Please Provide Help and Info

[applejedi]

Where to start.... I being a Canadian Citizen, began speaking with an Albanian citizen who has lived in Italy under Permanent Residence Status for 20 years - I have no idea why Italian Citizenship was never obtained - just too busy all the time I suppose. Regardless, after spending some time texting back and forth, we began video chatting daily. We realized that we were falling in love and expressed that to each other. We began the application process for a Visitors Visa, not thinking that it would be terribly difficult. We just received a response that her Visa had been denied. For several reasons,
1) Not satisfied She will leave Canada at the end of her stay as a temporary resident, as stipulated in Paragraph 179(b) of the IRPR, based on: Her personal assets and financial status
- she had more than enough money in the bank to pay for her flight to and from Canada and would be staying with friends while in Canada.
2) Not satisfied She will leave Canada at the end of her stay as a temporary resident, as stipulated in Paragraph 179(b) of the IRPR, based on: Her current employment situation.
- She has been in the same position for a period of 3 years which is a regular full time position.
3) Not satisfied She will leave Canada at the end of her stay as a temporary resident, as stipulated in Paragraph 179(b) of the IRPR, based on: Her familiy ties in Canada and in her country of residence.
- ALL her family lives in Italy (Mom, Dad, Brother, 3 Sisters) she has NO FAMILY IN CANADA.
4) Not satisfied She will leave Canada at the end of her stay as a temporary resident, as stipulated in Paragraph 179(b) of the IRPR, based on: Purpose of her visit
- The purpose of her visit was to visit Canada and see various sites.

Did I miss something in the application process? It didn't seem like a long process for the application to be denied at all either.
I am wondering what our next steps should be and desperately need advise in the matter? Does anyone have any suggestions? personal experience or success? Has anyone reapplied after a REJECTION and been successful ?

I am considering also beginning a spousal sponsorship for Permanent Residence for her (Yes it's that serious, it helps that a strong mutually convicted faith is at play)

Please, someone, help us

 

[k.h.p.]

1. Financial status: she needs more money in the bank account than just the flights; she needs to have more than enough to cover all expenses.

2. Employment: Did she provide a letter from her employer stating her employment and granting vacation but also expecting her to return?

3. Family ties: Did she provide information and evidence about the family and any family ties in Italy or just the family information form? The "in Canada" part does not necessarily mean that ties in Canada are in question; it means more about ties in Italy. Just having family there isn't always enough, she needs to have reasons why she must care for/traditional visits with/etc with family.

4. Purpose of visit: Did you provide a detailed itinerary of places she would visit? Did she explain why she would travel most of the way around the world to visit Canada? Why Canada above any other country? Where there things in Canada she could do that she could not do anywhere else?

Additional questions:

Did you provide an invitation letter? That can help.

You can certainly attempt to revise your application based on this refusal and re-apply. You could order GCMS notes and see the visa officer's reasoning (more detailed than the rejection letter) to specifically address it. A re-application should include a letter of explanation that directly addresses the grounds for refusal.

If you were mentioned as a person to visit in Canada, the visa officer assumed that you would get married in Canada and apply for spousal sponsorship. That would make her not a genuine visitor, meaning her purpose of visit was not the true reason to visit, familial ties in Canada would exist, and she did not have strong enough employment or financial reasons to return to Italy, nor concrete family obligations.

A second note re spousal sponsorship: you can only sponsor her if you are married or have lived together for twelve months. If you haven't seen her in person, haven't lived together, or are not married, you cannot sponsor her as she is not your spouse.

If it helps, this happened to my wife. She's now in Canada. We re-applied addressing the grounds for rejection and were approved.

 

[canuck78]

Is there a reason you can’t go visit her in Italy?

 

[applejedi]

Is there a reason you can’t go visit her in Italy?

I am going in the new year.

 

[applejedi]

1. Financial status: she needs more money in the bank account than just the flights; she needs to have more than enough to cover all expenses.

2. Employment: Did she provide a letter from her employer stating her employment and granting vacation but also expecting her to return?

3. Family ties: Did she provide information and evidence about the family and any family ties in Italy or just the family information form? The "in Canada" part does not necessarily mean that ties in Canada are in question; it means more about ties in Italy. Just having family there isn't always enough, she needs to have reasons why she must care for/traditional visits with/etc with family.

4. Purpose of visit: Did you provide a detailed itinerary of places she would visit? Did she explain why she would travel most of the way around the world to visit Canada? Why Canada above any other country? Where there things in Canada she could do that she could not do anywhere else?

Additional questions:

Did you provide an invitation letter? That can help.

You can certainly attempt to revise your application based on this refusal and re-apply. You could order GCMS notes and see the visa officer's reasoning (more detailed than the rejection letter) to specifically address it. A re-application should include a letter of explanation that directly addresses the grounds for refusal.

If you were mentioned as a person to visit in Canada, the visa officer assumed that you would get married in Canada and apply for spousal sponsorship. That would make her not a genuine visitor, meaning her purpose of visit was not the true reason to visit, familial ties in Canada would exist, and she did not have strong enough employment or financial reasons to return to Italy, nor concrete family obligations.

A second note re spousal sponsorship: you can only sponsor her if you are married or have lived together for twelve months. If you haven't seen her in person, haven't lived together, or are not married, you cannot sponsor her as she is not your spouse.

If it helps, this happened to my wife. She's now in Canada. We re-applied addressing the grounds for rejection and were approved.

First of all, let me thank you for taking the time to reply with such a detailed response to my post. I truly appreciate your insight and the personal experience that you brought to the discussion. It is encouraging to hear that you and your wife reapplied and were successful.

in response:

1. She possessed 1600 Euro in her account and could have easily had more money. This was in addition to the money for the flights. She would have had enough money to cover all of her expenses.

2. She did not provide a letter of employment, however, she did provide most recent pay stubs from the employer. A letter perhaps would have been helpful. She has since unfortunately changed jobs ??? Do you think this would hurt her chances of reapplying ?

3. We provided the family information form, - what additional information could she have provided?? Her sister (Albanian with Italian Citizenship) was coming with her to Canada and would have to return as she has a husband and children.

4. The itinerary was difficult, we basically provided a 7 day point form list of places around Toronto that we would go and visit? I have never, nor has she done an itinerary before. The honesty of the situation is that we are Jehovah's Witnesses and the plan was to engage in our ministry together and attend the 2 meetings during the week together. We didn't provide information on why Canada over any other country, certainly there are things within Canada that she can't do in other places like visit the Royal Ontario Museum, the CN Tower, the Art Gallery of Ontario, Ripleys Aquarium.

Additional Questions: I did provide an invitation letter. Interesting to note is that I did not disclose anywhere that we had a romantic relationship. Only that we were friends; I did however indicate in the invitation letter and the itinerary that she would reside with her sister at my residence.

Spousal Sponsership: Can we not apply for spousal sponsorship under the conjugal relationship application portion?

Also: How would I go about ordering the GCMS notes?

Thank you again for you time!

 

[k.h.p.]

First of all, let me thank you for taking the time to reply with such a detailed response to my post. I truly appreciate your insight and the personal experience that you brought to the discussion. It is encouraging to hear that you and your wife reapplied and were successful.

in response:

1. She possessed 1600 Euro in her account and could have easily had more money. This was in addition to the money for the flights. She would have had enough money to cover all of her expenses.

2. She did not provide a letter of employment, however, she did provide most recent pay stubs from the employer. A letter perhaps would have been helpful. She has since unfortunately changed jobs ??? Do you think this would hurt her chances of reapplying ?

3. We provided the family information form, - what additional information could she have provided?? Her sister (Albanian with Italian Citizenship) was coming with her to Canada and would have to return as she has a husband and children.

4. The itinerary was difficult, we basically provided a 7 day point form list of places around Toronto that we would go and visit? I have never, nor has she done an itinerary before. The honesty of the situation is that we are Jehovah's Witnesses and the plan was to engage in our ministry together and attend the 2 meetings during the week together. We didn't provide information on why Canada over any other country, certainly there are things within Canada that she can't do in other places like visit the Royal Ontario Museum, the CN Tower, the Art Gallery of Ontario, Ripleys Aquarium.

Additional Questions: I did provide an invitation letter. Interesting to note is that I did not disclose anywhere that we had a romantic relationship. Only that we were friends; I did however indicate in the invitation letter and the itinerary that she would reside with her sister at my residence.

Spousal Sponsership: Can we not apply for spousal sponsorship under the conjugal relationship application portion?

Also: How would I go about ordering the GCMS notes?

Thank you again for you time!

An employment letter would help. Change in job won't hurt, but a letter granting leave and an expected return date would help.

1600 Euro is not enough for a seven day trip. She'd need more than that for hotels and other expenses, IRCC cannot rely on a promise to reside with you to cover expenses as that's not enforceable in any way.

Family in Italy - explaining family obligations or upcoming family events that would make her return may help. The family information form just describes her family, doesn't give any reasons why she must return to Italy.

Purpose of visit - did you describe the meetings and engagement? If you did, that would be reason to reject the application. You may want to source out some things she could only do in Canada and explain those as reasons why she'd travel. It could be things like experiencing indigenous culture and history at the ROM, if she's genuinely interested in things like that. Or maybe Chinatown. All those museums, etc, may also help. She may not be able to see Group of Seven paintings in Italy.

As for conjugal sponsorship, you are not eligible. There would need to be immigration or legal barriers preventing you two from being married or common law for conjugal to be an option. You can visit Europe visa free as a Canadian, so that won't work.

 

[k.h.p.]

Sorry, as for GCMS notes, just do a google search for IRCC ATIP. Unfortunately it does take thirty days, roughly, to get the notes. But it's the best way to see the visa officer's concerns and address them directly.

 

[applejedi]

An employment letter would help. Change in job won't hurt, but a letter granting leave and an expected return date would help.

1600 Euro is not enough for a seven day trip. She'd need more than that for hotels and other expenses, IRCC cannot rely on a promise to reside with you to cover expenses as that's not enforceable in any way.

Family in Italy - explaining family obligations or upcoming family events that would make her return may help. The family information form just describes her family, doesn't give any reasons why she must return to Italy.

Purpose of visit - did you describe the meetings and engagement? If you did, that would be reason to reject the application. You may want to source out some things she could only do in Canada and explain those as reasons why she'd travel. It could be things like experiencing indigenous culture and history at the ROM, if she's genuinely interested in things like that. Or maybe Chinatown. All those museums, etc, may also help. She may not be able to see Group of Seven paintings in Italy.

As for conjugal sponsorship, you are not eligible. There would need to be immigration or legal barriers preventing you two from being married or common law for conjugal to be an option. You can visit Europe visa free as a Canadian, so that won't work.

We (I) did not disclose the Congregation meetings that she wanted to attend here, nor did I express a desire to engage (take part in) in the Preaching work (Ministry)
As I said, I did not state in any way that we are engaged, or are romantically involved.

So the best best with regard to Spousal sponsorship is to attend Italy, marry her there and apply for spousal sponsorship...

It's incredibly frustrating this process - I would move to Italy if I wasn't the full time parent for my daughter. The indigenous culture and history at the ROM are definitely good suggestions and she is definitely interested in those things in addition to ART, as she is a certified Professor of fine Art.

Again Sir/Ma'am I really appreciate your time and insight - Thank you!!

 

[k.h.p.]

Then the art may be a good reason to visit! The AGO has an unparalleled collection of Group of Seven art along with Emily Carr and other works. The ROM has fascinating indigenous collections including indigenous art. Neither of which she could easily see in Italy.

Understood re invitation letter. Visa officers are generally very suspicious of invitation letters for unrelated couples with tourism as a reason for visit, as the assumption is that they will be married in Canada.

As to spousal sponsorship, being married (or living together for twelve months) is really your only option.

As to what to do next - if you can wait thirty days before reapplying for a tourist visa, request the GCMS notes to see what the visa officer's detailed objections were. Those will help.

 

[canuck_in_uk]

We (I) did not disclose the Congregation meetings that she wanted to attend here, nor did I express a desire to engage (take part in) in the Preaching work (Ministry)
As I said, I did not state in any way that we are engaged, or are romantically involved.

So the best best with regard to Spousal sponsorship is to attend Italy, marry her there and apply for spousal sponsorship...

It's incredibly frustrating this process - I would move to Italy if I wasn't the full time parent for my daughter. The indigenous culture and history at the ROM are definitely good suggestions and she is definitely interested in those things in addition to ART, as she is a certified Professor of fine Art.

Again Sir/Ma'am I really appreciate your time and insight - Thank you!!

You should have at least a few visits and spend as much time in person as you can before marrying. Getting married on the first visit after an online relationship is a huge red flag.

 

[canuck78]

Coming to see an exhibit at the ROM is not going to lead to an approval. Savings alone is problematic.