Is my plan OK? (accompanying a Canadian outside Canada)

[huh]

I'm landing in a couple days. I want to make sure my plan for satisfying the residency obligation is realistic.

Currently, I reside in Texas with my wife and stepdaughter, both of whom are Canadian citizens. My wife's parents and brother all live in BC.

My daughter just graduated from high school and will be attending a Texas university in the fall, so she is staying in Texas for a while. My wife is a full-time mom but wants to work. I am employed by a Texas company. My job sometimes lets me work remotely. The company also has a subsidiary in Calgary.

I plan to establish a Canadian address at the in-laws' place. They have plenty of room for me. As often as work permits, I will be there, albeit working remotely for the Texas company. I will pay them rent and have Canadian bank/phone/etc. accounts. Sometimes my wife will be there with me; most times she will remain in Texas. I believe that will count as physical presence in Canada.

When not in Canada, I will reside with my wife at the Texas house we own. I believe that counts as accompanying a Canadian citizen spouse outside Canada.

Over time, we will transition to spending more time physically in Canada. This depends on my daughter's financial independence, and on me securing employment in Canada. I'm excellent at my job and paid well for it, so I expect to take some time, perhaps years, to find an equally good employment situation in Canada. I might also transfer to my employer's Calgary subsidiary. Eventually we'll be 100% physically in Canada, but it will be a journey, not an event.

So, I will satisfy the IRPA 28(2)(a) requirements virtually 100% of the time, but initially there will be more "accompanying a spouse" than "physically in Canada". Will this work? Is there some CA/US split, say, 10/90 or even 5/95, where the Canadian authorities will revoke my PR status, despite the letter of the law?

I've read the relevant sections of IRPA, IRPR, ENF 23 Manual, and a bunch of forum threads. It *seems* like my interpretation is correct, but I'd really like to get some reassurance or warnings from people who know more than I do.

 

[Bs65]

So maybe clarify here apart from being married to a Canadian do you have PR status in Canada given just being married of course does not give someone PR status. Or by landing are you saying you are landing to take up PR ?

No expert but is there not some statement about showing past 5 years residential address of the Canadian spouse being accompanied outside Canada could that be interpreted as the start point having to be in Canada and not starting from Texas ? As said interpretation of these guidelines is not easy so may e others can comment http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/applications/guides/5445ETOC.asp#appendixA

 

[dpenabill]

I'm landing in a couple days. I want to make sure my plan for satisfying the residency obligation is realistic.

Currently, I reside in Texas with my wife and stepdaughter, both of whom are Canadian citizens. My wife's parents and brother all live in BC.

My daughter just graduated from high school and will be attending a Texas university in the fall, so she is staying in Texas for a while. My wife is a full-time mom but wants to work. I am employed by a Texas company. My job sometimes lets me work remotely. The company also has a subsidiary in Calgary.

I plan to establish a Canadian address at the in-laws' place. They have plenty of room for me. As often as work permits, I will be there, albeit working remotely for the Texas company. I will pay them rent and have Canadian bank/phone/etc. accounts. Sometimes my wife will be there with me; most times she will remain in Texas. I believe that will count as physical presence in Canada.

When not in Canada, I will reside with my wife at the Texas house we own. I believe that counts as accompanying a Canadian citizen spouse outside Canada.

Over time, we will transition to spending more time physically in Canada. This depends on my daughter's financial independence, and on me securing employment in Canada. I'm excellent at my job and paid well for it, so I expect to take some time, perhaps years, to find an equally good employment situation in Canada. I might also transfer to my employer's Calgary subsidiary. Eventually we'll be 100% physically in Canada, but it will be a journey, not an event.

So, I will satisfy the IRPA 28(2)(a) requirements virtually 100% of the time, but initially there will be more "accompanying a spouse" than "physically in Canada". Will this work? Is there some CA/US split, say, 10/90 or even 5/95, where the Canadian authorities will revoke my PR status, despite the letter of the law?

I've read the relevant sections of IRPA, IRPR, ENF 23 Manual, and a bunch of forum threads. It *seems* like my interpretation is correct, but I'd really like to get some reassurance or warnings from people who know more than I do.

Were you sponsored for PR? If so, what about the sponsor's plan to return to live in Canada which is a required element of eligibility for sponsored partner PR?

Living together abroad with a Canadian citizen spouse does count toward the PR Residency Obligation. Obviously, though, the relationship must be a qualified one and thus also genuine.

There is, as well, assuming you are a spousal sponsored PR, the condition to cohabit for two years following landing. Living apart could be problematic is someone reports you to IRCC or CBSA.

I have not seen any reports of Canada failing to give the accompanying a Canadian citizen spouse credit except in some very unusual situations. In one the facts contradicted the claim the couple were living together (one visited the other extensively, claiming more than the 730 days total, but it was obviously visiting not living together and there were credibility issues about the genuineness of the relationship and about the actual extent of time together). In the other it was a PR who had been abroad a decade without coming to Canada, then married a Canadian citizen, and two years after that applied for a PR TD asserting compliance based on the accompanying credit; in this one there were credibility issues, concerns about the genuineness of the relationship, and the fact that the PR had not been in Canada for a long time and did not actually "accompany" his Canadian wife.

But generally, so long as the couple are in a qualified relationship and living together, the PR gets the credit toward the PR RO.

There are no special rules for PRs who are also American citizens.

 

[huh]

Were you sponsored for PR? If so, what about the sponsor's plan to return to live in Canada which is a required element of eligibility for sponsored partner PR?

I will be landing as a PR, family sponsorship class. Thanks for the reminder about that rule; I've been focused on me and forgot about her. I'll re-read it.

We've been married for about ten years, and we have been living together in the US all that time.

Note that we do intend to relocate to Canada. It's wifey's home, and I want to retire there. From an ethical standpoint, I feel that requires me to move there and pay taxes for several decades before I become a burden to the taxpayers myself. I would like my contribution to the country to be a net positive.

FWIW, here are the resources I've been looking at (besides forum posts):

Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, c. 28(2)(a)(ii)
Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations, c. 61(4)
ENF 23: Loss of permanent resident status, sec. 7.5

Looks like I can't post links here.

 

[Rob_TO]

I will be landing as a PR, family sponsorship class. Thanks for the reminder about that rule; I've been focused on me and forgot about her. I'll re-read it.

We've been married for about ten years, and we have been living together in the US all that time.

Note that we do intend to relocate to Canada. It's wifey's home, and I want to retire there. From an ethical standpoint, I feel that requires me to move there and pay taxes for several decades before I become a burden to the taxpayers myself. I would like my contribution to the country to be a net positive.

FWIW, here are the resources I've been looking at (besides forum posts):

Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, c. 28(2)(a)(ii)
Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations, c. 61(4)
ENF 23: Loss of permanent resident status, sec. 7.5

Looks like I can't post links here.

If you've been married 10 years, most likely you don't have conditional PR/condition 51, which requires you to cohabit with your sponsor for 2 years after landing. But you should check your COPR anyways to make sure, as CIC has made mistakes in the past on this.

You should definitely be very careful when doing your landing with CBSA, that you don't explain your story like you did here. As mentioned, your PR was granted to you under the assumption your sponsor would be moving to Canada immediately after you got PR. If you tell CBSA she has no intention to move to Canada now and will do so only at a later date, they have the authority to cancel your PR app on the spot, deny your landing, and tell you to re-apply closer to when she is actually ready to move. It's probably rare, but there was a case here where this happened.

In terms of your residency obligation, as long as you're spending 2 out of every 5 years in Canada (so just 40% of your total time), you will have no problem with the residency obligation. Plus you can most likely count any time in the US as living with your Canadian citizen spouse, so again you probably have no worries around meeting the RO to maintain your PR requirements.

 

[huh]

Thanks for the advice, everyone. I had completely forgotten about the rule that dpenabill mentioned. It's from Guide 3900, which I admit, I haven't looked at in a while.

If I live outside Canada, may I sponsor?

If you are a Canadian citizen, you may sponsor a spouse ... You must demonstrate that you will live in Canada when the sponsored person becomes a permanent resident.

I do not want to mislead the CBSA, so I will postpone the landing. My wife and I will do it together when she's ready to move. The CoPR doesn't expire until May of next year. That should be plenty of time to get our affairs in order. As for my trip to Canada in a few days, I'll just enjoy a normal visit with the family.

BTW, we *did* submit the application with an intended move date in mind. Trouble is, we assumed an ~18-month wait time, as shown on CIC's average processing times page. We were very surprised to receive the CoPR after only three months.

Thanks again, Bs65, dpenabill, and Rob_TO. Thanks for setting me straight.

 

[Rob_TO]

I do not want to mislead the CBSA, so I will postpone the landing. My wife and I will do it together when she's ready to move. The CoPR doesn't expire until May of next year. That should be plenty of time to get our affairs in order. As for my trip to Canada in a few days, I'll just enjoy a normal visit with the family.

Just to stress, you would most likely be fine landing on your next visit to Canada. I would assume it's VERY rare that a CBSA officer would actually deny landing due to this reason, and really you don't need to tell them your whole plan in detail. You are not required to land with your sponsor and most times they won't even ask. If they did ask about sponsor, you could say she was joining you in Canada a short time later and that would probably be fine. Getting your PR earlier would allow you to get your SIN immediately, and possibly provincial healthcare if you qualified based on residency days. But really it's up to you.