Well my wife had 4 TRV and one open work permit refusals while I was a student and worked in Manitoba. So no matter what we tried, there was no luck. Then I had a conversation with 2 immigration lawyers here in Manitoba and the first lawyer said she hadn't had any TRV refusal after a nomination, but I didn't specify from her what would the miracle reason on that. While talking with another lawyer, he exlained that cic can refuse anyway but they have an internal rule that eliminates the most common reasons of neligibility for nominated from a province, such as: assets, purpose of visit, travel history, etc can't be considered anymore. So I assume the only reasons left are: security and doubtful ties with spouse. In our case after the nomination we had gathered all paperwork in 3 weeks and mailed it all to the Sydney office for the pr application. After another week we applied for a TRV in Ukraine. You can ask why not OWP. Well simply because processing time is either 8 days or two months, so decided to apply OWP later from within Canada. So we applied and I couldn't believe that after 4 years and 5 refusals they granted that stupid visa in 2 weeks, till the passport expiry 2025 lol.
Now to the TRV details. First of all we included the nomination certificate, it didn't include my spouse's name. So I called the nomination officer that processed my application at MPNP, and she let me know that they stopped inluding dependants' names. I was a bit confused and asked how we can prove to cic that my wife was nominated with me in a TRV application? She said TRV is up to cic and they have nothing to do with it " Call cic"
After that conversation with my spouse we decided, ok lets apply for a trv with what we've got. So from me, we included the nomination certificate, my work permit, letter of employment, last 3 paystabs, bank statement and I believe that's all. From her was an employment letter, confirmation of a paid vacation time for the employer and bank statement with just 3000$. Probably we included some other documents, but nothing critical or specific. So after applying online, in a couple days "additional documents" changed from"no additional documents required" to "we are reviewing the additional documents you provided", though we had never seen it in previous applications, so I believe they were reviewing the mpnp certificate.
In the explanation letter we wrote that she just wants to come MB to spend a vacation with me, travel for a bit here, and start making some research about her future home, then go back Ukraine and start preparing to move.
My friend had a similar situation. His spouse had 2 student and 1owp refusals, then got her TRV after his nomination.
Regarding OWP, my and my friend's spouses got their wp in Canada no problem. We included the same documents just on top added a snapshot from our pr applications as by that time we both got AOR.
Not sure if its better for you to apply for a OWP or trv, shouldn't by any difference anymore, but this is my experience.
Good luck
