I couldn't agree more. Sure, get angry. Kick a chair or two. Get it out of your system. But don't make the mistake of being consumed by it. Put it behind you and start working on what will be necessary to win your appeal.
Some people here don't start preparing for their hearing until a week or two before the hearing date. That is a big mistake. The better prepared you are, the more confident you will feel when you walk into the hearing room.
The appeal process will be considerably more fair. It follows process. It involves disclosure, cross-examination, evidence, and witnesses. You are allowed counsel, and you can take a whole day to argue your case, if it is necessary.
Oh, and expect to be asked very personal questions. They are fair to ask when trying to establish the genuiness of an intimate relationship. If you are expecting them, and both sides are well prepared, you won't get flustered and make a costly mistake.
Thank you very much for supporting my thoughts. And I really appreciate this forum and this thread, because it did help me to minimize the chances of refusal of my case. And I do remember your case you input in this thread, although I cannot recall if your significant other has been granted PR VISA or not. I almost filed my application with some major mistakes I made on my application. At the beginning, I thought my case was really straight forward: we are real couple, my wife is a Canadian, we have married for almost 6 years and lived together ever since we were married, have all the photos (Wedding, Honeymoon, Reception, Outings at different time, locations and occasions, the photo taken in the Operating Room, right after my daughter was born, and etc.), joint accounts, medical insurance together, I am the beneficiary of my wife's life insurance, we own our house with both of names on deed, have two wonderful Canadian children together, although my wife has lived outside of Canada for 10 years, but to show her intention to be back to Canada, she and my daughter went back to Canada to open accounts and scout for school and place to live, we have supporting letters from friends and parents, all police certificates are clean and etc. You would think that would be a very strong case, right? But after I read a lot threads and especially this one, and went back to double check my application, I found there were many red flags I had not addressed, such as this is second marriage for both of us (My wife immigrated to Canada by herself, not through Spousal sponsorship, and she is Canadian Citizen now), I messed up my immigration history in another country and we are still living there, we only dated about 1 year (in person, but could be considered as short courtship-maybe), my divorce was only two months earlier than our wedding date, I hadn't been back to my original country, so a lot of my person information wasn't up-to-date on some of the official documents. To some VO, my case can be treated as MOC, ya, I am not kidding. So I wrote a lot explanation letters to address each of my short ends. Ever since I noticed that my case could be as complicated as it can be, I hired a lawyer to handle it, it cost me $7,000 just for filing, but I do need a third eye to look after my application, and tell me if my story is convincing enough (although they are all facts I provided) to a outsider.
Nowadays, we sometimes would ask each other questions regarding dates, what you like/dislike, some personal history, it is not rehearsal, rather is just to enhance our own memories (real couples do forget things happened in their relationship), and you know what, it is sweet and it's like put us back to those old times we enjoyed together that almost lost in very day busy life.
Originally, I planned to file my case by myself in Feb., 2017, now it will take another month or two, but I am not in rush. Compare to wait for almost two years for appeal, then another several months for finalizing your case (If you win and CIC consents it), it is well worth it for waiting of the past 4 or 5 months to make sure my application addressed everything in a right way and order.
Although I plan for the best, but I will prepare for the worst, interview and/or appeal. But Canada is not the only destination we planned. My wife and I also plan to go back to our original country for good as well, if my case would go south. Anyway, I wish the best to all of you that need to go through this difficult route of your life, and to myself. Be Strong!
