Just to give everyone an update on our situation. I attended our immigration appeal hearing (not an ADR but a full day hearing) with my lawyer and my husband by telephone. It was a really interesting process and I know that many of you will want to hear about the kind of questions that were asked. Our hearing was in Vancouver, BC with a female immigration lawyer representing the Appeals Board and a female judge. Our lawyer was male. I say this because I believe it made a difference to have women representing Immigration. I found that those women judged me very harshly and applied lots of feminist thinking to their questions and interpretation of my answers.
I also found that they used my Christian faith against me. It was clear that they did not understand my faith but they believed they did. They asked me why we didn't get married in a church and "say our vows before God". I replied that God is with us whether we marry in a church or at a registry. It was clear that they were trying to show that we were not acting in a manner consistent with what they believed our faith to be.
Also they asked a lot of questions about finances. ALOT and they tried to intimate that it was wrong for me, a woman, to be supporting her husband. They tried to make me look foolish for marrying a man without a job.
They asked about my husband's family and their immigration status in the countries they were living in and those countries that they had visited. It seemed that they were looking for a pattern of deception in immigration among his family (Nigerians). They wanted to know what status his family in the UK had and how his sister was able to visit the UK recently.
They wanted to know the date of the first time we had sexual intercourse. They implied that my husband should have used a condom, that he should have gotten a vasectomy if we didn't want to have children (instead of me getting a tubal ligation).
Interestingly, they asked few questions about how well we know each other. Instead they criticized us for not knowing EVERYTHING about each other at every turn.
Don't fool yourself into thinking that these immigration people will be nice. They will use anything and everything against you to try to show that you are wrong about your marriage or spouse, that you are stupid to have married someone from another country, that you are inconsistent in your beliefs. They will judge you on what they feel are "Canadian standards" whether or not those standards are your s or anyone else's in Canada. You will be judged as if you are expected to have the ULTIMATE MARRIAGE - perfect, no secrets, no privacy, no fights, no family issues, no differences etc.
So for those of you who are heading into a full hearing, my advice is for you to be prepared for anything. I am available to talk to anyone about the specific questions that they asked us if you want some additional information.
The outcome of our hearing was no decision. There will be written submissions (3 weeks allotted). Then 2 weeks for the judge to review these and submit her decision. Then 1 week for my lawyer to respond. So 6 weeks minimum waiting. If you check the immigration appeal website you will see that the average waiting time for an appeal decision is 10 MONTHS. So also be prepared for a long wait.
Good Luck to you all.
Peach Nibbler.
