Considering spousal sponsorship, have some questions

[smhj777]

Hello everyone, this is going to be a long one so I apologize in advance.

I am a citizen of Canada (was born here), and my girlfriend of 3 years has been trying to get PR status for the past 2 years through express entry (she came to Canada as an international student at my university, that is how we met). Fast forward to the present, her post graduation work permit will be expiring next July 2019, and she simply does not have enough points, nor will she be able to accumulate enough to meet the cut-off score for express entry before her work permit expires.

We've looked through everything and different possibilities for her to acquire PR status, and are now looking towards sponsorship via marriage. We had planned to get married after she got her PR, but after the EE application failure, we thought of doing it sooner to attempt a spousal sponsorship. I don't believe that we qualify for common law, we live in the same university town but in different houses, and conjugal sponsorship does not work either (at least to my knowledge) since she is in Canada currently. If I am incorrect however, please let me know!

So currently, we are planning to get married in the near future to try to apply via sponsorship. This relationship is 100% genuine and we have several hundreds of pictures and articles of proof accumulated over the years we've been together so proof/validity is not a concern for us.

I just have a few questions regarding the requirements of spousal sponsorship.

1. I am currently a student in a very long program and will not be graduating for another 2 years. Will that affect the application if I apply while the sponsor (me) is still a student?

2. I've looked through some posts on here, and although she has a work permit in Canada and is able to live here for another 8 months, it seems that applying via outland is better. Is that correct?

3. Since she is a citizen of another country, how does proof of marriage work? If we get married in Canada, is a Canadian marriage certificate all that's needed in terms of marriage proof?

4. From our situation, is spousal sponsorship the only sponsorship option? I can provide more information if need be.

5. I'm sure I have tons of other questions but I cannot think of any at the moment. I have a plethora of resources in front of me talking about all the steps for the sponsorship, but if anyone has any additional resources they recommend me to check out that they found helpful, I would appreciate it!

Once again I do apologize for the long post, any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Wakki]

1. since you are not working, you will need to provide detailed explanation on how you and your spouse plan to financial support yourselves, the explanation may include savings, family support, investments, sources of finance, etc.

2. if she apply outland sponsorship and there is interview, she may be asked to attend the interview outland......if she apply inland sponsorship with OWP, and the application is received before the expiration of her post graduation work permit next July 2019, she could get OWP and live in Canada until the sponsorship process is completed.....most inland sponsorship take 12 months.....and outland could also take 12 months, but depends as sometimes could take less or more months......OWP submitted with inland takes 4months to approve, and your spouse could work to help support financially while the sponsorship is in-process.

3. Canadian marriage certificate is acceptable but your marriage in Canada will not have both family members in attendance.....if both families cannot attend in Canada, will prefer your marry outside Canada while her PGWP is still valid and in status, then both come back immediately to Canada and submit the application inland, its not mandatory, but just my preference.

4. you are not qualified for common law, she does not have enough points for EE, marriage and sponsorship is a good option....can't think of any other options, maybe others in the forum could help here.

5. refer the guide and follow the checklist.....for recent forms......Get your checklist, forms and instructions

 

[smhj777]

1. since you are not working, you will need to provide detailed explanation on how you and your spouse plan to financial support yourselves, the explanation may include savings, family support, investments, sources of finance, etc.

2. if she apply outland sponsorship and there is interview, she may be asked to attend the interview outland......if she apply inland sponsorship with OWP, and the application is received before the expiration of her post graduation work permit next July 2019, she could get OWP and live in Canada until the sponsorship process is completed.....most inland sponsorship take 12 months.....and outland could also take 12 months, but depends as sometimes could take less or more months......OWP submitted with inland takes 4months to approve, and your spouse could work to help support financially while the sponsorship is in-process.

3. Canadian marriage certificate is acceptable but your marriage in Canada will not have both family members in attendance.....if both families cannot attend in Canada, will prefer your marry outside Canada while her PGWP is still valid and in status, then both come back immediately to Canada and submit the application inland, its not mandatory, but just my preference.

4. you are not qualified for common law, she does not have enough points for EE, marriage and sponsorship is a good option....can't think of any other options, maybe others in the forum could help here.

5. refer the guide and follow the checklist.....for recent forms......Get your checklist, forms and instructions

Thank you for all your help, I really appreciate it! Unfortunately I'm not sure if we'll be able to marry in her home country as it will be expensive for us as well, and I am stuck in school. Will the application be harder to go through if it is a civil marriage (i.e. civil marriage now, ceremony afterwards when she receives her PR)?

Alternatively, since her post graduation work permit expires July 2019, is there any other way to extend it (or apply for a different visa) even by just a few months to a year to have more time to try common-law sponsorship? Thanks again for all of your help!

 

[Canucks and Hawks]

You should have a real wedding ceremony with lots of pictures and the wedding needs to meet both cultures expectations of what a wedding should be. Make sure her immediate family is at the wedding at the very least - parents, sisters and brothers, your family. And they need to be in the photos. You need to prove the wedding was genuine. If the wedding does not appear genuine, then you will need to explain to immigration why likely in an interview. That being said if you don’t have the money for a lavish wedding, as long as it still looks like a wedding, that should be okay too. Maybe a potluck style in someone’s backyard? As long as that is similar to the kind of wedding she would have in her culture.

In terms of common law, is she from a visa exempt country? If so she could possibly stay on a tourist visa and you could start living together now and then wait to apply for PR once you have lived together for a year however in this circumstance she may be out of work for a very long period of time. You would need lots of proof for common law as well, joint bills/bank account, both names on lease/rental agreement or letter from landlord saying you both have lived there for a certain amount of time, lots of different mail addressed to to you both collected over the full year.

Not eligible for conjugal as there is nothing preventing you two from getting married. The only time that would apply is if you could not legally get married in her country and she was denied visiting Canada on a tourist visa. But she is already in Canada, so that does not apply.

 

[Canucks and Hawks]

Which visa is she on now?
Is she eligible for this or already used this:
Working holiday

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/work/iec/eligibility.asp

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/work/iec/eligibility.asp?country=au&cat=wh&#country_category_name

Not sure if she can go from her current visa to this as my partner has never lived/worked in Canada and he is too old to apply for this anyway

 

[canuck_in_uk]

Thank you for all your help, I really appreciate it! Unfortunately I'm not sure if we'll be able to marry in her home country as it will be expensive for us as well, and I am stuck in school. Will the application be harder to go through if it is a civil marriage (i.e. civil marriage now, ceremony afterwards when she receives her PR)?

Alternatively, since her post graduation work permit expires July 2019, is there any other way to extend it (or apply for a different visa) even by just a few months to a year to have more time to try common-law sponsorship? Thanks again for all of your help!

There is no need to return to her country to marry. I do not know why the other poster advised that. It is perfectly fine to marry here in Canada, even if her family cannot attend. Whether a civil marriage is acceptable really depends on the cultures. Where is she from?

A PGWP cannot be extended. She could apply to change her status to visitor before her PGWP expires in order to stay and become common-law.

 

[smhj777]

You should have a real wedding ceremony with lots of pictures and the wedding needs to meet both cultures expectations of what a wedding should be. Make sure her immediate family is at the wedding at the very least - parents, sisters and brothers, your family. And they need to be in the photos. You need to prove the wedding was genuine. If the wedding does not appear genuine, then you will need to explain to immigration why likely in an interview. That being said if you don’t have the money for a lavish wedding, as long as it still looks like a wedding, that should be okay too. Maybe a potluck style in someone’s backyard? As long as that is similar to the kind of wedding she would have in her culture.

This is a great suggestion, unfortunately my parents really want a huge ceremony for my wedding, her parents however are indifferent. Both parents (as well as us) are fine with a civil wedding right now due to my school and her work permit situation, and once everything is solved we plan to bring her family over for a huge ceremony. If the officers do not find the wedding genuine, we're fine with explaining it in the interview, but are chances of that being accepted very low?

In terms of common law, is she from a visa exempt country? If so she could possibly stay on a tourist visa and you could start living together now and then wait to apply for PR once you have lived together for a year however in this circumstance she may be out of work for a very long period of time. You would need lots of proof for common law as well, joint bills/bank account, both names on lease/rental agreement or letter from landlord saying you both have lived there for a certain amount of time, lots of different mail addressed to to you both collected over the full year.

She is from South Korea, so I believe she is visa-exempt: https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/visit-canada/entry-requirements-country.html Is this tourist visa the same thing that you linked below (working holiday)? Or is this something different?

Which visa is she on now?
Is she eligible for this or already used this:
Working holiday

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/work/iec/eligibility.asp

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/work/iec/eligibility.asp?country=au&cat=wh&#country_category_name

Not sure if she can go from her current visa to this as my partner has never lived/worked in Canada and he is too old to apply for this anyway

She is currently on a post graduation work permit, unfortunately it's expiring next July 2019 and that won't be enough time for common law. That looks like a good idea however! South Korea seems to be eligible for a working holiday. If she can somehow transfer from her PGWP to this sometime next year before her work permit expires, that'd give us plenty of time to settle in for common-law.

 

[smhj777]

There is no need to return to her country to marry. I do not know why the other poster advised that. It is perfectly fine to marry here in Canada, even if her family cannot attend. Whether a civil marriage is acceptable really depends on the cultures. Where is she from?

A PGWP cannot be extended. She could apply to change her status to visitor before her PGWP expires in order to stay and become common-law.

She is from South Korea. Our parents are both fine with the civil marriage right now due to our circumstances, but they would definitely like to (as well as us) arrange a ceremony once her PR situation is (hopefully) figured out!

 

[canuck_in_uk]

She is from South Korea. Our parents are both fine with the civil marriage right now due to our circumstances, but they would definitely like to (as well as us) arrange a ceremony once her PR situation is (hopefully) figured out!

A civil marriage is fine then, as South Korea does not have the cultural expectation of the large wedding. And with a 3 year relationship, there will be no suspicions about your marriage regardless of whatever kind of wedding you have.