wait_so_long said:
Hi, Abe1004.
It looks like you have a pretty strong case; I'm not sure why it was refused in the first place. Did the VO give any concrete reasons for refusal? I would think you'd at least have been granted an ADR.
You seem to have an abundance of evidence. If you didn't before, you do now! You may not need to call any of them up, but the more people that you have willing to be witnesses, the better. Also, I believe that at least some of the testimonials should be in the form of written affidavits, and not just letters of support.
All the IAD and Minister's Counsel have to work with is what is in the blue book. Any evidence that did not make it into the blue book, along with any new evidence, should be packaged together, organized and numbered, and sent to both parties at least 20 days before the hearing.
Your consultant should be preparing both you and your wife by going over possible questions or lines of questioning that may come up during the hearing, and making sure you are in sync. Your consultant should not be shy to touch on sensitive issues.
The one thing that concerns me is that you have not visited each other in 4 years, due to health and financial issues. You haven't been together since before you applied in 2013!? Be expected to be questioned on why you haven't seen each other in such a long time, and how you have maintained your relationship over such a long absence. Be prepared to be questioned on the intimate aspects of your relationship.
Are you the sponsor, or the applicant? Who is having the financial issues? Which one is having the health issues?
In reading the last several pages of this forum, it appears that even if your appeal is allowed, the sponsor will have to re-qualify on financial means test. Similarly, the applicant will have to redo the medical and police checks. (Those that have gone through this, or are going through this, please confirm!) I believe that the bar for both financial and medical are fairly low for spousal sponsorship, but you may need to check with your consultant to make sure that all this is not for naught.
Good luck, and hope you can be together soon!
Dear wait_so_long.
Thank you for your response.
The visa officer in her refusal letter stated that coming from different backgrounds and given the fact that we maried three days prior to my leave (exclusion order of 1 year) she felt the marriage was entered for purpose of migration to Canada
True that I was ordered to leave, because I overstayed my visa, however big part of that I overstayed was my wife. I fell in love with her and for over 6 years now (we started dating in 2010) i am still certain I love her.
Unfortunately, VO disregarded the fact, that even though I did overstay and married my wife three days prior to the leave, we actually lived together and shared everything for 2 years before the whole thing!!!
And never in two years period did I attempt to "sham my way" into country by marrying her, because I genuinely loved her.
Actually one of the reasons I stayed behind was because she was on temporary disability due to her knee (she tore her meniscus) and for 9 and a half month they couldnt process the temporary disability claim. I never said this to VO but I had to work, even if illegally to support her until her claim came in.
Of course if the marriage was entered primarily for the sake of PR i could have probably found a woman my age instead of opting for someone who is 24 years older. and of course instead of sitting around for several years not doing anything but taking care of her I would have probably asked for the marriage right after the one year mark which is acceptable my migration.
I made my case sound with VO and as you can see I possess perfect english and french (without accent). I made the case that her whole family knew about me and accepted me as their own.
Also the case of different religious and ethnic backgrounds is total bullshit. I am roman catholic and so is she. I spent 7 years in Canada ever since I am 17 and my mentality formed in Canada, in away I feel myself Canadian and still suffer a lot from being here apart from my wife and everything I am used to. Yes this is truely tragic because I feel like we had a strong case.
My wife is also government worker she works for lotteries and earns decent money, however, we had alot of things pile up ever since I left and we never really had opportunity to meet up somewhere. I also tried my best to send half of my measly 400$ salary to her every month becasue I felt like I can get by since I currently live with my parents while she still has to pay for our place (which we have been leasing for over 6 years now!!!) (even landlord gave a written notarized affadavit that he knows me and we have been together with my wife for a very long time).
Now she is on temporary disability again, because her knew screwed up again so like I said, travel was not an option for her. I want to note that when we started dating she had no issues with her knees of any kind, so its not like I took advantage of that. I genuinly love her.
Regarding the affadavits, pardon me for being vague, but thats exactly what we did, we have 20 written, notarized affadavits where public notary checked the signature of those who signed.
We have a lot of people rooting for us and I realy hope this works out. Even though I am a bit sceptic since I feel like the government rarely changes the wrong decisions they make.
Unfortunately living anywhere besides Canada is not an option since she clearly values her freedom of religion, freedom of speech, universal healthcare and I wont be able to provide all these here (Azerbaijan). I wont even be simply able to support her finanicially by renting a place or buying necessities such as groceries etc.
Our consultant said that right after New Years she will start skyping me and interviewing her to bring our story up to par. But obviously there is really no story to make up. We have all the genuine facts and I know everything about her. All her favourites starting with music, food, color etc. We know each other so well that sometimes one of us thinks of something and other one says it.
I will pass medical and criminal with flying colors. Not sure how will I be able to obtain another check for RCMP (submitted one initially since lived in Canada for period over 2 years since I am 18). When i was about to leave I submitted my finger prints to RCMP and obviously I am clean here and in Canada. I never was involved with any crime. Consultant said that her temporary disability will not be an issue either.
Also we are booked for full hearing, my wife and our family as well as friends will attend and witness, those who can't will be present in a shape of notarized affadavits.
So its really sad we are in this situation, but like I said I hope the wrong will be done right.
Thank you for your input and I hope you can give me more feedback as to what you think my case looks like.
Also I kindly ask you to forgive me for spelling and punctuation mistakes, I was typing through the cell phone.
