Abe1004 said:
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.
Wow. I'm seriously impressed. Something like that would have taken me weeks to type up on my phone, and it'd still be full of auto-corrected errors.
Anyways, i think you're well prepared towards proving that you have a genuine marriage, despite CIC's antiquated notions of what a genuine marriage actually is. Where you may need to focus your efforts is proving that the marriage wasn't "entered into primarily for the purpose of acquiring any status or privilege under the Act". Under that provision, " a foreign national shall not be considered a spouse", even if the marriage is otherwise genuine.
Unfortunately, a lot of the circumstances that you use to prove that your relationship is genuine can also be twisted to work against you in this respect, sort of a double-edged sword. There's the obvious, like getting married on the last days before your departure, and overextending your stay. You'll need to think about how statements like the following would sound like to an objective third party: "I spent 7 years in Canada ever since I am 17 and my mentality formed in Canada, in away I feel myself Canadian". Although your fluency in English or French can be used to show that there are no language barriers, it can also be used to show that you were preparing yourself to be a Canadian well before you entered into marriage. Same thing with being Roman-Catholic. Is that common in your country? Were you raised as a Roman-Catholic, or did you convert?
Anyways, I was hoping that the Immigration Minister would strike the "purpose of acquiring" provision of the Act if the marriage was proven to be genuine, but unfortunately he didn't say anything about that in his latest round of announcements. In previous statements to the media, he had indicated that he was sympathetic to people who wanted to come to Canada to make a better life for themselves, or for their children. In fact, Canada was built on people who migrated over specifically for that purpose.
You need to stick to the truth, but there are aspects of your relationship, and your background, that you'd want to accentuate, and others that you may not want to draw too much attention to. If it's too obvious, that's exactly what they'll focus on, so it's a delicate balance. Hopefully your consultant has a lot of experience with such cases, and has a successful strategy in mind. Your consultant shouldn't be shy about touching on difficult or embarrassing topics. it's better than being caught unprepared.
If you already have a hearing date, then your counsel might be able to find out who will be the minister's counsel in your hearing. It'd be very helpful if your counsel has had previous dealings with the particular minister's counsel, and is aware of his or her biases, favoured lines of questioning, etc.
"I feel like the government rarely changes the wrong decisions they make" - this may be true, but IAD is a completely different department, and the Visa Officer is removed from the appeal process, other than providing the appeal record (i.e. blue book). You need to only look back to the previous few pages of this forum to see that many people have been successful in their appeals, so don't let this undermine your confidence.
Blessings to both you and your wife, and hopes that you will have a bright future together!