I know this has been discussed before. Some have said it's fine for the applicant to land without the sponsor. Some have said the sponsor must be present when the applicant lands. Does anyone know where I can find out the official policy on this? Or an email address where I can write to where someone will actually reply? I would hate for my husband to get all the way to Toronto and not have his visa validated.

i dont know personally.. but it would be interesting to find out. i plan to land a month after my wife does. so i hope it'll be ok.. can't see any reason why it wouldn't be ok. but i don't make the policies.

hope there is a definite answer to this.

Sadly I can't find official information, but as far as I can gather, it goes like this....

Accompanying family members cannot land before the principal applicant has landed.

The accompanying family members should land with the principal applicant or after the principal applicant, but in either case prior to the expiry date indicated on their Canadian Immigrant Visas.
The expiry date on the visa will be one year from the date of their last immigration medical.


Hopefully someone will confirm the above, or provide a link to an official statement on the matter.

Hi,

Here you go... not an official link but another thread on the same subject...

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...ithout+sponsor

Good luck.

My husband is the only applicant. The kids and I will be arriving with Canadian passports. I doesn't look like we will be ready to move by May, which his when my husband's medical expires. I really don't want to have to fly over with the kids for a couple of weeks, come back and have to do it again a few months later. It's a long flight with three under four. Especially with one who is prone to epic temper tantrums. And I don't want to fly over and stay there alone with the kids while we wait for the house to sell. I knew this part of the process would be complicated. Hopefully we can find out for sure that he can fly over by himself just to land and maybe house hunt and buy a vehicle. I wonder what happens if someone applies from outside of Canada while their spouse is in Canada. Does the spouse have to pick up the applicant at the airport and be seen by Customs and Immigration? Surely not every sponsored person arrives at the airport with their sponsor.

By 'accompanying family members' - doesn't this refer to dependents who are included on the application with the principal applicant? I would have thought that the Sponsor and any children who are Canadian citizens (and therefore not included on the application) would be able to go beforehand.

The Canadian "sponsor" needs to go before or at the same time as the person who is getting PR. The "landing trip" can be quick and easy - in theory you could do a same day return from the UK.

Canadian children can happily remain in the UK since they do not ever need to land.

Just to update...... My husband has Landed! He flew to Canada on his own this week and was successful in Landing without me. We decided to take the risk of him going on his own, prepared to make another trip in a month or so with all of us if he wasn't able to proceed without me being there. They asked if I was in Canada or in the UK and he told them I was in the UK and they weren't bothered. He had letters from me, my mother (as recommended by the lawyer) stating he was staying with her for x number of days, plus a letter from his work stating he was employed in the UK and was returning to work on X day. He didn't need to show any of it. Just the Goods to Follow list. So, he returns in a few days and we will finally put the house up for sale.

Ah, that is good to know! Our visas are taking forever and we were planning on a trip in may to land and have a look round at schools etc, but as it is all taking so long, looks like we may have to land in the summer - which will be extremely expensive for 5 of us to travel! Only me and one of my daughters need to land - so if needs be, we can at least just fly out for a weekend.

Hope you get everything sorted out here quickly so you can get back home soon!

I have a sense that you "got away with it", rather than this is normal. CIC puts a lot of effort in the application stage into ensuring that the Canadian citizen will be moving back before or with the sponsored family members. For this reason you have to provide evidence of work, or a place to live, or...

What did the lawyer say about him landing before you move to Canada?

I don't believe we "got away with it". The immigration officer asked where I was and he told them the truth. He told them he wasn't staying and they didn't ask for any evidence.

Don't get me wrong. From a practical perspective I like the ability of the sponsored spouse to land and then leave again. This gives Canadian-citizen families the same flexibility in moving to Canada that people who have gone through the long non-sponsored PR process have. I just suspect, based on my ignorant experience of the process, that your husband had a lucky experience with the immigration officer on landing.

I assume your lawyer was focused on Canadian immigration law. Did they have any feedback, positive or negative, on doing this?

I did the same on the confirmation from an immigration official during a previous visit. So maybe not just a fluke

This thread has spawned some ideas in my head, which I have hived off onto another thread: spouse of Canadian: applying for PR WAY-ahead-of-time just to get it over with