+1(514) 937-9445 or Toll-free (Canada & US) +1 (888) 947-9445

Applying inland PR with a wedding outside Canada

Bob140727

Member
Jul 27, 2014
19
1
Category........
Visa Office......
Dakar
Job Offer........
Pre-Assessed..
App. Filed.......
08-02-2016
AOR Received.
15-03-2016
File Transfer...
18-04-2016
Med's Request
01-11-2016
Med's Done....
10-11-2016
Passport Req..
01-11-2016
VISA ISSUED...
16-12-2016
LANDED..........
27-12-2016
I'm a 29yo canadian citizen (always been in ontario) and a good enough job to sponsor family member without them needing to work (although financial is not required for spouse sponsor)

I have a girlfriend in Cameroon (she's 24yo if it matter), and we looked inland and outland.

Because of our belief that married couple should live together (in our case religious belief but I do know it is also a commonly shared expectation that married couple should be living together) we cannot go outland.
We need to do it inland which is like so :

1) she gets her passport
2) a female friend write an invitation letter so that she can have a tourist visa (visitor TRV ?)
3) she comes over as a tourist
4) we get married
5) we apply for visa extension, OWP, and inland PR

Now the thing is we would like her parents to be there for the wedding. While I believe it would be possible for them (both parent and her) to get a tourist vacation visa. We have a problem in that the parent are not available to take a vacation to Canada (either 5 days for flying wedding day possibly suspicious; or a 2 week to have better chance of having a visa granted).

So my girlfriend proposed this instead :
I tried to find info but it is hard to find the same situation

1) she gets her passport
2) a female friend write an invitation letter so that she can have a tourist visa (visitor TRV ?)
2.1) I go over as a tourist
2.2) we get married and I come back
3) she comes over as a tourist
4) we get married
5) we apply for visa extension, OWP, and inland PR

Would that really work ?

Also in the first plan (and by extension, plan 2 also), I'm not sure her homeland ties are strong enough, she recently completed her studies and now is in the process of finding a job but whatever job she have would likely only be considered a recently-acquired job which in my eyes would be weaker than if she had the same job since a long time.
 

Rob_TO

VIP Member
Nov 7, 2012
11,427
1,551
Toronto
Category........
FAM
Visa Office......
Seoul, Korea
App. Filed.......
13-07-2012
AOR Received.
18-08-2012
File Transfer...
21-08-2012
Med's Done....
Sent with App
Passport Req..
N/R - Exempt
VISA ISSUED...
30-10-2012
LANDED..........
16-11-2012
In general, it's harder to get approved for a TRV when you are married to a Canadian. Getting her a TRV while you are just gf/bf and then getting married in Canada, is likely the safer option in terms of getting TRV approved. I'm not familiar though with how easy/difficult it is for Cameroon citizens to get TRV in general.

If you apply inland you don't need to apply for actual visa extension. As long as you submit the inland PR app + OWP app when she is still on her valid TRV, then she would have implied status until PR is approved. Of course she would need to stay in Canada and not leave for any reason, for the duration of entire PR process (so around 18 months).
 

Bob140727

Member
Jul 27, 2014
19
1
Category........
Visa Office......
Dakar
Job Offer........
Pre-Assessed..
App. Filed.......
08-02-2016
AOR Received.
15-03-2016
File Transfer...
18-04-2016
Med's Request
01-11-2016
Med's Done....
10-11-2016
Passport Req..
01-11-2016
VISA ISSUED...
16-12-2016
LANDED..........
27-12-2016
Ok thanks, I've edited out Visa Extension.
Yeah we understood that it could take a year and half for her to get PR and she couldn't go back to cameroon under any circumstances. Also that OWP (at stage 1) will take almost a year.