Sponsor Spouse while do not meet PR requirement...

[User-Anna]

Hi
My friend got her PR card in 2008 and went back to her country because of study. She used to come every summer and was in Canada total 300 days. Her PR will be expired in 2013. Now she is going to get married and sponsor her spouse. Is she able to sponsor him while she is not staying in Canada? What is a better way for sponsorship in her situation? Any suggestions will be very helpful.
Thank you

 

[Leon]

She can definitely not sponsor her husband while she is not staying in Canada. A PR must reside in Canada in order to sponsor family. If she goes to Canada quickly to start sponsorship and then returns to him and they find out she is not in the country any more, they will deny the application.

Another problem is not meeting the residency requirements. In order to be considered to meet the residency requirements, a PR who landed less than 5 years ago must have spent 730 days in Canada or be able to have spent 730 days in Canada as their 5 years are up. Say if she landed at the end of 2013, she might still have time to meet the requirements if she goes back now. If she landed at the beginning of 2013, she will not.

If she goes back now, even without meeting the requirements, most likely she will be allowed to enter without incident and can then stay in Canada for a full 2 years without leaving, let her PR card expire and only apply to renew once she meets the requirement again. This is not against any law. There is actually a provision for this in the immigration operational manuals. This would be the safest way to reinstate her PR. However, if she applies to sponsor her husband during this time, they will become aware of her being in Canada without meeting the requirements and they may call her for an interview and give her problems about that. This happened to another person on this forum. However, I have not seen her post about how that went for her.

 

[User-Anna]

Thank you very much for your reply.