tuyen said:
Inland only. If she's in Canada when the sponsorship application is filed, she automatically gets the opportunity to stay until a decision is made. That's why (I believe) it's called "implied status" because it implies/assumes that the applicant will be given permanent residency after the application is processed.
The implied status tends to be much more valuable for people who are in Canada from countries that require visas. But since Canada doesn't require Greek visitors to get a visa, it allows her to come into Canada anytime. However, if she was from somewhere like Russia and she received implied status, it would be a huge relief because she wouldn't always have to go through the ordeal of applying for a visa, having to prove she will return to her home country, having to prove she has enough money to support herself during her visit, running around getting all the necessary paperwork, paying the various fees, and hoping it gets approved.
Glad I could be of some help.
Most applications are scrutinized for fake marriages. You obviously have more than enough evidence in that regard, and it's not like you suddenly went to Greece last month, met a girl in a bar, and she convinced you to get married just so she can come to Canada. You've been living there a long time, you've been married a handful of years, you already have a child with her, and you didn't even try sponsoring her until years after your marriage. So assuming that she and her daughter are healthy, there's no reason to think that anything would stand in your way.
Hi again, tuyen. Thanks so much for explaining all this to me and what affects peoples' decisions on how to get PR. I told my wife what you said and she says that maybe it's best we go with the inland option, even though Greece is visa-exempt because she'll be definitely coming with our daughters next July. So, she said that since she'll be eligible to work (of course having already submitted an application for the open work permit) and have OHIP after being AIP, that means her and her daughter will have those benefits around February '14 (6 months for me to be approved as sponsor). If we use the outland option, we'll submit our application around January, and with Rome possibly taking 12-14 months to approve her, she and her daughter may not get their PR before March-May 14. As you said, we can't know which way may be faster, it's kind of a luck of the draw, but using current time estimates is all we can do to make our predictions. The added benefit to going the inland route is that for some reason, the outland may get delayed even past May '14:
1) Bahrain where she lived and worked for 6 years in the past has still not given her a Police Certificate after four months, their bureaucratic process is already delaying us and we may not get that certificate for a few more,
2) There is also the risk of Immigration itself getting delayed in giving her PR because of Bahrain. It's a country in turmoil and may cause us and Immigration Canada delays, and,
3) Perhaps Immigration may want to make an appointment with my wife before giving PR, regardless if it's inland or outland, even for simple clarifications or a more rigorous background check due to her living in an Arab country in the past and having a daughter there.
In short, if such delays occur, with the inland application we "won't care" if we get delayed because we'll already have AIP with its benefits in the meantime. Let me know if my wife and I aren't reading this properly or misunderstand something.
If I may make another question, you mentioned that by going the inland route, she automatically gets the opportunity to stay until a decision is made. Does that mean that she won't need to apply for an extension to stay in Canada after 6 months? Won't she still be regarded as a tourist until she gets AIP? I'm asking because if she can only stay as a tourist for 6 months total, and it takes us 1 month to have her medical exams etc and submit inland, plus 6 months CI needs to subsequently approve me, she'll be here for 7-8 months until getting AIP.
Thanks for your time and interest for my situation. Indeed, I lived in Greece for 12 years before I got married and will be sponsoring my wife after 4 years of marriage in Greece, and after having a baby girl together who I've already applied to obtain Canadian citizenship, as is her right. So it should be an open and shut case but I'm worried about even a 0.1% possibility of getting rejected, so your thoughts and confidence do lift my spirits, thanks
