Can I travel to Canada while waiting for Spousal sponsorship approval?

[electriq]

I am a New Zealand citizen (we don't require a visa to visit Canada), and my partner is Canadian. We'll be putting our outland application in very soon but looking at the processing times for the Sydney office it will be will be well into the middle of next year before I'm hopefully granted a visa for PR and we feel like this will be too long to be apart (We've been doing the long distance thing for 4 years now and we're getting sick of it). I'm wanting to know if anyone has had any experience with travelling to Canada while waiting to hear about their visa. I'm assuming I can still travel there as I don't require a visa to enter the country but I'm a bit concerned about whether doing this will have any impact on my application? I also remember being questioned by customs last time and even though I'm doing nothing wrong I always feel really nervous.
I would be looking to visit end of January next year which would be approximately 5-6 months before I could expect to hear from immigration.

 

[Zarilenth]

Yes. You can definitely visit Canada before your application is approved. You can be in Canada for the entire duration of an Outland application, if you wish. Just make sure when you fly over that you don't say you're 'moving' here - just that you're visiting. It would be better too, if you have a return ticket that can be cancelled. Also, the Sydney office is generally much faster than the posted times, some applicants on here have gotten their PR within 2-4 months.

This thread would have some good information for you: http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/thread-for-applications-through-sydney-australia-office-t46958.0.html

 

[Koifish76]

I am a New Zealand citizen (we don't require a visa to visit Canada), and my partner is Canadian. We'll be putting our outland application in very soon but looking at the processing times for the Sydney office it will be will be well into the middle of next year before I'm hopefully granted a visa for PR and we feel like this will be too long to be apart (We've been doing the long distance thing for 4 years now and we're getting sick of it). I'm wanting to know if anyone has had any experience with travelling to Canada while waiting to hear about their visa. I'm assuming I can still travel there as I don't require a visa to enter the country but I'm a bit concerned about whether doing this will have any impact on my application? I also remember being questioned by customs last time and even though I'm doing nothing wrong I always feel really nervous.
I would be looking to visit end of January next year which would be approximately 5-6 months before I could expect to hear from immigration.

I have seen numerous posters on here LAND in 3-4 months with your VO. Your Sydney visa office is actually one of the fastest in the world. The processing times you see are not a good indicator of actual wait times. You are better off investigating the thread "applications through Sydney office" which can be seenif you scroll down.

 

[electriq]

Thanks a lot for your replies.

I have probably kinda dumb question but there seems to be a reference to spreadsheet that shows peoples wait times through the Sydney office, can anyone post a link or tell me how to access this, thanks!

Seems like a faster more concise way than looking through the thread which is very long

 

[zardoz]

Thanks a lot for your replies.

I have probably kinda dumb question but there seems to be a reference to spreadsheet that shows peoples wait times through the Sydney office, can anyone post a link or tell me how to access this, thanks!

Seems like a faster more concise way than looking through the thread which is very long

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/times/perm-fc.asp gives the "official" figures for all applications. The spreadsheet is only a small sample of all applications submitted, from people who have discovered/use this forum.

Sydney is currently quoted as 11 months for 80% of submitted applications to have been processed for spousal sponsorship. Many will have been done before that time but the remaining 20% may take MUCH longer. Nobody can reliably predict how long an individual application might take, although some will obviously be more "difficult".

 

[rhcohen2014]

Thanks a lot for your replies.

I have probably kinda dumb question but there seems to be a reference to spreadsheet that shows peoples wait times through the Sydney office, can anyone post a link or tell me how to access this, thanks!

Seems like a faster more concise way than looking through the thread which is very long

search the forum specifically for the SYDNEY thread or click on a monthly thread, like january, february or march applicants. There will either be a spreadsheet posted in a comment on the first page, or there will be someone with a link to it. It's generally on the bottom of a post. There are some february appliants from Syndey receiving their passport request already, so the time line seems to be 3-4 months as indicated above. The CIC website is not completely accurate and is generally longer than the current trend.