Wife sponsoring me. How long is my paperwork good for?

[stevefrench16711]

Hello all.. Well after spending years of trying to get my wife American Citizenship lol.. Her mom is ill so we are reversing course and thinking of moving from Texas to Montreal.

My questions (one of may to come I am sure).. once the sponsorship is approved and I get my required papers to come to Canada legally... Is there a time limit that I have to be in Canada once that occurs? I mean with selling our house here and finding a job there I am worried about TIMING and all.. Is there like a time limit on when my sponsorship and residency is granted to when I have to get there? like 90 days or a year or? Not that I plan on it taking a year but..... Might take 3 months for sure.

 

[canadianwoman]

There will be a date on the documents you receive when you get your PR visa. Usually it is one year from the date of your medical, though they have been extending the medical validity recently.

If you need more time, you can always come to Canada, land, then return home to finish packing and selling your house, etc. The actual PR card will be sent to an address in Canada; if you don't have one yet, you can get it sent to a relative or friend, who can then send it to you in the States.

 

[Ponga]

Once your PR has been approved, you will receive a COPR document in the mail. You will only have a limited time to enter Canada to officially `Land' as a new permanent resident of Canada. The expiry date on the COPR is usually the one year anniversary from the date of your [required] immigration medical exam. This usually means that an American (with a straight ahead application) will have a few months to land.

However...once you land, you can leave right away to finish up your permanent plans to move to Canada. Technically, you could be out of Canada for 3 full years, because you need to have 730 days (2 years) out of each rolling 5 year period IN CANADA, to maintain your PR Residency Obligation.

 

[stevefrench16711]

Ahh that sounds good...If only the roughly 17 month wait for paper work before i can go up there lol. but i appreciate the information.. I got pretty good at finding the US side of stuff as far as wife's immigration. time to get acclimated to canadian immigration law now

 

[Ponga]

Ahh that sounds good...If only the roughly 17 month wait for paper work before i can go up there lol. but i appreciate the information.. I got pretty good at finding the US side of stuff as far as wife's immigration. time to get acclimated to canadian immigration law now

It's much faster than that for most Americans (more like 6-10 moths).

Start following this thread:
http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/us-outland-applicants-thread-t106068.6300.html