Entangled PR status case

[hjula1985]

Hello,

Here is my difficult story. I need help please.

I landed in Canada in July 2002. I was 17 at the time. My dad had applied as an entrepreneur and did not meet his residency requirements due to his work obligations.He was reported sometime around 2007 and they did not renew his PR card. The PR cards for the rest of the family were renewed. I applied for citizenship in the beginning of 2007 and, obviously, due to my father's case, i did not receive a reply and my file still says that it is transferred to the Montreal office after 5 years.

I left Canada without getting my citizenship in December 2008 due to the economic crisis and i secured a job overseas. This is after living in Canada for 6 years. I got married in April of this year and I want to move back to Canada. Obviously, i lost my PR requirements given that I have lived in Canada for approximately 1 year and 4 months in the past 5 years (August 2007-December 2008).

i want to move back to Canada with my pregnant wife and live there for good.

1) If i go to Canada what are the chances that I will be allowed in without reporting?

2) Will my father's case still affect me although i am a grown adult with a family? How do I detach my case from his?

3) Can I sponsor my wife as soon as I land in Canada? Will they find out that I have not met my residency requirements if I apply for sponsorship?

4) Can my wife go to Canada on a visit visa and stay with me and THEN i apply for her sponsorship while she's there?

5) Will applying for a renewal of my PR card after 2 years be affected by my application for citizenship?

6) If i am caught and needed to go to court, will the 6 years i spent in Canada help my case? will the "no reply" that I got for my citizenship application help my case? will the fact that my fiancee was studying abroad and the lack of jobs during the economic crisis help my case?

7) Do you believe it is easier to just give up my PR card and apply as a family again? I am a young engineer, studied in canada, my wife is young and educated, i have a baby coming on the way.

Please help me as i am utterly confused.

 

[scylla]

Are you from a visa exempt country?

 

[hjula1985]

Are you from a visa exempt country?

No I am not. I am from Lebanon and we do need a visa to visit Canada.

I also want to know how long is the sponsoring average waiting time, and can my wife have health insurance during the wait or will I have to pay for all the baby delivery expenses?

 

[scylla]

Is your PR card still valid? If so, for how long?

 

[Leon]

1. If you enter Canada with a still valid PR card, you have a pretty good chance of slipping in without being reported. If your PR card is already expired, it will be a lot harder for you.

2. If your father had business requirements that he didn't meet, it would be possible that all of his dependents lost their PR as well but if all of your got your PR renewed in 2007 and only he did not, it doesn't sound like that was the case. In that case, your case is already detached from your fathers case.

3. If you do sponsor your wife as soon as you arrive in Canada, they will find out that you do not meet the residency requirements. There was a woman on this forum who was in this situation. She was called to immigration for an interview having to do with her status. However, she hasn't been back to say what happened.

4. The question is how will your wife get a visit visa. It is particularly hard for spouses of PR's and Canadians to get a visit visa because immigration always thinks they will overstay.

5. No.

6. If you are caught and have to appeal for your PR, you can bring up the points of the economy crisis and that you have a Canadian education and if you are already in Canada by then for a while and have a steady job that might also help. I do not think that the no reply citizenship application will help because that was not stopping you from living in Canada as a PR and your fiancee studying, same thing, you could have sponsored her to Canada and she could have studied in Canada.

7. If you look at the immigration website, you can check if there is any immigration class you qualify for. You could apply under the Quebec skilled worker program for example. However, you'd have to lose your PR officially first. You can talk to the nearest embassy to clear that up. Just say you know you don't meet the requirements and want to give up your PR so you can apply again.

The sponsorship if you sponsor outland is 3 months for Mississauga to approve you as a sponsor and after that it takes 17 months to process 80% of all applications in Beirut. If immigration decides to call you for an interview because of your status, it may well be more than 3 months in Mississauga. If you get your wife there with you and apply inland, it would be 11 months for first stage approval and 8 months after that to get the PR. Again, yours may take longer than that if you even get it because you don't meet the requirements.

Since your wife is a visitor during the wait, she has no claim to be covered by health care in Canada. With outland, she may be outside or inside Canada if she can get a visa but she would not get health care until she gets PR. With inland, she can get health care in most provinces after the first stage approval.

 

[hjula1985]

1. If you enter Canada with a still valid PR card, you have a pretty good chance of slipping in without being reported. If your PR card is already expired, it will be a lot harder for you.

2. If your father had business requirements that he didn't meet, it would be possible that all of his dependents lost their PR as well but if all of your got your PR renewed in 2007 and only he did not, it doesn't sound like that was the case. In that case, your case is already detached from your fathers case.

3. If you do sponsor your wife as soon as you arrive in Canada, they will find out that you do not meet the residency requirements. There was a woman on this forum who was in this situation. She was called to immigration for an interview having to do with her status. However, she hasn't been back to say what happened.

4. The question is how will your wife get a visit visa. It is particularly hard for spouses of PR's and Canadians to get a visit visa because immigration always thinks they will overstay.

5. No.

6. If you are caught and have to appeal for your PR, you can bring up the points of the economy crisis and that you have a Canadian education and if you are already in Canada by then for a while and have a steady job that might also help. I do not think that the no reply citizenship application will help because that was not stopping you from living in Canada as a PR and your fiancee studying, same thing, you could have sponsored her to Canada and she could have studied in Canada.

7. If you look at the immigration website, you can check if there is any immigration class you qualify for. You could apply under the Quebec skilled worker program for example. However, you'd have to lose your PR officially first. You can talk to the nearest embassy to clear that up. Just say you know you don't meet the requirements and want to give up your PR so you can apply again.

The sponsorship if you sponsor outland is 3 months for Mississauga to approve you as a sponsor and after that it takes 17 months to process 80% of all applications in Beirut. If immigration decides to call you for an interview because of your status, it may well be more than 3 months in Mississauga. If you get your wife there with you and apply inland, it would be 11 months for first stage approval and 8 months after that to get the PR. Again, yours may take longer than that if you even get it because you don't meet the requirements.

Since your wife is a visitor during the wait, she has no claim to be covered by health care in Canada. With outland, she may be outside or inside Canada if she can get a visa but she would not get health care until she gets PR. With inland, she can get health care in most provinces after the first stage approval.

Dear Leon and Scylla,

Thank you for your care and kind clarification...

I do have a valid PR card that will expire in November.

I will not leave my wife alone here with my baby and live alone in Canada for nearly 2 years, especially that I do not have guarantees that I won't lose my PR status.

1) How long does the process usually take if I give in my PR card and re-apply as a skilled worker? i would rather be here with my family for 2 years and leave together than live in Canada alone without my family.

2) If my case is detached from my father's case, why did my citizenship application take so long?

3) During the 11 months for the 1st stage approval if my wife applies inland, would she be living illegally in Canada during that time since her visit visa duration would be overdue. Could she get private insurance? Can she work? What if we wait till i regain my PR status after 2 years?

4) What do you personally think is the best solution, given that I do not want to leave my family at all?

I really appreciate your help. Thank you very much.

 

[Leon]

1. The processing time depends on the application class. If you qualify for Quebec skilled worker for example, they process 80% of cases by 31 months in Beirut, see http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/times/perm/skilled-que.asp#africa

2. I don't know. Are you sure they did not try to contact you after you left? You can request your GCMS notes, see http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/department/atip/index.asp to see what the noted about your application.

3. If your wife got the visit visa and you applied inland, you would apply to extend her visit visa as a part of the application package. That way, she would not go out of status. You would also apply for an open for permit to be granted upon first stage approval so she will get it right away when she is approved. She would not get a work permit before that. Also like I said, it could be much longer for you because you do not meet the requirements. Generally, if inland requires an interview to clear up some issues, instead of giving a first stage approval in 11 months, they send your case to the local visa office for processing. You could then be waiting for this interview, depending on how busy they are, for 1-3 years. During the whole time, she would not be allowed to leave Canada and she would not be able to work nor would she have health care. I am sure she would be able to get some sort of private insurance. If you wait to sponsor her for 2 years, you would have to keep her status legal somehow. When you apply to extend her visit visa after 6 months, it is not guaranteed to be granted, let alone if you keep trying to extend if every 6 months for 2 years.

4. If you were by yourself or didn't mind leaving your family for 2 years, I would say go to Canada now, stay for 2 years, then renew your PR and sponsor them. However, since that is not the case, I think you should look at your immigration options at http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/index.asp and prepare what you can apply under. If you were in Quebec before and speak French, I would suggest Quebec skillled worker as a good fit.

You can either renounce your PR or if you wait for your PR card to expire, you could apply for a PR travel document listing your reasons for leaving. If you do that and they actually give you a travel document, it means your sins are forgiven so to speak, however, that would leave you with another problem where you would be the only person in your family with a PR and as a PR, you must be residing in Canada in order to sponsor them. They would however have a problem getting a visa so you may be separated from your family for quite a long time if you look at the outland processing time. Actually, if you don't want to leave your family at all, I think your best option is just renouncing your PR and applying again.

 

[hjula1985]

Dear Leon,

I know very basic French. I would rather move to an English province. I have a masters degree in Engineering from Canada. What other category would you recommend for me?

Thnx

 

[scylla]

Do you think you can get a job offer in Canada? If you have a job offer in Canada you'll have a lot more options for immigrating.

 

[Leon]

I know very basic French. I would rather move to an English province. I have a masters degree in Engineering from Canada. What other category would you recommend for me?

Read at http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/index.asp about other immigration classes and try to find something that you may qualify for. Most of their immigration classes need a job offer these days. Quebec skilled worker is one that still doesn't. Applying through there doesn't mean you'd have to live there forever. Canadians change jobs and move between provinces all the time.

 

[hjula1985]

Do you think i can apply for a visit visa with my wife, given that my new passport does not show previous visas to Canada? or does it show up that I am a permanent resident there?

 

[scylla]

Do you think i can apply for a visit visa with my wife, given that my new passport does not show previous visas to Canada? or does it show up that I am a permanent resident there?

You'll still show up as a PR. A new passport won't make a difference. So the answer is no - this won't work.