Accepting Permanent Residency

[maerschal_andrew]

Hello,

When my spouse becomes a Permanent Resident, does she have to immediately move to Canada?

 

[Blueberry_24]

Hello,

When my spouse becomes a Permanent Resident, does she have to immediately move to Canada?

COPR is valid only till your medical is valid so before your medical expired you have to do the landing process.
Medical is valid only for 1 year.

 

[Hurlabrick]

Hello,

When my spouse becomes a Permanent Resident, does she have to immediately move to Canada?

When your spouse get the CoPR, they are NOT PR at that stage. They must then land in Canada before the CoPR expiry date and declare PR. CBSA will then complete the formalities and issue a PR Card to a Canadian address (takes 6 - 8 weeks). They will not send to a non-Canadian address.

Once your spouse has done this, they can turn around on the next plane and head back - this is often referred to as a 'soft landing'. See here:

http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Landing_as_PR-Canada

The idea being that they can then arrange their overseas affairs and sell up before then moving to Canada 'to land as a settler / establish a residence'. But note that they must be in Canada for two years in any rolling five year period to retain PR / count toward citizenship qualification. See here:

http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Residency_Obligations-Canada

Hope this helps.

 

[Rob_TO]

Once your spouse has done this, they can turn around on the next plane and head back - this is often referred to as a 'soft landing'. See here:

Yes technically true, but it's also advised not to tell CBSA too much of your plans when doing the PR landing. It's expected that a new PR under family class intends to move permanently to Canada asap after becoming a PR.

There was a case here where a US spouse tried to land as PR, told CBSA they needed to return back to US to finish up school for next couple or years, and CBSA basically cancelled the COPR on the spot, denied their PR landing, and told them to re-apply when actually ready to move here.

 

[Hurlabrick]

Yes technically true, but it's also advised not to tell CBSA too much of your plans when doing the PR landing. It's expected that a new PR under family class intends to move permanently to Canada asap after becoming a PR.

Oh I couldn't agree more. Do not volunteer information you haven't been asked for or start 'babbling' (can be hard to be mentally sharp when landing with jet lag though!).

We did a 'soft landing' for my wife in April and simply said we were here to declare permanent residence - that was all they wanted to know. Had they asked us (which they didn't), we would have told the truth which is that yes, we would be to and fro back to the UK for visits for a few months while and until the house sale went through.