Yes, it could be rejected as quite clear that PRs must be 'residing in Canada.' You really should NOT risk it and submit only when physically in Canada. If you file and it is rejected on this basis, you would lose at minimum several months time.i have PR and im sponsoring my wife, I've been back in My home country since June 2020, and with the pandemic and all the travel interruptions, my stay lasted more than 6 months. I still have my house, car, money and job in canada (working remotely). We are about to submit our spouse sponsorship application while im still in my home country, and will move back to canada soon after we submit, is there any reason my application will be rejected ? am i considered as living in canada or not ? even tho im not physically in canada now..
please help!
Before you ask: no, keeping your stuff in Canada does not mean you are residing in Canada, at least for iRCC purposes. No, IRCC does not have to use tax residency definition. IRCC seems to mostly use physical presence for residing (as they do with Residency Obligation - which is the easiest clue for how they see 'residency').
(They do seem to accept short visits abroad during processing ie weeks not months.)
This comes up frequently here and anyone who disagrees - despite reported cases here of applications refused for just this issue - is free to test it - at their own risk.