A hypothetical question: say that the spousal sponsor (Canadian citizen) and spousal PR applicant are currently living in a country other than Canada (hence, an Outland application) and either (1) sponsor dies or (2) couple get divorced. What are the effects on the PR applicant? Let's say that the couple has been married a long time (greater than 20 years) and due to the age and health of the sponsor it's possible he/she might die during the application period.
I have done a little reading on this this morning. Per an authoritative article (
https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/fl-df/divorce/sd.html) if the applicant has received PR status and the couple get divorced then the PR is "okay", not going to be deported, but the "support agreement" signed by the sponsor remains in effect for the remainder of the 3 years. Okay, so this is once PR is approved. Now I wonder about when death or divorce occur while the application is being processed.
An IRCC document (
https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/immigrate-canada/family-sponsorship/spouse-partner-children/who-you-can-sponsor.html) says "If you or your common-law partner choose to end the relationship, we consider the relationship to be over". It's unstated but presumably since there is no relationship there can no longer be sponsorship on this basis: so the PR applicant is not going to be successful on this basis. I imagine that this is the case as well if the spousal sponsor dies. This private article seems to support both views, that (a) if you have obtained PR status you cannot be kicked out of Canada due to divorce and (b) if the PR application is in process you should "you should contact the office processing your application as soon as possible and tell them to stop the process".
A Reddit thread asked what if the sponsor dies while the PR applicant (Inland application). It was pointed out that unless an interview is required it is quite possible, likely even, that the sponsor may never even be contacted subsequently. So in this case (either death or divorce) the applicant might take a practical course to proceed as though nothing has changed, then possibly being accepted as PR. It was also pointed out though that this could be considered fraud and could have grave repercussions on one's status if this ever came to light.
In fact, that Reddit thread refers to this 2014 case "Widow not allowed to stay in Canada after husband dies", showing a young woman with a baby in arms.
https://torontosun.com/2014/09/27/widow-not-allowed-to-stay-in-canada-after-husband-dies/wcm/03e4fab7-045b-4cb9-8209-afa5d1e27c67
My searches turned up a page that turned out to be from the USA side of things, spousal sponsorship for US PR. Here it turns out that if the sponsor dies while the application is in process the application can proceed in some cases (it was not always this way but a change in laws in 2009 made this possible. (
https://www.uscis.gov/policy-manual/volume-7-part-a-chapter-9)
Whilst hypothetical I suppose this question has possible real world possibilities for me.
I will be much obliged for any insights on these issues.