Hi there,
Was that first paragraph a letter from the agent? It sounds incorrect, and that they think the sponsor is a permanent resident, opposed to a citizen. My fiance is the Canadian citizen and we have been residing in Australia the last four years with intent to move back to Canada. We jsut made sure we sent a lot of evidence that we were moving back a reestablishing ourselves in Canada (with flights, bank accounts, letters from family, job offers etc) At no time did 'residing' outside of Canada become an issue. It sounds like your agent is confused.