Renewal of Visitor Visa online? Inland Spousal Sponsorship

[Jessica_D]

Hi all,

I've been searching the forums but can't quite find the information I need.

My husband and I submitted an inland spousal sponsorship application on October 25th and received an e-mail from CIC on November 9th confirming that they received it. I'm a Canadian citizen and he's an American citizen. We also submitted an OWP application - we have linked both applications to my husband's GCKey account.

His visitor visa will expire on January 1st of 2019. Should we just go ahead and apply for an extension of his visitor visa? Does receiving this acknowledgment e-mail from CIC generally mean that you aren't going to have your application returned to you?

If we are going to renew the visitor visa - can it be done successfully online? It seems like we probably need to include explanations/extra documents giving the reasons why he wants to stay (letting them know that we have a PR application in progress) but they don't really give you room for that online.

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

 

[PMM]

Hi

Hi all,

I've been searching the forums but can't quite find the information I need.

My husband and I submitted an inland spousal sponsorship application on October 25th and received an e-mail from CIC on November 9th confirming that they received it. I'm a Canadian citizen and he's an American citizen. We also submitted an OWP application - we have linked both applications to my husband's GCKey account.

His visitor visa will expire on January 1st of 2019. Should we just go ahead and apply for an extension of his visitor visa? Does receiving this acknowledgment e-mail from CIC generally mean that you aren't going to have your application returned to you?

If we are going to renew the visitor visa - can it be done successfully online? It seems like we probably need to include explanations/extra documents giving the reasons why he wants to stay (letting them know that we have a PR application in progress) but they don't really give you room for that online.

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

1. As you applied for a Spousal Open Work Permit with your "in Canada" application, he has implied status until he receives a decision on his SOWP. no need to apply for extension as a visitor.

 

[Jessica_D]

Hi



1. As you applied for a Spousal Open Work Permit with your "in Canada" application, he has implied status until he receives a decision on his SOWP. no need to apply for extension as a visitor.

Thanks for the response!

In the event that the OWP is refused (not sure how common that is) - wouldn't he be out of status? Or would our PR application being in progress keep him in status?

Just trying to cover our bases to avoid any future headaches. Thanks again for the help!

 

[np08]

Thanks for the response!

In the event that the OWP is refused (not sure how common that is) - wouldn't he be out of status? Or would our PR application being in progress keep him in status?

Just trying to cover our bases to avoid any future headaches. Thanks again for the help!

Did you pay $255 for it? That's the most common reason for them to return it, many people only pay $155. Others would be related to not filling out the form properly or forgetting to sign or other technical reasons like that.

He would be out of status if it gets returned. Implied status is given by the work permit application, not the PR application.

If you decide to extend, you need to apply for the extension up to and including the day of his visitor status expiry (Jan 1 in your case).

Honestly, Oct 25 - Jan 1 is more than two months. I personally think that if it doesn't get returned by then, it probably won't at all, as OWPs are processed in 3-4 months. From my own experience, I applied Feb 9, status expired April 14, got the OWP May 25. I didn't extend mine.

But it's certainly a peace of mind so weigh your options and see what you'd like to do. Being out of status doesn't matter for the PR application, only the work permit one.

 

[Jessica_D]

Did you pay $255 for it? That's the most common reason for them to return it, many people only pay $155. Others would be related to not filling out the form properly or forgetting to sign or other technical reasons like that.

He would be out of status if it gets returned. Implied status is given by the work permit application, not the PR application.

If you decide to extend, you need to apply for the extension up to and including the day of his visitor status expiry (Jan 1 in your case).

Honestly, Oct 25 - Jan 1 is more than two months. I personally think that if it doesn't get returned by then, it probably won't at all, as OWPs are processed in 3-4 months. From my own experience, I applied Feb 9, status expired April 14, got the OWP May 25. I didn't extend mine.

But it's certainly a peace of mind so weigh your options and see what you'd like to do. Being out of status doesn't matter for the PR application, only the work permit one.

Yup, we paid the full $255! All thanks to this forum.

Thank you for the help! We're tempted to just not extend and take our chances; we got AOR already, and we were pretty darn careful with our applications.

 

[Jazzercise]

Yup, we paid the full $255! All thanks to this forum.

Thank you for the help! We're tempted to just not extend and take our chances; we got AOR already, and we were pretty darn careful with our applications.

We have a very similar situation and timeline. My 6 months is up in mid-December, but we submitted PR+OWP in late October and received AOR about two weeks later. Right now we're leaning toward paying for the visitor extension for peace of mind. I think that if we had those extra weeks like you two do, we'd take the chance and not get the extension. Well, maybe. I'm a worrier, haha.