Thanks for a little ray of hope.
I have also explored this and it falls in line with my original post in this thread, to full explain our intent and that we want a TRV to cover the PR processing...
Thanks everyone else for the replies, but want to rant on this a bit...
I just find this whole thing frustrating because the supposed priority of Canada's immigration system is to bring families together, yet spouses who want to be together, even if temporarily, via the TRV route are largely refused because marriage is usually the strongest tie, and the PRV processing time is just too long to be apart.
I know they are trying to reduce processing times, and they want to stop marriage fraud cases, and they want to do their background checks, but why punish the genuine couples for the small few who abuse the system. Imagine if they decided to refuse 50,000 refugees because a handful might be terrorists, so we'll reject 98% of those cases unless they can really prove they are not a terrorist. It's absolutely absurd to think of it that way of course since these people are trying to escape life threatening situations, but this is the same "guilty until proven innocent" logic that seems to be used for spouses. Assume everyone is going to commit fraud or overstay so the only way to be sure is to do all the background checks through the full PR process, and don't allow them to visit temporarily unless they really prove strong ties that show that they have no need to immigrate quite yet. Then once people are in Canada "temporarily" on visit/work/study visas, they are allowed to extend those visas, apply for PR inland and continue to remain in Canada while waiting for processing. So whether people intended this or not, they have tricked the system so they could get into Canada earlier than would have been allowed otherwise.
As was said, my situation is no different than thousands of other spouses waiting for their PRs, and we are no different than the thousands already in Canada building their lives together waiting for their PRs. In my opinion, they should let that 98% of rejected spouses visit each other freely, as long as you can prove you are married to your spouse and all the standard rules apply.
Otherwise, why not truly enforce the temporary nature of TRVs and deport anyone who overstays, eliminate visitor visa extensions entirely, and demand everyone return to their home country in order to apply for their PR, eliminating inland processing. Equally ridiculous thought right?
Sorry for the rant, but you can see that the system just doesn't make sense to me...
