A special case of possible spouse sponsorship.

[AFAZY]

Hey all,
I'm an international student, doing Phd and have been married to a Canadian citizen for almost 2 years. Our case is special in the following sense:
- she is from different religion and she is so attached to her parents, and they don't agree on letting her marry from a different religion. And since my wife is so attached to them she doesn't want to lose them. So she suggested not to tell them especially that we will be living in different cities ( we are in ottawa and they are in Quebec city).
- We met online while she was still living there, we kept texting, calling, and Skyping for almost 8 months before we decided to live together, She told them she is coming to ottawa to study and kept the marriage secret ( she told them before that the there is a guy from different religion who wants to be in a relationship with me and they went crazy).
Given that she is not ready to face her parents and given that I'm still student ( and later on she registered at unioveristy so now we are both students) and Don't have enough money, and that we don't want a kid now before we graduate and improve our financial situation, we decided to delay the wedding and she decided to keep that secret from her parents.
- We lived together for 3 months, and we agreed to marry/to settle for ever, I was thinking to delay the marriage contract and to live as a common law till we solve the issue with her parents and till we be able to afford the wedding. But she preferred to do it right away ( after we lived together for three months) since we already agreed on marrying each other and also partially because of religious reasons).

- we agreed then to finish university, and then let her parents know and hopefully accept me as a husband for their daughter, other wise, we will let them be mad and do it without them. Also I agreed with my wife on an exception which is if we had a baby, then we should tell them directly. Up till now no babies and we are still studying so they still dont know.

- given this complicated situation, I didn't thought about applying for immigration under spouse sponsorship category until I met a lawyer few weeks ago and he encourged me to apply as long as I can prove that we lived together. So he thinks that even without a wedding or without her parents knowing about the marriage it is still possible to apply under this category. I'm just afraid that he is encouraging me to make some of me out of my application. So i thought may be it is a good idea to post my case here.

My main question is that, do you think I should apply under this category:
- if I can apply under SFW program although the outcome of SFW application is uncertain?
- If I don;t have any other option than spouse sponsorship?

If you think I should appply, are these enough as an evidence of genuine marriage:

- 3 joint leases from 3 different places we lived at
- all the rental receipts for two years and half
- joint tax filing
- joint bank account
- a lot of pictures and most of them are in the house, around the city, and some of them are with couples that we know, and from a vacation to Montreal and newyork.
- call logs, skype logs, texts ...
- letters from friends who we hang out with.

Also small question, if some of the texts are private ( can one black them out, or they want to know all the messages, it is really embarrassing especially if it happened that the CIC expert working on the file knows any of us

 

[Mardek]

I'm no expert, but your case looks perfectly fine.

How long in total have you been living together?
What country are you from?
Are you planning to apply inland or outland?
Has she met your family?
Is her religion that different from yours? - this could be an issue that CIC will focus on.
Will you apply before meeting her parents, or after? - this also could be something CIC may focus on.

 

[canadianwoman]

You seem to have enough proof for common-law. You have to live together for 12 continuous months and be able to prove it.

You also have to prove that your relationship is genuine. You seem to have enough proof for that as well.

Ideally, the parents would know about and approve the relationship, but there are lots of cases where parents do not, and if the couple has enough proof the relationship is genuine they can still be approved.

For the application, you are not married - you are in a common-law relationship.

 

[AFAZY]

Mardek, Thanks for your reply

- We have been living together for almost 2 years and 6 months, 2 and years and 3 months out of them married.
- does it matter from which country we are? We are from lebanon.
- we lived in Canada and we think it makes sense to apply Inland.
- she talks to my family over the phone and skyoe but never met in person.
- the religion is not that different but they are fighting in the middle east haha.
- I want to apply before meeting her parents.

Sorry for late reply, Thanks again!

 

[setec-astronomy]

- we lived in Canada and we think it makes sense to apply Inland.

Can you say more about why you think that? For most VOs, at present, it is much, much better to apply outland.

 

[AFAZY]

Hi setec-astronomy;

I didn't read about it, I thought it makes sense that couples living in Canada inland, and couples living abroad apply outland. I would like to hear your opinion on this issue. I also sent you a message but it didn't show in my outbox, I'm new to this forum so may be I'm using wrong way to send messages.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Decoy24601]

Hi setec-astronomy;

I didn't read about it, I thought it makes sense that couples living in Canada inland, and couples living abroad apply outland. I would like to hear your opinion on this issue. I also sent you a message but it didn't show in my outbox, I'm new to this forum so may be I'm using wrong way to send messages.

Thanks in advance!

Couples living in Canada do have the option to apply as "outland". That's what we're doing. Depending on where you're from/what visa office your application will be sent to, outland can be much much faster than inland, which takes 2 years. Outland cases usually take at least less than 2 years, often much less.

 

[setec-astronomy]

I didn't read about it, I thought it makes sense that couples living in Canada inland, and couples living abroad apply outland. I would like to hear your opinion on this issue. I also sent you a message but it didn't show in my outbox, I'm new to this forum so may be I'm using wrong way to send messages.

I didn't get the message, but that's fine. Look around on some of the other threads in this topic; spend a couple of hours on it, and you'll see long discussions on why. And unlike a lot of long Internet discussions, it's not something where there's a lot of disagreement. In general, the outland process is faster. The inland process sucks in a lot of ways; almost the only thing it has going for it is the Open Work Permit, and it might be faster than some of the worst VOs, but I doubt it. It's also beneficial because you don't have to exit Canada to land, and if you have an interview you won't have to leave Canada. Those are fairly minor points compared to the processing time benefits of the outland process, though. The outland process, really, can be much, much quicker in some cases. US spouses going through CPC-Ottawa right now have been processed in under two months, which is much, much faster than even just getting an OWP in the inland process. Not all VOs are going that quickly, of course, but it's a useful example. Good luck! And do spend some time reading a wide range of threads that seem relevant to either your situation or to any questions you might have. There's a lot of wisdom and a lot of good data to be found in this forum.

 

[ImABule]

Hi setec-astronomy;

I didn't read about it, I thought it makes sense that couples living in Canada inland, and couples living abroad apply outland. I would like to hear your opinion on this issue. I also sent you a message but it didn't show in my outbox, I'm new to this forum so may be I'm using wrong way to send messages.

Thanks in advance!

The only benefit of an inland application is the open work permit you can apply for with it. However, it takes a long time to get and if you apply outland you will more then likely have PR status before you ever got the work permit.

Also, in the case of a denial, you may only appeal the decision with an outland application.

 

[canadianwoman]

Are you married? Keep in mind that to a Canadian visa officer, if you are married, you should not also be saying that you are living common-law, nor should you be saying that there was no wedding.

However you got married, that was your wedding. Even if it was just a civil ceremony with two witnesses, that was your wedding. If you want to talk about why you did not have a big ceremony, or a traditional ceremony, say that. You can talk about how you want to have the traditional ceremony later, if that is the case.

 

[AFAZY]

Thanks all for your help!

Good to know about the Outland option and its advantages. I will make sure to read more about whether it is better to apply Inland or Outland. I'm worried more about whether what I will provide as an evidence for genuine marriage will be considered enoughor not. Hopefully it will goes well.

 

[Nyhiraba]

Thanks all for your help!

Good to know about the Outland option and its advantages. I will make sure to read more about whether it is better to apply Inland or Outland. I'm worried more about whether what I will provide as an evidence for genuine marriage will be considered enoughor not. Hopefully it will goes well.

Read this for some guidance as to the proof you need: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/manuals/op/op02-eng.pdf

 

[Mightytonewheel]

You can't apply as common-law if you're married. "Common-law" and "married" are two distinct statuses in Canada that are mutually exclusive. You can be one, or the other, but not both. (In fact, since you lived together for only 3 months before marriage, you never did qualify to apply as common-law.) So you have to disclose your marital status on the application, and the identity of your spouse.

Demonstrating the authenticity of the relationship is a separate issue that would apply to both a common-law and marriage scenario. It's hard to say how a VO would read your situation, but I would think that the fact that neither of you have met the others' parents would raise some eyebrows. Of course it's still possible to have a genuine relationship that's a secret to one or both sets of parents; I'm just saying, to me, it may cause concern.

So it will be up to you to demonstrate that the relationship is genuine even though it's unorthodox. (I disagree with your lawyer -- it's not about proving you lived together, it's about proving your relationship is authentic.) You should spend some time in your application carefully explaining the situation with the parents. Just be honest. You have lots of proof that you are otherwise experiencing married life like a normal couple, so that will help matters a lot. It will also help if you include letters from friends (and other family members?) that your relationship, both before and after the marriage, was genuine.

It's worth noting that there would be much more concern about your application if the secret-from-the-parents thing was combined with a bunch of other unusual things: like, your friends don't know, you didn't spend much time together before and after the marriage, you have no photos, etc. etc. That would definitely appear like a marriage of convenience. So your other supporting documents will be pretty important.