Travel as turist while waiting for PR

[mija]

Dear friends,

I would be grateful if you could respond to me on below question.

I currently live in Balkans and hold valid Canadian tourist visa, while in the meantime my husband who is Canadian resident applied for family/spouse sponsorship. I was wondering while the process of obtainin PR is ongoing am I allowed to travel to Canada for a stay with tourist visa i hold in my passport, and if so can i wait for the response for immigration while staying in Canada?

Thank you

M.

 

[rhcohen2014]

yes, if you have a valid visitor's visa to travel to canada, you can certainly travel and visit your husband. there are no rules against this, and it will have no bearing on your pr application. you can even stay in canada for the duration of the process, assuming your visa's rules allow it. once you are in canada, you can apply to extend your stay as a visitor. generally, pr applicants are rarely denied extensions and there are many applicants who stay in canada until they are approved as a pr. the only "issue" is if your visa office requires an interview, you will need to go back home (or the country of the visa office) for it.