Is the expiry date of a newly issued PR always extendable?

[fandv]

Hi people......

I'm a Canadian citizen, and am getting married to an Indonesian woman in October (2012). I plan to sponsor her to Canada (through Singapore).


We hope to have sent the application to the CIC by December 2012.

She plans to do the medical exam right before sending the application (that's the requirement anyway right?)

Since the medical exam result is valid for 1 year, then if it was done in December 2012, probably it would expire in December 2013.

We plan to conceive around June/July/August 2013. So roughly speaking, she will probably give birth in March/April/May 2014.

Hypothetically speaking: what if her PR were to be issued in October 2013? Then she will have until December 2013 (which is the expiration of her medical exam result) to land in Canada....am I correct? So that gives her a 2 month window to prepare for her arrival in Canada.

However, she has mentioned that she prefers to give birth in Indonesia, as she'd like to have her mother (who also lives in Indonesia) by her side during the process.
(Another consideration is, since we will reside in Ontario, she will have to wait for 3 months before being eligible for OHIP. The last thing we want is for her to give birth in Canada WITHOUT an OHIP coverage, as it would be really expensive, especially if there are complications).

Considering that she will probably give birth in March/April/May 2014, and that she prefers it done in Indonesia, that becomes an issue, because she has to land in Canada by December 2013.

My question is: I was just wondering if it's possible to request for an extension to CIC Singapore, so that her PR will expire AFTER she has given birth in Indonesia? (ideally a 1 year extension would be nice.....i.e.: December 2014 expiration).

Would the CIC grant an extension if we told them "Hi, we are requesting for a 1 year extension for my wife's PR, because she is unable to land in Canada by December 2013, because she will be giving birth in March/April/May 2014, and she wants it done in Indonesia."

Any thoughts?

 

[MissDominica]

Hi fandv,

PR expiry dates are not subject to extension and, if your expiry date passes, you will need to re-apply. I highly suggest NOT risking this because 1) it might send the message to the VO that your wife does not want to be in canada badly enough to come when she is issued the visa and 2) you will waste over a thousand dollars.

Assuming your processing times work out as you're saying (which in itself is variable - as it can take a short/long time depending on MANY factors, including the specific Immigration Officer working on your file)... I would suggest either of 2 things:

1) delay your application a few months (so that your wife will give birth in Indonesia) before the medicals expire (if she does them right before application) - remember to do them before she is pregnant (which should be the case based on your timeline) or else she will have to skip the x-ray part and do that later.

2) you could proceed as planned, get your PR issued while your wife is pregnant, LAND IN CANADA before she gives birth, then go back to Indonesia to deliver. Then come back to Canada after the delivery. Assuming the pregnancy goes well and her physician is ok with her flying during her 2nd/3rd trimester.

Once your PR is issued, they won't give you an extension to land.

I hope this information helps. Neither of those options are ideal (obviously) but if you want things to work out to your timeline/schedule/preferences, you will have to do something like that. Also, as I said above, be aware that average processing times vary greatly (as does getting pregnant when you exactly think you will, etc), so it's hard to schedule your life down to the month when dealing with immigration.

Something to think about. Good luck and congrats on your future plans!

 

[fandv]

Hi fandv,

PR expiry dates are not subject to extension and, if your expiry date passes, you will need to re-apply. I highly suggest NOT risking this because 1) it might send the message to the VO that your wife does not want to be in canada badly enough to come when she is issued the visa and 2) you will waste over a thousand dollars.

Assuming your processing times work out as you're saying (which in itself is variable - as it can take a short/long time depending on MANY factors, including the specific Immigration Officer working on your file)... I would suggest either of 2 things:

1) delay your application a few months (so that your wife will give birth in Indonesia) before the medicals expire (if she does them right before application) - remember to do them before she is pregnant (which should be the case based on your timeline) or else she will have to skip the x-ray part and do that later.

2) you could proceed as planned, get your PR issued while your wife is pregnant, LAND IN CANADA before she gives birth, then go back to Indonesia to deliver. Then come back to Canada after the delivery. Assuming the pregnancy goes well and her physician is ok with her flying during her 2nd/3rd trimester.

Once your PR is issued, they won't give you an extension to land.

I hope this information helps. Neither of those options are ideal (obviously) but if you want things to work out to your timeline/schedule/preferences, you will have to do something like that. Also, as I said above, be aware that average processing times vary greatly (as does getting pregnant when you exactly think you will, etc), so it's hard to schedule your life down to the month when dealing with immigration.

Something to think about. Good luck and congrats on your future plans!

Hi MissDominica,

Thanks a lot for the thoughts and great advice.

Well, when I asked about extension, I was actually asking about doing the 2nd medical exam. Having read numerous threads in this forum, I know that many people have had to do their medical exam the second time, and thus their PR becomes valid for 1 more year.

For example, please take a look at this post (by evanhindra)

http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/singapore-timeline-t28993.0.html;msg1287685#msg1287685

As you can see, his wife had to redo the medical exam, which likely extended the validity of her PR for 1 more year.

Can't this be a possibility for us too?

 

[MissDominica]

Hi fandv,

No problem.

Yes, it's very possible if your processing takes more than 12 months (the valid period of your medical) that you may be asked to do a second medical, which may increase (extend) the time for you to land until the expiry of the second medical. However, I would not depend on it. For example, if your processing only takes 11 months, it's possible that they will say "you have one month to land before expiry of your medical/PR visa". In that case, you would not have that option and would have to land very quickly after issued the PR. Also, there has recently been a new rule added where a the visa office can grant your a PR visa even if your medicals recently expired, WITHOUT requiring you to get new medicals if medicals are the only thing holding them back from issuing your PR... in this case, you would still have to land very soon after getting your PR (since your medicals would be expired but they made an exception, they would not give you a huge window to land). Not all visa offices do this and not all care about this rule (many people have to re-do their medicals even with this new rule- in fact, Id say most)... BUT I wouldn't count on having to re-do my medical and hoping that extends my landing date for this reason.

 

[OhCanadiana]

A few thoughts:

1) When the time comes, your visa will be issued up to the validity of your medical (or her passport expiration date, if it were shorter).

2) You cannot ask for the visa date to be extended. If you can't land in time, they will advise you to reapply. (Well, perhaps if your wife is bedridden while pregnant you could let them know upfront and ask for a delay in issuing the visa, but that's different from an extension).

3) Singapore office takes 21 months to process 80% of applications for step 2 (step 1 is taking about 3 months right now, but it hit almost 4 months recently). Even the first 20% of cases are taking 8 months (2011 statistics are here; last 12 months are here). So, in the best case, your application could take about 11 months and in the longer case ~2 years.

4) If the visa is ready to be approved within 15 months of the medical exam and the only thing stopping the visa from being issued is the medical exam expiration the officer can request an extension of the medical for another full year. You won't have control over this - the Bulletin with the instructions is available here.

5) If your wife is early on in her pregnancy when she gets her visa, you could go to Canada, land and then go back to Indonesia to wrap up your affairs and head back to Canada after she gives birth.

6) One thing to consider for the logistics after your baby is born is whether your baby will be a Canadian citizen at birth. S/he will be only if you are a Canadian citizen born in Canada or if you naturalized to become a Canadian citizen (and didn't become a citizen by the 2009 law that wouldn't have required naturalization). There are exceptions for diplomat's children so if you weren't born in Canada and your parents were diplomats, these details will be important to you. You can take the the CIC questionnaire to confirm whether your baby will be Canadian at birth or whether you will need to apply for a citizenship certificate (and potentially a temporary passport) to take your baby to Canada.

7) You will need to show your intent to return to Canada once your wife's PR application is approved as part of your application.

You may want to consider two ideas given the specifics of your situation:
- Have your wife do her medical exam now. That way you increase the likelihood that they will expire before the VO approves her case (no guarantees, of course) and that she will have to redo them. If she's pregnant when they request the medical exams to be re-done, you can get an extension on the request so the x-rays are performed after she gives birth. This would mean you could ensure you have one year after she gives birth to land. This would work because current rules allow you to submit your medical exam results as long as they haven't expired when CIC receives them. They encourage you to do it right before you submit your application to minimize the likelihood of them expiring. But, you essentially want the opposite
- Alternatively, don't submit the medical exam upfront. You used to be able to without concern; now CPC-M is starting to request them before forwarding the file (and there's been some reports of them returning the application). It's hard to predict what they'll be doing in December. But, you could take the risk so that they request the medical close to visa issuance. And then, if your wife isn't pregnant yet - no problem because she should be able to land without any issues. On the flip side, if she is, you can delay the medical exam until she gives birth (same logic as above). Worst case in this path is that they send the application back to you and you lose 3 months or however long it takes for them to return your application, for you to do the medical, and resend your application.

Hope this helps you start thinking through options as you plan out the next couple years

Hi people......

I'm a Canadian citizen, and am getting married to an Indonesian woman in October (2012). I plan to sponsor her to Canada (through Singapore).


We hope to have sent the application to the CIC by December 2012.

She plans to do the medical exam right before sending the application (that's the requirement anyway right?)

Since the medical exam result is valid for 1 year, then if it was done in December 2012, probably it would expire in December 2013.

We plan to conceive around June/July/August 2013. So roughly speaking, she will probably give birth in March/April/May 2014.

Hypothetically speaking: what if her PR were to be issued in October 2013? Then she will have until December 2013 (which is the expiration of her medical exam result) to land in Canada....am I correct? So that gives her a 2 month window to prepare for her arrival in Canada.

However, she has mentioned that she prefers to give birth in Indonesia, as she'd like to have her mother (who also lives in Indonesia) by her side during the process.
(Another consideration is, since we will reside in Ontario, she will have to wait for 3 months before being eligible for OHIP. The last thing we want is for her to give birth in Canada WITHOUT an OHIP coverage, as it would be really expensive, especially if there are complications).

Considering that she will probably give birth in March/April/May 2014, and that she prefers it done in Indonesia, that becomes an issue, because she has to land in Canada by December 2013.

My question is: I was just wondering if it's possible to request for an extension to CIC Singapore, so that her PR will expire AFTER she has given birth in Indonesia? (ideally a 1 year extension would be nice.....i.e.: December 2014 expiration).

Would the CIC grant an extension if we told them "Hi, we are requesting for a 1 year extension for my wife's PR, because she is unable to land in Canada by December 2013, because she will be giving birth in March/April/May 2014, and she wants it done in Indonesia."

Any thoughts?