gary3537 said:
hello! here`s my situation! i am a canadien citizen (born in Canada) i now live in Greece with my wife. We were married july 2014. my wife is russian, has a russian passport. she also has a permanet visa for greece (shengen) as my wife! i own a small business here in greece and due to the economic situation we are planing to move to canada where i have many close good relatives. Because the sponsoring application takes much time i was thinking to go to canada (toronto) with a tourist visa for my wife probably 6 months and as soon as possible apply for sponsoring and permanent visa for my wife. will i be able to get an extension for a decision waiting? is this possible? or am i in the wrong path? i am also planing to go to canada for 15 days end of october to take care about my drivers license and look for housing. i will be working for uber. thank you in advance.
My own personal opinion, so may have different suggestions from other people.
Apply for tourist visa for your wife while you still have ties to Greece (your business, home, friends, etc.). You will have to demonstrate that in order to get the visitor visa anyway. After that's approved, apply for PR via OUTLAND package, and submit it. Then make your "visit" with 2-way return ticket. Ideally both of you, but at least your wife should have 2-way return ticket. Heck, 2-way tickets are usually cheaper than 1-way anyway. This is to make it credible that the intention is for you and/or your wife to return to Greece, and the visit is a vacation. If not, there is a chance that border officer will not let your wife enter even if she has a valid visitor visa.
After you arrive, extend your wife's visitor visa before it expires, so she would not have to leave and continue to stay in Canada legally. By this time, your spousal sponsorship would have been approved, making your reason to wait out the rest of the spousal sponsorship more logical and reasonable.
As for your sponsorship package, you as a Canadian citizen can sponsor her while you are not living in Canada. But you will need a very detailed plan to show CIC about your intention and plan to move back to Canada with her, for example, say you will be selling/closing your business, have a home already, bank accounts set up, etc., to satisfy CIC that you will actually be moving back.
If you have a straightforward marriage without any red flags, it is very likely there will be no interviews so staying in Canada while waiting this out should not cause any problems. It looks like most cases get approved in 10 (for Greeks) or 11 months (Russian nationals) from CIC latest update. Should your documents be complete and submitted upfront, it could be faster than that. Make sure you get all the required documents ready, including police reports from all the places she has lived continuously for more than 6 months, as once you head over to Canada, it may be very difficult to get them, even through the local consulates/embassies.
If your wife needs to work fairly soon and cannot wait the 9-10 months for PR, there is the INLAND option. Do read up on the issues regarding that route, as there are risks involved. It looks like for INLAND, getting approval in principal and the work permit can be a few months, but the whole PR can take almost 2 years, if not longer. Again, do read up on the details so you can make a proper decision.
Anyway, I would believe your first step in getting the visitor visa is still the same regardless of INLAND or OUTLAND. Get it before you make any PR application, as the visa may be denied because CIC would think the intention is to go to Canada and not leave.
Best of luck.
