kentr said:
My wife, Taiwanese, and two children, Canadian, will be arriving in Canada in couple of weeks. We were advised by Immigration Canada to apply inland once she arrives. However, I have recently heard that by applying inland, if she wants to return for a visit to Taiwan she may not be allowed back into Canada while her PR is still being processed. Has anyone heard of a spouse not being allowed to return to Canada while their PR is being processed?
Thanks
Eek! What you recently heard is correct ... and the part of the equation that's missing (brace yourself...) is that if she isn't allowed back in and you applied inland, the application is considered abandoned and you'd have to start from scratch with an Outland application.
Two thoughts:
- to be allowed back in to Canada, your wife will be examined at the border every time and they will check for closer ties to Taiwan than Canada to make sure she will leave when her temporary resident visa (visitor visa) duration of stay expires. While you can apply for a temporary resident permit for humanitarian and compassionate reasons since your sons are Canadian and will be in Canada you want to plan carefully for trips.
- why did they advise you to apply inland? The 2 reasons I can think of are:
(i) the Hong Kong visa office (her visa office if she were to apply outland) can be pretty long (taking 18 months to process step 2). However, the fastest 20% are completed in 6 months so the spread is also pretty wide. Thus, adding in the 3 months for step 1, Outland you're looking at 9 months to 2 years). Inland is taking 11 months + 8 months. You can see the details at http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/times/perm/fc-spouses.asp
(ii) you're would avoid having to travel back to Taiwan for any interview (rare if you have solid proof of relationship) and may need to find a way to get her passport back to Taiwan for the visa to be placed in the passport (mail it if legal in Taiwan to do so, go herself, have someone hand carry it for her if legal to do so, etc) since Taiwan is not visa exempt other than for "persons holding an ordinary passport issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Taiwan that includes their personal identification number."
However, applying Outland you would retain appeal rights (always good not to give up) and you have significant potential upside on timing and only a couple months downside (and a bit more than that if she needs a work permit)
Note that you can apply Outland and be in Canada.
On a separate note, you may want to plan carefully for your wife's trip in 2 weeks. Assuming she's coming as a tourist to wait out the process, you want to make sure you and she understand what she can and can't do so you can communicate that when she arrives to the border officers and avoid misunderstandings.
