On October 30th, IRCC made a major policy change with respect to issuing TRVs (visitor visas) for spouses of Canadian citizens or Canadian permanent residents. With this policy change, it appears IRCC is more willing to approve a TRV in certain situations.
For many years, IRCC’s internal policy has been to refuse TRV applications for foreigners who have a spouse who is a Canadian citizen or PR. Oddly, international students or foreign workers in Canada have been allowed to obtain TRVs for their spouses, but Canadian citizens or PRs could not obtain a TRV for their spouse until this recent policy change. This major shift in immigration policy is likely due to the COVID-19 travel restrictions and increased lobbying by individuals for more accommodative immigration laws.
Our firm believes this policy change is designed to approve TRVs for spouses who have been issued a PR file number. A TRV application can be submitted along with proof of a Spousal Sponsorship PR application number, and additional arguments/evidence to convince IRCC that the foreign spouse will respect immigration law.
Source: Policy Change regarding TRVs for Spouses
The important criteria to highlight in the new policy are “whether the application for PR has received first stage approval”; this would be an AOR (Acknowledgement of Receipt) with a file number for the PR application.
Contact us today to help sponsor your spouse for PR or apply for a TRV visitor visa.