Spouse on student visa, submitting inland application then taking 3 week holiday - valid? + New cohabitation evidence?

[canadaAZ]

Background:

First met in person Dec 2022 while living in different provinces. Small wedding in Feb 2023. Lived apart due to her graduate studies in another province until May 2024. During that time we traveled back and forth, spent time together on holidays, visited family. We waited to apply for inland PR until she was able to come to live with me and my family, and she now has provincial government issued photo ID to confirm her residency here. We lived apart due to her graduate studies being in a small town with low income and high cost of living, and during this time I loved with family to grow our savings and work towards our goal of buying a house and starting a family. Our goal is to submit the application by July 2024.

Her student visa is expiring in November 2024.

We are taking a 3-week trip to her home country in August 2024. There we will stay with her family the entire time and have a large wedding ceremony.

Worth a mention is that I sponsored a spouse when I was in my early 20s. That relationship dissolved in one year and she returned to her home country immediately. That relationship ended in 2018 and the divorce was finalized at the start of 2020. I am a born citizen of Canada.

Questions:

1. Does our trip to her home country pose a risk to our inland application? Due to her not having finalized her education, and her student permit valid until November 2024 - can we assume that if we submit an application in July 2024 and her study permit is valid until November 2024, that we will not be summoned for an interview nor rejected at the border when returning? Should we submit the (expensive) plane tickets to her home country in our July 2024 inland application, even though we are leaving the country in August 2024? Are we technically "living together" during this trip?

2. We married quickly and lived apart for over one year before she moved to me and we applied for PR. We would have lived together for two months before applying for inland PR.

Do you have any advice on proof of relationship? We will be submitting:

-Photos of all our meetings throughout our time not living together; inc. trips beyond meeting in each other's towns, together with family, small marriage ceremony

-Financial support; inc. $1000's in e-transfer, letter of financial support submitted during her student visa permit extension, her phone/internet bill in my name and on my credit card during the duration of living apart

-Recognition of relationship; Congrats cards/messages/social media recognition of marriage, texts from my family/friends about our relationship

-Other assorted evidence includes; newly issued government photo ID showing shared residence,

3. Do you have any other general advice for us?

 

[armoured]

3. Do you have any other general advice for us?

I think you're overthinking. This doesn't seem like that challenging an app.

I'd seriously consider applying NOW (asap) as outland-while-in-Canada (which you could've / should've done a year ago and none of this would be an issue at all b/c she'd probably already be a PR).

Short letter of expalnation that she was/is finishing her graduate studies hence living apart for a bit - this isn't that unusual a situation. She can leave the country without worrying that this is outside the terms of an inland app.

When she returns from your trip, you should have AOR - apply for her work permit. I presume you'd have to apply to switch her status to visitor not student but I don't know about that.

 

[YVR123]

Just to add that if her study is not yet finalize when her study permit expires, she will need to extend her study permit so she can finish school.

Otherwise, the visitor/OWP won't allow her to continue to study.

She also has the option to wait till she gets her PR to continue her study. (no permit needed)

I agree that you could have start the sponsorship application as "outland" when you 2 live apart. She could have gotten her PR and pay less for her tuition.

 

[armoured]

Small point of clarity for @canadaAZ : while the 'inland' process requires you two to live together throughout, you can apply as 'outland' even while both are in Canada. It also means that leaving the country does not risk IRCC deciding the applicant is not inland (for whatever reason including not being admitted on return), and the app being cancelled.

It used to be a bigger advantage to apply inland (varies over time) but with the work permit aspect the differences are no longer that significant. (In most cases)