As the title states. My wife lives abroad and for her line of work, there isn't much demand here and it is what she does best and pretty much the only thing she loves doing and therefore has decided not to immigrate. Will this impact my citizenship application seeing that I am here and my spouse living somewhere else abroad?
There are no qualifications for citizenship which depend on the location or residency of a spouse. Thus, for example, an applicant who meets the qualifications for citizenship cannot be denied citizenship because he or she has a spouse who does not live in Canada.
That said, IF there are any concerns or questions about whether the applicant actually was present IN Canada all the days the applicant reports to have been present (in the applicant's actual physical presence calculation), obviously the location of immediate family is a factor which may be taken into consideration when weighing the evidence. Just like evidence of any other ties, ties in Canada compared to ties outside Canada, can be taken into consideration.
Since generally spouses tend to live together, or at least spend much of their time in the same geographical location, the fact a spouse lives abroad can indicate a person was also either living abroad with that spouse or at least spending a lot of time with his or her spouse abroad. Thus, if there is some doubt about the applicant's location for a given period of time, a spouse living abroad can tip the scales . . . mostly meaning this is a factor which can practically demand the applicant have more direct, objective evidence to prove his or her actual presence was in Canada during that time.
This appears to come up occasionally for applicants with spouses living or working in the U.S. It mostly means that such applicants have a somewhat higher risk of RQ-related non-routine processing, requiring them to provide more information and documentation (U.S. records of entry for example).
To what extent the fact that a spouse lives abroad, in itself, increases the risk of RQ-related requests is very, very difficult to discern. My sense is that it looms as a significant factor ONLY when there are other factors or circumstances tending to raise questions about the applicant's actual physical presence.
Solid evidence of actually being IN Canada easily overcomes any questions arising from location of spouse (or other immediate family).
Applicant with a solid work history in Canada and a little bigger margin over the minimum should be safe, not just safe in terms of the outcome, but safe in terms of not getting bogged down in the more cumbersome RQ-related procedures.
If the spouse is living and working in the U.S., probably a good idea to proactively obtain U.S. records of entry (the applicant's records), to have them just in case.
