After you are approved, how long do you have to enter Canada?

[Big Jump]

Trying to plan my life, but dealing with very long Singapore office processing times.

If I move back to Thailand to be with my husband (I moved back to Canada to wait for him and to complete a degree), and we receive approval, how long do we have before we have to enter Canada?

I ask because my work involves minimum 1 year contracts. (I absolutely loathe going back on my word.)

Thank you for sharing your knowledge.

 

[DGT]

Hello!

Once you visa is issued, it will be valid for you to "Land" as long as your medical is valid.
Good luck!

 

[Sweden]

your visa is issued based on your medicals. Your medicals are valid for 1 year, so your visa will be issued with an expiry date of "medicals + 1 year" ( or passport expiry, whichever comes first).

It can sometimes be very short. CIC might extend your medicals before issuing the visa, but not always for very long.

However - you can go and "land as a PR" ( fly to Canada, complete landing procedures), and then return to Thailand to finish your work, and move definitely to Canada a bit later. as long as you are 2 years out of 5 in Canada, your PR status will be valid.

Once the PR is issued, there is no way ( or almost!) to extend his validity, so if you are not able to move to Canada, you will have to get on a plane, go to Canada, land, and turn back.
Good luck,
Sweden

 

[Big Jump]

Thank you two.

Our medical will be expiring very soon (like now), but I am losing faith that we will receive in-process soon, so that means we will have to do a re-medical (mo' money, mo' money!!)

I suppose that may mean that we will have some extra time.

Enter and leave again is a good option. Just a little pricey for the two return tickets. (mo' money, mo' money)

Gosh. I graduate in 5 weeks and today is our 1 year anniversary since Canada first received our package, and I feel we haven't moved forward at all. (except for that one letter for sponsorship approval which took 3 months.)

Guess I will just have to try and do the impossible which is keeping my head down with my chin up.

Thanks again.

 

[cdnmom]

Are you a Canadian citizen or PR... if you are a PR I believe you have to stay in Canada during the application process

 

[Sweden]

it's hard, but you've done a good part of the journey already! and each day that passes brings you closer to getting the PR... happy anniversary, (even if I understand that it's not necessary something you want to celebrate).

If the medicals have been done in the last 15 months, and there is nothing else preventing CIC to issue the visa (background checks completed, interview waived etc), then CIC can decide to extend your medicals for up to a year. You would not know about it (it's an internal procedure), and the only way you will find out is if you are told that the visa is ready to be issued and you didn't have to do another medicals...

Otherwise yes - you will most likely be asked for a second medical. But don't do anything until they ask for it, because sometimes only some parts of the exams are necessary, not all.

Traveling to Canada - only the PR has to go, it's not necessary to go with your partner... so you could buy only one ticket, and have a quick visit (you don't actually need to stay in Canada, you could just get on the plane back the next day) to land, and go on with your life.

Hopefully you'll hear from CIC soon!
Sweden

 

[Big Jump]

I am a citizen. I did research into all of that.

Thanks for the great advice Sweden.

Good to know that only the PR person needs to enter Canada. (It would just seem so horribly anti-climatic, but I suppose there is not much room for romantic notions in this process.)

I hope that they just re-med. And we find out next week that all is going to according to plan and he will be here soon (there go those fanciful romantic notions again.... )

Thanks again for taking the time to respond.

 

[Sweden]

Indeed - PR process and romantic gestures don't really go so well together! putting your whole life and story into papers, dates, proofs etc is not the nicest part... and when I got my PR, I just wanted to land asap! I was already in Canada (i'm visa-exempt), and I had told my partner that I would go to the border the minute I got my COPR! no matter what day, and if it could not come with me - because of work - then that didn't matter! luckily my COPR arrived on a friday, so I landed on a saturday and we had a nice trip together (I'm in BC, Victoria, so I took a ferry to the US and landed on the way back ) - it was a nice sunny (but cold) day in November, so it did feel a bit special, but well - at that point I was just glad it was over!

If your husband travels on his own, just remember that he should bring a copy of his marriage certificate. I have never seen anybody being asked for it, but it's best to be prepared. Otherwise, the landing process itself is quite easy and in most cases really "short" (10min), and most Canadian Immigration Officers are quite easy going and welcoming.

Good luck - hope you hear good news next week!
Sweden