Permanent Resident marries U.S. Citizen moving back to Canada with spouse

[Moreev54]

Hi,

I lived in Canada for 34 years as a permanent resident with U.S. Citizenship. During those 34 years I went to school, I was always gainfully employed, I married and raised my family. I remarried a U.S. Citizen 1 year ago and moved to Michigan. All of my family is still in Canada. My husband is self-employed. We would like very much to move back to Canada to be with our children and grandchildren.

1) What is my status, since I married here in Michigan?
2) What do we need to do to get the process started?
3) Can I start this process living here in the United States?
4) Is there a time limit of when this should be done?

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

 

[Leon]

1. If you are a Canadian permanent resident, you can be living outside Canada for up to 3 years total (1095 days) in any 5 year period. If you have not been gone that long, you are still a PR.

2. You need to come back to Canada with your husband staying in the US or coming with you as a visitor and file a sponsorship application for him to get PR too. You can choose if you file with him as officially living in the US still (outland application) or with him officially living with you in Canada (inland). If you file outland, the average time for sponsorship plus processing is around 7-8 months and then he gets PR. If you file inland, you will have first stage approval and his work permit (if you applied for one) in around 6 months and PR much later. With inland, you do not have the right to appeal if refused and with outland you do. With inland it is not advisable for him to leave Canada while it's being processed, with outland he can travel back and forth.

3. As a PR you can not sponsor people from outside Canada. If you were a citizen you could.

4. You need to do it before you are gone for long enough to lose your PR status

 

[Moreev54]

Thank you very much for your timely and helpful response.

Which date is considered the aniversary date of my coming to the U.S.? Would it be the date we were married, which is just shy of a year ago?

Also, my husbands maternal grandparents were Canadian and immigrated to the U.S. in the early 1900's , his mother was born in the U.S. Does my husband have any rights to Canadian Citizenship or Dual Citizenship via his Grandparents or his mother ?

Thank you

 

[Leon]

The day of your coming to the US is the day you physically arrived in the US. Canada immigration counts every night you spent outside Canada as 1 day. If you are outside Canada for a total of 1095 days or more in any 5 year period, you will lose your PR. If you had lived in Canada until 1 year ago, you will have 365 days outside Canada. If you had taken a month off on vacation outside Canada each year for the 4 years previous to that, your total days outside Canada would be 365+120 or 485. Only you and immigration will know how much time you have spent outside Canada in the last 5 years. If you are up to 1095, your PR is gone. Calculate for yourself. If you are close to 1095, you should go back now before you lose it. You should have applied for citizenship at some point during your 34 years there. You could have dual citizenship and you would not have a problem.

Since your husband is 2nd generation born abroad, he probably would have had to take steps to retain citizenship before a certain age if he ever had one to begin with. There have been some changes in the law over the years so it's hard to say. Contact the Canadian embassy and ask.