I believe its possible, but i was hoping someone might have some links or information.
Can i (canadian) sponsor my american wife for PR, and once we have it, apply for a green card then live in the US? I believe she's allowed to keep her PR so long as she lives with me out of canada correct?
Also, if i leave the US after getting a greencard, does it expire after a certain amount of time?
Part of the application for sponsorship by a Canadian citizen abroad is that they will be coming back to Canada with the spouse/CL partner when they are granted PR status.
GC has residency requirements that I believe are stricter than the Canadian PR - though I don't know for sure what they are - but 6 months comes to mind, don't quote me on that though
justifun Wrote:I believe its possible, but i was hoping someone might have some links or information.
Can i (canadian) sponsor my american wife for PR, and once we have it, apply for a green card then live in the US? I believe she's allowed to keep her PR so long as she lives with me out of canada correct?
Also, if i leave the US after getting a greencard, does it expire after a certain amount of time?
If you're already in Canada, yes, you can sponsor your American wife for PR and once she "lands", you guys can pretty much go wherever you want to. They'll need an address in Canada to send her PR card to, but after that, they're not going to be checking up on whether or not the two of you actually stayed in Canada. Although the intent is supposed to be that you intend to settle in Canada - and they make you prove you will if you are applying as a Canadian citizen while living abroad - it's not a requirement that you stay in Canada forever. Most of that (if not all) is about insuring that you won't just send your family members to Canada to fend for themselves. As far as maintaining her PR status - as long as she's living with you, she maintains her PR status, no matter where you live. Not so with the US Green Card. She can apply to sponsor you for a GC, but what I've heard is that 1) she has to meet minimum income/asset requirements to be eligible to sponsor and 2) as the GC holder, you have to actually reside in the States for 6 months of each year to maintain it. I've also heard (but don't know if it's true) that while your GC application is processing, you can't be in the States so if she's gotta meet income/asset requirements (in the States, maybe?), and you can't be in the States with her, don't know what that means about you being able to stay together.
I'm certainly not an expert - I gave up on the idea of sponsoring my husband when I found out about the income/asset requirement as I wasn't in the States anymore and I wasn't working here in Canada. I did find a very informative discussion forum on US immigration at visajourney.com You might want to check them out.
Do the income requirements matter if i'm the breadwinner, but she's the sponsor? I'm pretty sure its just "household" income.