I'm growing crazy trying to make sense of this. I'm filling up form 1344e which has a field -> The principal applicant is your ___________
a) Spouse living in Canada
b) Spouse living in Canada -applying under family class
c) Spouse living outside Canada
My spouse is on visitor visa and lives with me. He'll be here for 6 months and then we plan to apply for extension. [My understanding is there are 2 classes: in-Canada class and family class although I'm not sure of the differences between them as per rules today.]
1) Should I be choosing option a or b?
2) Which one gets processed faster?
3) Does both a and b allow to apply for work permit if we want to?
You can choose either one of a and b.
-a is generally referred to as inland.
-b and c are 'outland' (both family class).
Right now - with the policies announced - either can apply for open work permit. (Caveat here that we haven't seen many of these issued under the new outland policy so we really don't know if there might be quirks or problems we do not know about).
That leaves two remaining factors:
-whether one is faster than the other - and no-one knows. I believe recent rumour / anecdotes are that recently, inland apps are going more quickly. I don't know.
-under inland, it is assumed the applicant will remain in Canada. If they leave, they might not be allowed in - which could lead IRCC to conclude that the app has been abandoned and get it dropped. This is pretty infrequent but if your spouse plans to or believes has reason to plan to leave for longer periods, perhaps go outland.
I think this is a fair summary but happy to have others to comment or correct me if not.
