Spouse visa

[ND]

Hi there, I am a permanent resident of Canada, got married in March, want to apply for my wife's visa under the family visa.
I have a few questions like there are forms which needs my wife's signature on them. Do I have to send those forms to her as she is living outside of Canada, to sign them?
Another thing is that what about the photograph which I have to submit with my application. Can I just ask her to click it from where she is living and just send me a soft copy of it and I can just print that copy out here in Canada and write the info on the back side?

 

[Riley Haas]

Yes, she has to sign them. So she can sign them and send them to you and you can complete them, or you can complete them and then send them to her to sign and have her send them back. We strongly suggest using a courier or other service you can track packages with.

Anything that doesn't need her signature on it can be printed off here.

Hope this helps.

 

[sridharanganesan]

Hi Riley Haas,

I am a Canadian PR and I recently got married. Both me and my wife did our Masters in Singapore and currently working in Singapore. I am planning to relocate to Canada by mid 2019.

I have some queries on spousal sponsorship for my wife.

• If I move to Canada by mid 2019, can I apply dependent PR for my wife immediately (I have not stayed in Canada for more than a week so far) or do I need to wait for some period before applying dependent PR for my wife?
• I am planning to bring around 20K CAD for my relocation expense. Will that amount suffice the financial stability CIC is looking for or should I have a job in Canada (showing proof of pay slips) before applying dependent PR for my wife?
• I read in quite a few forums that if I apply TRV for my wife, the approval rate is only 1% since I am a Canadian PR, is that true?

Thanks,
Sri

 

[Riley Haas]

Let me try to answer your questions:

• It is not the job of the officer reviewing your spousal sponsorship application to investigate your PR status. But, if I were you, I'd wait until I have met the residence requirement (2 years out of the last 5) before applying just to be safe. It's not necessary to do so if you have a valid PR Card, but you will need to in order to renew your PR Card anyway.
• Spousal sponsorship has no formal income requirement but they do evaluate your ability to support her. If you do not have a job, that's is an issue, though I don't know if it's enough of an issue for a refusal. Basically, it depends upon whether or not they feel that CAD$20K is enough for two people to live on for the foreseeable future. For immigration purposes, Canada wants couples to have CAD$15,772. That would suggest that $20K would be enough but that's just a guess on my part.
• I don't know what the approval rate is for TRVs of Canadian spouses but, generally speaking, they do not want to approve a TRV if they think the only reason the person is coming is to be sponsored. They want you to sponsor her outland instead.

I hope this helps.

Riley

 

[sridharanganesan]

Thanks for your reply Riley.

Say if I am applying only after staying for 2 years, I read the normal processing time is around 10-12 months for spousal sponsorship. So you are saying for 3 years, me and my wife can't stay together?

 

[Riley Haas]

Not exactly. You don't have to wait to sponsor her. If you already have PR you can sponsor her the moment you are back in Canada. I was just telling you to be cautious. If I were you I would want to meet the residence requirement before I submitted an application to the government, but it's certainly not mandatory. (A lawyer or RCIC might have a different opinion.) The safe thing is to wait, but that could be considered overly cautious.

If she can get PR herself, or get a visitor visa, the situation would be different.