Got married on the same day of PR card issuance

[Neel_kumar]

Hello everyone,

My partner and I got married on Sept 26 (after getting COPR in her PR file). The PR card was issued on the same date i.e. Sept 26.

Now, I am considering my application under the family and spouse class, but there is one question where we are confused.

In one form, they are asking if she was a permanent resident when we got married.
Now, the date on the PR card is the same as the marriage certificate, so should we say YES or NO?

If we say YES, then it will be considered false information as we didn't inform IRCC about the marriage..
If we say NO, should we provide an explanation letter to IRCC explaining the situation?

Any feedback would be appreciated.
Thank you in advance!

 

[CanGoldDigger]

You got a PR when you were landed and it was definitely before you got a PR card.

 

[armoured]

My partner and I got married on Sept 26 (after getting COPR in her PR file). The PR card was issued on the same date i.e. Sept 26.

The PR card does not have an issue date*, it has a date referring to "PR since" and date. That date means the date she became a PR.

*I think it does actually have an issue date in the machine-readable portion but it's not identified as such, and not meant to be used - you'd only be able to guess that it's there.

 

[Neel_kumar]

Yes, it has PR since date, not issuance date. We got married on that date but the marriage certificate took a month to arrive.

 

[thanhtam23]

i can’t recall any form asking such question, can you clarify?
you wouldn’t have enough time to inform them anyway

 

[armoured]

My partner and I got married on Sept 26 (after getting COPR in her PR file). The PR card was issued on the same date i.e. Sept 26.

Now, I am considering my application under the family and spouse class, but there is one question where we are confused.

In one form, they are asking if she was a permanent resident when we got married.
Now, the date on the PR card is the same as the marriage certificate, so should we say YES or NO?

If we say YES, then it will be considered false information as we didn't inform IRCC about the marriage..
If we say NO, should we provide an explanation letter to IRCC explaining the situation?

All right, we established above that it was in fact the same date.

I presume that she applied / became a PR in Canada and the she received the eCOPR by email - that would have been the official notification that she became a PR.

Do you have that email and is it dated the same day that you were married?

So - side note - you and your spouse are at least aware that it's an issue. Sideswipe: since you knew this, didn't it occur to you/her that getting married during the period between the stages of the virtual landing could potentially also be an issue? [Actually strike that, not really fair.]

Anyway: I would respond to this question as NO. Include a letter of explanation that she received the email AFTER the actual marriage ... because of course she did not know when the notification was going to arrive (which actually is an issue with IRCC's system), and no normal human checks their email on the day of their actual marriage, and ... of course ... she'd not have had time to notify them anyway (because IRCC doesn't have a process for that in real time, not really).

My guess is that IRCC is not going to make an issue of this ... because it would frankly be nuts. But it might be more of a problem if that email had been dated the day before.

(Frankly I'd suggest anyone in this situation - no matter how rare - would actually be best to write them a webform on the very next day advising of the marriage and saying "hey got this email, only read it today, here's my notification I got married.")

Now note: this is a guess. This is important enough that you should consider (and I should suggest) seeing a lawyer. Even for a consultation, or suggestions on how to phrase properly/legally my comments above so as to have maximum effect. Because if IRCC decides you should have notified them, the potential consequences are not being able to sponsor the non-PR spouse, ever.

Even if I think that's a bit far-fetched, it's not impossible.