[spousalimmi]

Hello Everyone,

I am a Canadian permanent resident working currently working in Canada. My fiancee (Indian national, presently living/working in India) has plans to do her MBA and has applied to two universities in Canada for Sep 2009. We are planning to get married in early June. If I apply for for spousal immigration for her after our marriage in June, it may take anywhere from 3-12 months for her to get her PR and mostly likely she will miss her first semester and consequently wont be able to join masters.

To get around this issue, I have three options - can you please suggest which one would be the best?

a. I was thinking that I can apply for her student visa after our marriage and not bother about applying for PR (I will not hide the fact that we're married - I will mention that we need the student visa as she has to start in September). If we do this, after she comes to Canada, will it be possible for me to apply for PR for her from here or from India? What are the advantages / disadvantages of this?

b. Apply for spousal immigration and student visa simultaneously and ask the visa officer to provide the student visa before Sep as her course would start in Sep 09.

c. Apply for spousal immigration with the admit letter from the univ and ask the visa officer to expedite the immigration process as time is running out for Sept start session (I will send a solid app with supporting docs, medicals and police clearance to shorten the processing time).

Are there any other alternatives? Thanks for reading my questions and I look forward to hearing your answers.

Best wishes,
Harshan

[Brenda]

I would apply for a student visa now (she has to do that, officially), send a copy of the letter from the University with it and apply for her spousal after you get married.

PR takes longer than a study visa. You can apply for the spousal through the Buffalo office, because with a little luck, she will be living here.
Good luck!