second marriage PR Application

[riz7862]

i made second marriage in Pakistan on 22 Oct, 2022
now i have 8 months old newborn son from this second wife.

i got divorce from first wife in Canada on 1st Nov 2023
I applied PR Application for my second wife and proof of Canadian Citizenship for my newborn son on Dec 2023 because i am Canadian citizen.

now 8 months passed after both applications submission , IRCC could not send biometric letter to my wife and could not issue Canadian citizenship to my new born son.

maybe visa officer is stuck on my second marriage validity etc because i made second marriage before ending first marriage in Canada. i want your views,
can my wife PR Application be refused and son's citizenship paper too ?
or any hope ?

 

[armoured]

Yep, your second marriage is invalid. That on its own should not affect citizenship app but the pr application will likely be refused.

 

[Copingwithlife]

i made second marriage in Pakistan on 22 Oct, 2022
now i have 8 months old newborn son from this second wife.

i got divorce from first wife in Canada on 1st Nov 2023
I applied PR Application for my second wife and proof of Canadian Citizenship for my newborn son on Dec 2023 because i am Canadian citizen.

now 8 months passed after both applications submission , IRCC could not send biometric letter to my wife and could not issue Canadian citizenship to my new born son.

maybe visa officer is stuck on my second marriage validity etc because i made second marriage before ending first marriage in Canada. i want your views,
can my wife PR Application be refused and son's citizenship paper too ?
or any hope ?

“maybe visa officer is stuck on my second marriage validity etc because i made second marriage before ending first marriage in Canada”


And why wouldn’t that be an issue ?

You can’t be married to two different people at the same time - Canadian law .
Whatever they do in your country is irrelevant

 

[scylla]

i made second marriage in Pakistan on 22 Oct, 2022
now i have 8 months old newborn son from this second wife.

i got divorce from first wife in Canada on 1st Nov 2023
I applied PR Application for my second wife and proof of Canadian Citizenship for my newborn son on Dec 2023 because i am Canadian citizen.

now 8 months passed after both applications submission , IRCC could not send biometric letter to my wife and could not issue Canadian citizenship to my new born son.

maybe visa officer is stuck on my second marriage validity etc because i made second marriage before ending first marriage in Canada. i want your views,
can my wife PR Application be refused and son's citizenship paper too ?
or any hope ?

The application is going to be refused. Your marriage will not be recognized by Canada.

Withdraw the PR sponsorship application, get married again, and then submit new application.

Your son's citizenship application should not be impacted in any way.

 

[armoured]

or any hope ?

Do you reside with your spouse? How long have you lived together, continuously?

 

[riz7862]

The application is going to be refused. Your marriage will not be recognized by Canada.

Withdraw the PR sponsorship application, get married again, and then submit new application.

Your son's citizenship application should not be impacted in any way.

If I do marriage again after withdraw application then again visa officer could ask why I am concealing original date of previous marriage with the same second wife because visa officer will be able to see present application record.

 

[armoured]

If I do marriage again after withdraw application then again visa officer could ask why I am concealing original date of previous marriage with the same second wife because visa officer will be able to see present application record.

You'll have to annul the previous marriage or get divorced and remarried.

But I repeat my question: do you reside together, and how long have you resided together, now or in past, continuously (no breaks)?

 

[riz7862]

Do you reside with your spouse? How long have you lived together, continuously?

I lived with second wife from Feb 2022 to March 2023 then I moved back to Canada.
I was separated from my first wife from July 2006 till I got divorce on September 2023 (17 years Revenue Canada has record of it)

 

[armoured]

I lived with second wife from Feb 2022 to March 2023 then I moved back to Canada.
I was separated from my first wife from July 2006 till I got divorce on September 2023 (17 years Revenue Canada has record of it)

Hypothetically you could ask to change the application from married to common law.
-You would need to demonstrate with good evidence that you and your spouse lived together, continuously, from Feb 22 to March 23.
-You would face some presumption that you were living with your first spouse until the date of divorce (even though of course divorce takes some time). If there was overlap in residing with first spouse before beginning with current spouse, they will likely consider that to mean the first marriage was not over (you had not yet separated).

I do not know if this will work. I am somewhat confident that the application will not be rejected out of hand, i.e. they will have to take time to evaluate it, as long as you provide the information needed before the current one is rejected. That may also provide you time to effect divorce and re-marriage with your spouse.

You should see a lawyer however - whether intentionally or not, you committed bigamy, which is a criminal code statute. It may be that prosecutions are rare, but that does not remove the issue. Note that most cases I am aware of coming up here are for non-PRs who entered into such relationships abroad, and all that IRCC / Canadian courts and the like will do is consider that the second marriage is invalid.

Your case is different as a Canadian citizen/resident who left Canada to get married elsewhere (with caveat that I am not a lawyer). In your case 'what you do in [some other country] is not actually irrelevant, it has potentially serious consequences. See a lawyer.

• 290 (1) Every one commits bigamy who
  • (a) in Canada,
    • (i) being married, goes through a form of marriage with another person,
    • (ii) knowing that another person is married, goes through a form of marriage with that person, or
    • (iii) on the same day or simultaneously, goes through a form of marriage with more than one person; or
  • (b) being a Canadian citizen resident in Canada leaves Canada with intent to do anything mentioned in subparagraphs (a)(i) to (iii) and, pursuant thereto, does outside Canada anything mentioned in those subparagraphs in circumstances mentioned therein.

 

[riz7862]

Hypothetically you could ask to change the application from married to common law.
-You would need to demonstrate with good evidence that you and your spouse lived together, continuously, from Feb 22 to March 23.
-You would face some presumption that you were living with your first spouse until the date of divorce (even though of course divorce takes some time). If there was overlap in residing with first spouse before beginning with current spouse, they will likely consider that to mean the first marriage was not over (you had not yet separated).

I do not know if this will work. I am somewhat confident that the application will not be rejected out of hand, i.e. they will have to take time to evaluate it, as long as you provide the information needed before the current one is rejected. That may also provide you time to effect divorce and re-marriage with your spouse.

You should see a lawyer however - whether intentionally or not, you committed bigamy, which is a criminal code statute. It may be that prosecutions are rare, but that does not remove the issue. Note that most cases I am aware of coming up here are for non-PRs who entered into such relationships abroad, and all that IRCC / Canadian courts and the like will do is consider that the second marriage is invalid.

Your case is different as a Canadian citizen/resident who left Canada to get married elsewhere (with caveat that I am not a lawyer). In your case 'what you do in [some other country] is not actually irrelevant, it has potentially serious consequences. See a lawyer.

• 290(1) Every one commits bigamy who
  • (a) in Canada,
    • (i) being married, goes through a form of marriage with another person,
    • (ii) knowing that another person is married, goes through a form of marriage with that person, or
    • (iii) on the same day or simultaneously, goes through a form of marriage with more than one person; or
  • (b) being a Canadian citizen resident in Canada leaves Canada with intent to do anything mentioned in subparagraphs (a)(i) to (iii) and, pursuant thereto, does outside Canada anything mentioned in those subparagraphs in circumstances mentioned therein.

thanks for your detailed response...
another thing is i never lived with my first wife in 17 years (july 2006 - June 2023) continuously due to separation.. only Revenue Canada has record plus my residential addresses.
secondly living in Pakistan i was out of Canada, according to Pakistani family law i can make second marriage...now i have newborn son too from this second wife, he will get Canadian Citizenship too, so how my son alone can live in Canada without his mother after getting citizenship.
there is no any humanitarian ground that my second wife can get approval, just my thought ...

 

[scylla]

thanks for your detailed response...
another thing is i never lived with my first wife in 17 years (july 2006 - June 2023) continuously due to separation.. only Revenue Canada has record plus my residential addresses.
secondly living in Pakistan i was out of Canada, according to Pakistani family law i can make second marriage...now i have newborn son too from this second wife, he will get Canadian Citizenship too, so how my son alone can live in Canada without his mother after getting citizenship.
there is no any humanitarian ground that my second wife can get approval, just my thought ...

No humanitarian way realistically. The laws of your home county are irrelevant. You are applying to sponsor your spouse to Canada.

You either need to remarry your spouse to legalize your marriage for Canada or be able to prove you are common law through having lived together continuously for at least one full year.

 

[armoured]

thanks for your detailed response...
another thing is i never lived with my first wife in 17 years (july 2006 - June 2023) continuously due to separation.. only Revenue Canada has record plus my residential addresses.
secondly living in Pakistan i was out of Canada, according to Pakistani family law i can make second marriage...now i have newborn son too from this second wife, he will get Canadian Citizenship too, so how my son alone can live in Canada without his mother after getting citizenship.
there is no any humanitarian ground that my second wife can get approval, just my thought ...

Okay, I had misapprehended your residency history, had understood you were living in Canada before moving back recently. (Don't understand why you had to file while abroad for 17 years but that's your business).

So I doubt (but very much am not certain) there is a criminal issue - but still suggest you check with a lawyer.

But it doesn't change anything: your second marriage is considered invalid by Canada and nothing will change that. As @scylla very succinctly put it, you need to remarry your spouse somehow or prove you are common law. (Both would be okay too).

If you wish to demonstrate you are common law, suggest you do that soon.

And your son being a citizen doesn't change much, i.e. it does not automatically confer a right to reside on your spouse; she'll have to be sponsored like everyone else. Of course for the most part such spousal sponsorships are approved - when the spouses are either (validly) married or common law.

 

[riz7862]

Okay, I had misapprehended your residency history, had understood you were living in Canada before moving back recently. (Don't understand why you had to file while abroad for 17 years but that's your business).

So I doubt (but very much am not certain) there is a criminal issue - but still suggest you check with a lawyer.

But it doesn't change anything: your second marriage is considered invalid by Canada and nothing will change that. As @scylla very succinctly put it, you need to remarry your spouse somehow or prove you are common law. (Both would be okay too).

If you wish to demonstrate you are common law, suggest you do that soon.

And your son being a citizen doesn't change much, i.e. it does not automatically confer a right to reside on your spouse; she'll have to be sponsored like everyone else. Of course for the most part such spousal sponsorships are approved - when the spouses are either (validly) married or common law.

Actually you were right in understanding, i was living in Canada throughout 17 years at different addresses in Canada due to my job as a separated from my first wife.
Only 2 years i lived in Pakistan from March 2021 to March 2023.
There i met with this second wife in Feb 2022 then i married in Oct 2022 then i left Pakistan for Canada on March 2023.
She became pregnant in Jan 2023, she born a son on Oct 2023, i applied PR Application for her and proof of citizenship for son in Dec 2023...

ok after above both of you experienced guys opinions...should i withdraw PR application now after 7 months of submission and should send new application showing common law relationship with one year living together?
secondly should i contact my local MP to help me contacting ircc to save my time..i am now confused due to my mistake doing myself both applications, i will have to leave Canada for short time to see my son and wife.
i am so upset.... or should i contact my present visa office for just to replace main pr application form to change it for common law instead of marriage.
last one thing more, i did not leave Canada on March 2021 for second marriage, i was there for visiting purpose i accidently met with this lady who i proposed to marry with me later in Pakistan.

 

[armoured]

ok after above both of you experienced guys opinions...should i withdraw PR application now after 7 months of submission and should send new application showing common law relationship with one year living together?
secondly should i contact my local MP to help me contacting ircc to save my time..i am now confused due to my mistake doing myself both applications, i will have to leave Canada for short time to see my son and wife.
i am so upset.... or should i contact my present visa office for just to replace main pr application form to change it for common law instead of marriage.

I do not know. It is my understanding that you can identify different circumstances (i.e. marital to common law, although the direction is usually the other way).

They are not required to re-assess. I do not know how they will handle; it seems to me sometimes they DO take into account other new information. I don't see why it would hurt to make this amendment, either. Particularly since it will presumably take some months for you to divorce and remarry, and in the meantime, perhaps IRCC will decide to proceed on common law basis.

Some background is here: https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/corporate/publications-manuals/operational-bulletins-manuals/permanent-residence/non-economic-classes/family-class-circumstance.html

last one thing more, i did not leave Canada on March 2021 for second marriage, i was there for visiting purpose i accidently met with this lady who i proposed to marry with me later in Pakistan.

I'm not going to presume to state what the legal implications are. Yes, you can read the law one way, or the other. As stated, I believe actual prosecutions under this are quite rare. Still: it's your life, I'd think it worthwhile to speak to a lawyer.

 

[riz7862]

I do not know. It is my understanding that you can identify different circumstances (i.e. marital to common law, although the direction is usually the other way).

They are not required to re-assess. I do not know how they will handle; it seems to me sometimes they DO take into account other new information. I don't see why it would hurt to make this amendment, either. Particularly since it will presumably take some months for you to divorce and remarry, and in the meantime, perhaps IRCC will decide to proceed on common law basis.

Some background is here: https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/corporate/publications-manuals/operational-bulletins-manuals/permanent-residence/non-economic-classes/family-class-circumstance.html



I'm not going to presume to state what the legal implications are. Yes, you can read the law one way, or the other. As stated, I believe actual prosecutions under this are quite rare. Still: it's your life, I'd think it worthwhile to speak to a lawyer.

we discussed a lot of scenario in detail, main reason is after 8 months of application submission ircc is totally silent only i got AOR in March 2024...there is no biometric and no medical till now.
i think visa officer is stuck and reviewing again and again according to GCMS Notes i got in June 2024, i am still doubtful my pr application can be rejected.. i don't know about my son's proof of citizenship, it might be approved or rejected...