Landing - sponsor must accompany person landing? Conflicting answers:(

[Juche]

We have been told on this forum and elsewhere that the sponsor (in this case spouse) must either be waiting in Canada or accompany the immigrant through the first point of entry. Yet today at the Canadian embassy, the lady at the window told me that this is not the case (ie I can go first and my sponsor can catch up to me a month later). Why the disconnect? I would just take the embassy lady for her word but instinct tells me to keep looking for another authoritative source...

 

[jdod]

My personal observation. If you have a PR sponsor, the sponsor is supposed to be in canada for the whole process but if you have a citizen sponsor s/he can accompany you and even stay with you while your app is still processing.

 

[Juche]

the sponsor is a citizen of Canada but living overseas (with me). I wanted to go first, get a head start on job hunting, and find a flat; the sponsor (wife) would join me in about a month's time after she quits her job, and ties up loose ends, etc...that's our prefered plan anyway. The lady at the embassy window told me today that that is not a problem....

 

[Karlshammar]

The sponsor must be living in Canada when you land, from what I have understood.

 

[Swede]

The sponsor must be living in Canada when you land, from what I have understood.

Yes. It says so in the sponsor's manual.

 

[wilson]

Perhaps the Lady at the window may not (?) an immigration expert like an IO/VO who is thorough with the rules. During the process of my application once I called the local Canadian Embassy to ask a simple question and I got a vague answer from a lady over there. Later I contacted a PR applicant in the final stage and got a proper clarification from him. On this matter, I have seen many posts in this forum and understands that some visa offices used to ask the sponsor to proove his/her current presence in Canada before stamping the visa for the spouse. You may go thru the old posts if you are interested.

the sponsor is a citizen of Canada but living overseas (with me). I wanted to go first, get a head start on job hunting, and find a flat; the sponsor (wife) would join me in about a month's time after she quits her job, and ties up loose ends, etc...that's our prefered plan anyway. The lady at the embassy window told me today that that is not a problem....

 

[YorkFactory]

The sponsor must be living in Canada when you land, from what I have understood.

Your sponsor needs to live with you when you arrive in Canada. There's no requirement that they live there beforehand.

 

[AllisonVSC]

Would seem to me that if the sponsor's presence was required upon landing it would be mentioned in the CIC "your approved" letter in the instructions somewhere near how many photos/documents you need to bring as well as where and when to report.

I landed in Ontario in November by flagpoling to Buffalo after my conjugal partner app was approved. I followed the instructions in the letter. My sponsor did not attend nor did anyone ask his whereabouts. I was asked to confirm my residential address at the visa office and at the border. I do not know if requirements for spouses are any different. If it is different, then all the more reason for the CIC to be specific in the instructions.

 

[mitamata]

If the sponsor is already living in Canada, then it's not an issue. Of course they don't need to present at the landing.

Problems can happen when the sponsor is living abroad while sponsoring. In order to be able to sponsor, they have to prove they intend to relocate to Canada when the applicant becomes a PR, which would suggest they either have to go with the applicant to land or go to Canada before them.

I don't think I've read anywhere that the sponsor actually has to be in Canada when the landing is done. And I've never heard of anyone being unable to land because their sponsor remained abroad. By that, I think you should be fine with your sponsor staying abroad - this assumption is based on the lack of evidence to the contrary, not evidence that directly supports it, so it's your risk to take.

I checked the operating manual for landing (http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/manuals/enf/enf04-eng.pdf see section 12), but there's nothing in there about sponsors living abroad, so... don't know.