Visiting Canada

As long as you are carrying passports from visa exempt countries and have no admissibility issues, you are "authorized" to enter Canada as visitors, and if it is apparent that your intent is indeed to visit (as opposed to coming to Canada to stay, to live, or to work), you will most likely be allowed to enter as visitors. (Authorization to enter Canada does not mean or guarantee that a Foreign National (FN) will be allowed to enter; just means that a POE officer may allow the FN to enter.)

That said, all FNs (foreign nationals) are subject to POE examinations at which the examining officer may evaluate the FN's circumstances, history, ties to home country, and so on, toward making inferences about the nature of the FN's plans and intent. Prior immigration history including applications may factor into the POE assessment.

If you have round trip tickets, have jobs and other strong ties in the country where you live, and no other admissibility issues, visiting should not be a problem. No guarantees, but probably not a problem.

by showing our passports, officer can find out that we applied in the past ?

Can? yes.

Will? Not at all sure. Depends. In secondary more likely than at the PIL

(Note: the PIL officer is the first, and for most the only officer who asks immigration related questions of FN visitors from visa exempt countries seeking entry ... anyone bringing much into the country and arrivals by air may routinely go through a customs secondary but those officers usually do not make any immigration related inquiries ... if the PIL officer sees the need for more detailed questions relative to immigration issues, there is a referral to an officer whose job is specifically immigration processing in secondary ... though of course some POEs are small enough that individual officers may wear multiple hats, so to say, that is they do two or more of these functions.)

In what detail? I really do not know that.

More particularly: I do not know what history or notes pop up on the PIL officer's screen once the passport is scanned (or the vital information from it entered); I suspect it is largely coded so quite a bit of info is probably right there in front of the PIL officer's eyes but not in plain English or French, and to what extent a PIL officer will take the time to assess that information is anyone's guess. I suspect (frankly, really, just that, a suspicion, which is a little more informed than just a guess but not much) that the PIL officer is mostly concerned with seeing any flags or suggestions that you should be referred to secondary for a more thorough (though usually, for most, still quite informal and brief) interview/examination.

The officer in secondary can definitely look up an individual's immigration history. In what detail? I have no clue. I suspect not a lot of detail relative to things like a terminated application unless there was a flag created in the course of processing that application. But I do not really know. I am extrapolating from a confluence of information, not from any direct source.

With round trip tickets for a stay of just two or three weeks, and no unusual circumstances, I cannot see why you worry ... although I suppose it may depend some on just which visa exempt country you are carrying passports from, not all being treated equal in practice I suppose.

The fact that your FSW application was refused alone is not a reason to not be allowed to visit, unless the refusal was because of inadmissibility issues (crime, health etc.). Other than that, you have nothing to worry except be ready to prove you are a genuine visitor only visiting temporarily. Honesty is the best (and the only) way to go. Which means, you show up with your visa exempt passport, requesting temporary visit, proving to the officer at POE your temporary intention, and only and only answering questions posed to you. So, if, a BIG IF, the officer finds out from the system a different nationality for you, you simply smile and say, "oh yes, I am a dual national, by the way" ..... and if he goes further to explicitly ask you if you had applied for PR, then you say, "oh yes, I did apply for PR back then, by the way" ....

/ms

hello i just wanted to kno if i cud apply for a visit visa to canada if my application for permanent residency in canada is still in process..

Sophy wrote: ..... didn't see any instruction from CIC, saying that a PR applicant cannot visit Canada ....

There is no clause within the regulations saying that a PR applicant (either in process or one that was rejected in the past) cannot apply for a visitor status. To the contrary, there is a "dual intent" clause that explicitly instructs officers to not reject a temporary applicant simply due to the fact that they may have a permanent intent in the future. The only requirement is that the applicant for a temporary status satisfies the officer that they will leave at end of their visit. Now, with a PR application in process or any other situation, this might become difficult to prove.

My wife came over on a visitor visa while her PR application (as a spouse) was being processed (both at the same office). The onus lay with me to prove to the officer that my wife had a permanent intention to live with me in Canada, however, because of the time it takes for a PR application to go through I would like her to be with me on a temporary status. Furthermore, I had to convince the officer, that God Forbid, her PR application did not complete or was even rejected, with her temporary status in Canada ending, she (and me along with her) will voluntarily leave Canada and not stay here illegally.

In conclusion, if you are visiting, you have to convince the officer that you have the legal, financial, moral, ethical, and genuine means to leave Canada at the end of your visit. If you can do that, then the officer by law has no reason to refuse you a visit.