I submitted the Spousal Sponsorship and Permanent Residency application for my wife on March 30, 2020. Unfortunately like everyone else, because of the pandemic i have still not received any AOR in the email. I reached out to my MP a few times regarding this matter and kept getting different feedback i.e. the age gap between you and your spouse is very significant i.e. she is 20 years old, you are 35 which means additional background checks are being done on her. The last time i reached out to my MP's office, he reached out to the immigration minister's office directly and apparently he was informed that there are around 150,000 spousal sponsorship applications pending with the IRCC and it could literally take years before this backlog can be cleared. By the end of January he encouraged me to consider applying for a temporary residence visa for my wife because a lot of married couples are in the same boat and now the IRCC is beginning to become lenient and sympathetic.
I applied for the TRV visa for my wife in the first week of February and upon filing the application, it said that the expected processing time is around 433 days. Too my surprise she received her biometric letter in 2-3 days. Upon receiving the biometric letter, she completed her biometric formalities in the next 3-4 days and then 3 days later she received a Decision Made Letter where they requested her to submit her Passport to the authorities immediately. She did the needful and now within 10 days, she has received a 4 year multiple entry TRV visa.
This is a huge sigh of relief for me, my wife and the fact that after almost 16 months, we are finally going to be together and living as a proper married couple. My understanding is that the TRV visa basically works out like a Visit Visa where she can stay, live in Canada as a tourist but she can't work and she cannot study/enrol in a University either. But the positive is that atleast it will give her some time to get used to living in her new country and take things gradually. My wife wants to study and pursue Law in Canada as a career. With a TRV visa
- Will she be able to get OHIP or No? If not, then can she get private health insurance?
- Can she appear for her G1, G2 Driving test and get the license?
- Will she be allowed to open a Bank account in Canada?
- Let's say if she applies for admission in various universities n Canada and gets in, will the IRCC be willing to change her visa from TRV to Student Visa?
- Can she atleast study privately at home for exams like IELTS, TOEFL and take private French Speaking classes online or at a Centre on the TRV visa? She doesn't just want to sit at home all day being restricted
- We are both hoping that because we will now be living together in Canada as a proper married couple, the immigration authorities will treat that as a positive sign and an undisputed proof that an actual married relationship, union exists so this might actually be very good for our spousal sponsorship application
- Let's say if progress is made on her spousal sponsorship application where i receive the AOR via email, will the biometrics that she has given as part of the TRV application also be valid for the spousal sponsorship application, where they won't make her unnecessarily require her to submit her biometrics, photographs again?
- In order to process her spousal sponsorship application, will they do so while allowing her to stay in Canada on the TRV visa or will she have to exit Canada and complete all the formalities outside Canada?
- Can the number of days that she spends inside Canada on the TRV visa i.e. let's say 1 year, 2 years, can these days count towards the number of days you are required to stay in Canada after you receive your PR card (3 years) before she can apply for Canadian Citizenship
Also i will be greatful for any feedback, advice on the list of things or activities my wife can do or take part in to make the most of the time she is in Canada on the TRV visa while we wait for our spousal sponsorship application to be processed.