I'm a Canadian and I wrote earlier last month that I wanted to come with my Ukrainian wife to Canada on a visitor's visa and apply inland for her permanent residency. I had a quick consultation with a lawyer who said this was possible but the option is slightly confusing and they didn't have time to answer my other questions. I'd like to ask for your help.
Firstly, regarding dual intent, should we state on the visitor application that we are going to apply inland for PR or should we state that we are simply visiting? Technically both are true, I'm just not sure what is the correct answer and if stating openly that we have the intent to apply for PR inland would cause them to reject the visitor visa. I should also note that we have a 4 month old son, who is also Canadian, and the reason we want to apply inland is to unite us three with my parents so the whole family could be together since we are currently living in Europe.
Secondly, does it make sense to apply inland for the PR already online before getting to Canada? Our residence will be registered initially at my parent's house so we already have that. I simply don't know what happens to the inland process if we're technically not yet in the country.
Thirdly, we have a small complication since my wife's current residency is in limbo since her long-term one expired but we've already been in the process for her permanent since she's been here over 5 years and we're married for 1 year now and I have been a permanent resident as well and by default so is our son, and she already has a letter stating she will get a 2 year temporary residence automatically even if the permanent residence is for some reason rejected. I know this one is really unclear but has anyone applied with the Vienna office in a similar situation where they didn't have the residency card? We're thinking it might be worthwhile going to Kiev for a couple of weeks and applying there as it's faster anyway.
We don't really care too much about the third issue since we can probably sort that out ourselves, but the first two are critical for us as we're a bit lost to which direction to take. We definitely can't apply outland since I need to go back home to work starting September/October.