I am Canadian Citizen and I sponsored my wife and her child (it is not my direct child) so they got the PR in Canada. For working reasons I have to live abroad. They traveled abroad 6 months before me to the same city where we are together today. I read that the time that my wife spends abroad counts as if it was time in Canada to the effect to keep her permanent residence in Canada, right?. But, what happens with my wife's child? She is 19 today and she lives with us and economically depends on me too. Does the time abroad of my wife's child counts also to keep her PR status or not? Thanks for sharing your experience or knowlegde.
1) It is not 100% certain that your spouse will benefit from counting the days abroad. Unfortunately no way to be certain about this in advance.
2) Since that is the case, it follows that you cannot be certain it will be the case for her child either.
With your spouse, you can of course apply later to sponsor your spouse anew (should it come to that). Your spouse's child has no such possibility after the age of 21 (to be sponsored by your spouse, for example).
I have not addressed the specific case of whether her child would be covered as 'your' dependent. I suspect would - but only IF the other parts are accepted, and with some other important aspects.
Make the relevant choices and plans in advance. If your spouse and her daughter want to retain PR status and reside in Canada, it may not be fully compatible with ... not residing in Canada.
Note that you say you sponsored them 'so they got the PR in Canada.' That's not the intent of PR status; it's for actually residing in Canada. While there are some specific provisions to provide room for eg living abroad in limited circumstances, there may be less support/more strict enforcement for cases where the PRs simply wish to 'have PR status' (such as a PR card.) They can/may take into account questions like whether your spouse 'accompanied' you (eg if spouse and child travelled abroad before you). This could get more strict in future.
