Living abroad as Permanent Resident

[rahmab]

Hi forum members,

I have read that you can live abroad and maintain your permanent resident status in Canada aslong as you are living with a Canadian Citizen (spouse or family member) abroad. Does anyone have experience with this?

I work in Global Health and often have opportunies to work outside of Canada. I am a citizen and am applying for my husband to have permanent resident status in Canada.

 

[scylla]

Hi forum members,

I have read that you can live abroad and maintain your permanent resident status in Canada aslong as you are living with a Canadian Citizen (spouse or family member) abroad. Does anyone have experience with this?

I work in Global Health and often have opportunies to work outside of Canada. I am a citizen and am applying for my husband to have permanent resident status in Canada.

Yes - this is a well known rule. If you have PR and are living outside of Canada with a Canadian citizen spouse - then you can retain your PR status without living in Canada. Note that this doesn't get you any closer to citizenship. For citizenship you must physically live in Canada.

 

[rahmab]

Yes - this is a well known rule. If you have PR and are living outside of Canada with a Canadian citizen spouse - then you can retain your PR status without living in Canada. Note that this doesn't get you any closer to citizenship. For citizenship you must physically live in Canada.

Thanks for the quick reply Scylla. I was pretty confident about it but have had a lot of people questioning if it is true lately.

 

[Shineon39]

Yes - this is a well known rule. If you have PR and are living outside of Canada with a Canadian citizen spouse - then you can retain your PR status without living in Canada. Note that this doesn't get you any closer to citizenship. For citizenship you must physically live in Canada.

For citizenship there is exception, if the canadian citizen spouse works for canadian or provincial goverment outside canada the days as PR will count for citizenship. http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/helpcentre/answer.asp?qnum=370&top=5

For keeping your PR status the rules seems to be very large as long you're travelling with your spour or family member or working for canadian business. http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/helpcentre/answer.asp?qnum=727&top=10

 

[zardoz]

Thanks for the quick reply Scylla. I was pretty confident about it but have had a lot of people questioning if it is true lately.

There is one aspect of the sponsorship application that you should be aware of.

As a Canadian citizen, you are entitled to sponsor while not resident in Canada. However, you will need to be able to "prove" your intention to return to Canada once sponsorship is granted. Be careful about your timelines as this might cause issues for IRCC.