up prolonging the whole process?
Thanks in advance. I'm stuck in a bit of a limbo here as my partner cannot visit my country and I cannot work or stay too long in Canada, so just looking for a (proper, legal) way to do this...
Eyal

- How long you are allowed to visit for each trip is decided by CBSA when you enter Canada. Visitors are often given the default six months but a shorter visit is entirely possible. Generally speaking the recommendation is to spend at least six months outside of Canada in any given 12 month period to avoid making it look like someone is attempting to live in Canada with visitor status.
- No. There is no way to determine in advance if you will be allowed to enter Canada and for how long.
- There is no way to "convert" an outland application into inland. If you want to switch, you would need to start by withdrawing the outland application and submitting a brand new inland application. Processing times would restart from scratch.

 

[Eyal]

Thank you very much. Not necessarily encouraging, but that really answers everything I had in mind and helps me try to plan things accordingly.