Unsure if I should get Canadian Permanent Residency...

[SarahSarah]

Hi. Apologies if this is the wrong place to post this question. It seemed like the most appropriate.

My husband and I are Australian citizens living in Ontario. My husband has a skilled worker visa and I have a spouse/working visa. We are residents for tax purposes, have provincial healthcare, etc. My husband is currently pressuring me to apply for permanent Canadian residency. I am hesitant as I am homesick and desperately want to return to Australia - I don't want to stay in Canada for the long haul. We also have a 2 year old daughter who will be starting school in a few years and splitting our time between Canada and Australia in order to maintain residency status seems inappropriate. By the time she starts school I would like to be resettled in Australia.

My husband says he needs me to get permanent residency in order for him to get permanent residency, and that it will allow him to come to Canada periodically to take work contracts after we've returned to Australia.

My questions:
1) if my husband and I get permanent Canadian residency and return to Australia, will I have to return to Canada periodically in order for HIM to maintain his permanent residency? I don't care about my permanent residency getting revoked. Can my permanent residency get revoked and his be maintained?

2) will my getting permanent Canadian residency effect my Australian permanent residency in any way?

I guess I just want to be sure that he can't expect me to return to Canada every few years when I don't really want to... and that his permanent residency won't be effected if I chose to remain in Australia.

Thanks.

 

[scylla]

1) No - you won't have to return for him to maintain his status.
2) No - it won't.

 

[HamiltonApplicant]

You applying for and getting PR does not anyway affect your plan to go back to Australia. In fact, you can possibly accrue 730 days of Canadian residence before your daughter's 5th birthday! Enough for an extension into mid 2020s.

Only when applying for PR for the first time do they consider one as principal applicant and other as dependent; Once granted PR, you and your spouse will be treated as separate individuals. Your spouse can, therefore, get his PR renewed even if you don't get yours.

Your getting PR does not affect your Australian residency. If Australia allows dual citizenship, even your becoming Canadian citizen does not affect your Australian residency.

 

[Rob_TO]

My husband says he needs me to get permanent residency in order for him to get permanent residency, and that it will allow him to come to Canada periodically to take work contracts after we've returned to Australia.

My questions:
1) if my husband and I get permanent Canadian residency and return to Australia, will I have to return to Canada periodically in order for HIM to maintain his permanent residency? I don't care about my permanent residency getting revoked. Can my permanent residency get revoked and his be maintained?

If your husband would be the principal applicant in the PR application, then there is no need for you or your daughter to even get PR status to begin with. You (and your daughter) can be listed as a "non-accompanying" dependent, and will still need to pass a medical exam, but in the end you will not get PR status. Only your husband would get PR status in this case.

It's entirely optional for your daughter and yourself to be listed as "accompanying" dependents in the PR app, in which case you would also get PR status at the same time as your husband.

Also make sure your husband understands the Residency Obligation requirement. It's more than just spending "periodic" times in Canada for work puprposes. He must commit to physically living in Canada for 2 years within any 5 year span. This means for the rest of his life (or until he becomes a citizen), basically more than 40% of his total time must be spent living in Canada. He could spend 2 straight years in Canada as a PR, leave for 3 years, but then would need to spend next 2 years in Canada again... or can spend time in and out of Canada as long as the time added up comes to 2 years out of 5.

As soon as he doesn't meet the residency obligation, upon any entry to Canada he could be reported by CBSA which would start process to revoke his PR status. So if you and your daughter will live in Australia, he should be prepared to spend a LOT of time separated from you.