Can I sponsor my wife?

[CANzanillo]

The only time the applicant needs to go in person to the outland visa office is when CIC suspects anything in the relationship so an interview is required. The location of the interview will be based on the visa office processing the app so will depend if they decide to do yours by citizenship (China) or current residency (London).

You can certainly make a request in your application with a separate note stating what visa office you prefer and why, but in the end the choice of where your app goes is entirely up to CIC after they process the sponsor in Mississauga.

Perhaps consider applying 6 months before your PhD is fully completed. Within 2 or 3 months you will receive Spousal Approval then the file will get transferred to the Visa office of their choosing - either London or China - once you know which visa office you can decide whether it will be appropriate for budgeting purposes to relocate to China to wait out the PR Visa. If the file goes to London for processing and you choose to wait it out in China be aware that you may have to travel to London for an interview if they request one.

You can't pick the exact date of your landing in Canada. Your wife's landing in Canada must occur after she receives PR approval (obviously) and BEFORE the expiry of her medicals. You could be given a month to land or nearly a year to land. All depends on how the dates line up. They will tell you the date by which you must land.

You could also consider applying for dual-intent. That is both Permanent Residency and TRV at the same time or TRV a month after PR application filed. You could therefore reside in Canada while you await the outcome of the PR Visa, be looking for work or enrolling in University (which proves your re-establishment in Canada) your wife could visit for up to 6 months at a time, but again you would have to be prepared for a trip to the country where the application is being processed in the event an interview is requested.

 

[can84]

Ah, OK. Friends of mine were called in for an interview I guess because their situation was suspicious.
I talked to her today and she said that another Canadian she new was given a year to move which is good because his business was doing well and they didn't want to leave right away.