Spousal Permanent Resident Visa and Work Visa

[emilytea]

I am wondering what would be the best route for my situation...

I am a Canadian male that is married to a Taiwanese national, and we both reside in Taiwan. We have a 13 month old son who has already obtained his Canadian citizenship and passport. In 11 months time, we will be moving back to Canada permanently. At this point, my wife has not applied for her permanent resident visa. The problem with our situation is, the waiting time for a resident visa to be processed out of Taiwan is up to 17 months, which is a bit of a nuisance because she would like to start working as soon as we arrive in Canada in 11 months. From the information that i have gathered from other peoples' situations, someone that has applied for a resident visa outland, may not be able to obtain a work visa while waiting for the resident visa to be processed. So my questions are 1) should we wait till we arrive in Canada in 11 months time, then immediately apply inland for the permanent resident visa and the work visa at the same time? 2) What is our best bet so my that wife would be in a position to be able to start working in 11 months time in Canada? 3) What kind of visa does she need to enter Canada with to be able to change it into a resident visa?

 

[CharlieD10]

I would suggest that you apply for her permanent residence as soon as possible, to get the ball rolling before you leave Taiwan. There is no other visa she can get that can be converted to a permanent resident visa in the family class, and family class is the best way for a spouse of a Canadian to go. The economic classes all have various requirements which she may not even meet. As your spouse, she is already on her way to qualifying as a member of the family class.

Timelines given on CIC's website should be taken with a grain of salt. They represent 80% of all application processed in the last year, so that is the outside limit, not the absolute minimum or standard time taken for every application. Assuming that you do leave Taiwan in July 2013, if you submitted your application in September 2012, you would be approved to sponsor her by December 2012, and she could have her PR visa by September 2013 (Hong Kong's 20% clearance rate is 9 months). She is visa-exempt being Taiwanese, so she could enter Canada as a visitor and wait out the rest of the processing time with no issues.

 

[emilytea]

Thank you so much for answering... you provided some useful info with applying for the PRV when outside of Canada.

An additional question... if we were to wait, and apply inland after we arrive in Canada, how long would it usually take for a spouse to obtain a work permit?

 

[CharlieD10]

Minimum of 11 months, the current stage one (approval in principle) time.