Hello. This is my first time posting but I'm an active follower of this thread. I'd like to share my immigration story with everyone in order to get advice and to also give insight on how this process has developed in my case.
I am originally from the US and I immigrated to Canada in 2008. I received my PR in January 2009. In February 2009, a few days before Valentine's Day, I met the love of my life. After talking every day since then, I traveled to Casablanca, Morocco in August 2010 to meet him and his family. They were wonderful and after a few days, we had a big celebration and were engaged. After the engagement, I traveled back to Canada to get my life sorted out so we could be married. In February 2012, I traveled back to Morocco and we started the very long process to get permission to marry. We were married on March 1, 2012.
Upon returning to Canada, I learned that I was unable to sponsor my husband for PR because of a new rule that was passed, ironically, the day we got married. That law stated that if you are the subject of a sponsorship agreement you are unable to sponsor anyone else for five years from the date of your PR. That means I'd be unable to sponsor my husband until January 2014! We were both crushed by this news and it drove us apart for some time. Distance is hard enough as you are waiting for immigration papers to be approved but put another 2 years on that and it feels like an eternity. Many strong couples have fallen apart in less time than what we were facing.
After a period of time thinking and being very upset and depressed, we both decided to do what we have to do to make this thing work. I used the two years to get out of debt with my student loans and to get some money in the bank. I also found a better job, making more money and moved to live in a quiet neighborhood and in an area where he'd find like-minded people so that when he comes here he can have a sense of community.
It took me some time to get my life pulled together and in a positive direction. In this time, he also finished his education and got a job in the airline industry where he is able to travel the world and experience new things which I think will be helpful to him as he comes here. This way he won't feel a total culture shock because he's seen how other people throughout the world live their lives.
My application process looks like this:
Application received in Canada August 11, 2017
Police check, medical check, etc. received September 29, 2017
Started processing application in Rabat October 30, 2017
They sent us a request for further proof of our relationship and another police check in March 2018
I know this is a long process and I'm okay with that but all this distance is really killing me. He seems to be taking it well only because he has family where he's at. I'm an immigrant here too and because I work so much I don't have time to build a social life and my family is far away and in the US. They are also no help to me because they don't approve of our marriage and think he's only after me for a PR card. Honestly, if that were true, why would he have been waiting so long for me? He's successful and handsome and can have anyone....but he married me and is waiting for me. That must mean something? But this loneliness is hard and being away from him is hard and recently I've started to also question if he loves me. I'm so scared he'll leave me once he gets here. I have no reason to believe he would but I fear it. Sometimes I think I'm afraid all this will work out and I'll be happy. I know that sounds crazy but this is how I feel.
I'll stop here because I know I'm rambling. I'll keep everyone informed as to how things move from here. I'm going to visit him in Marrakesh the last two weeks of July. I'm hoping we will hear something by then but I'm very unsure at this point because I've read other people's experience stories.
Thanks for listening,
Shani
