Can the PA land before sponsor?

[newprincanada]

Hello everyone, I would like to know if the PA can land Canada first? My Canadian partner sponsored me this year from outside Canada. Due to some reason my partner whos the sponsor cant come back to Canada before janaury 2022. On the other hand, I have my immigration visa with CoPR. I plan to go to Canada first and I’ll stay with my mother in law. So is it feasible? I can’t find any information regarding that. All I can see is dependent cant land first. But in my case. Im the PA. Any sugguestions?

[SettlementOrgMod]

Hi there,

Thank you for sharing your question and situation with us.

You may find helpful information in our previous thread, Principal Applicant. Here is an excerpt of the response:

When a foreign national who holds a permanent resident visa arrives at a port of entry, seeking to become a permanent resident, the Border Services Officer (BSO) is usually required to find that the principal applicant is still both eligible and admissible before granting permanent resident status.

According to the Enforcement Manual for Port of Entry Examinations, a BSO encountering a situation where a family member arrives before the principal applicant should not grant permanent resident status to the family member. Rather, the BSO should defer the examination. If the BSO has reasonable grounds to believe that the rest of the family will not be coming to Canada, they may initiate enforcement action, which could eventually lead to a finding of inadmissibility (i.e no Permanent Resident status).

To conclude, if you land first before the rest of your family (such as your wife), the BSO will know who the principal applicant is, and it is very unlikely that you will be granted permanent resident status at the port of entry.

We hope that provides some insight about the process, you may want to seek legal help from a lawyer or a licensed consultant familiar with Canadian immigration to find more information about your particular circumstances.

If you have any further questions, please feel free to follow up with us here on the discussion forum.

Sincerely,

Your Settlement.Org team