Beirut FAM applicants forwarded to CPP-Ottawa

[chris_z77]

TSI and Soon_Canadian

Can you please tell us how you met your wives? Are you Canadian citizens? born in canada? or permanent residents?
If you are are not Canadian-born, Did you first met your wives before you came to Canada or after you became permanent resident?

 

[TSI]

TSI and Soon_Canadian

Can you please tell us how you met your wives? Are you Canadian citizens? born in canada? or permanent residents?
If you are are not Canadian-born, Did you first met your wives before you came to Canada or after you became permanent resident?

Hi Chris, all,

I actually migrated to Canada at a very young age and been here over 25 years.... My parents did a good job at keeping us in touch and nostalgic towards our ancestral village, and one summer I met my wife while visiting our village, even though our families knew each other from before, both families left Lebanon a long time ago and I met her about 3.5 years ago.

Also, I guess August is a very popular month, we're having our religious wedding in August as well

Cheers!

 

[lebcan]

Hi Chris, all,

I actually migrated to Canada at a very young age and been here over 25 years.... My parents did a good job at keeping us in touch and nostalgic towards our ancestral village, and one summer I met my wife while visiting our village, even though our families knew each other from before, both families left Lebanon a long time ago and I met her about 3.5 years ago.

Also, I guess August is a very popular month, we're having our religious wedding in August as well

Cheers!

Hi TSI

do you guys think it is because we did civil marriage that they would ask for interview?

 

[chris_z77]

Hi Chris, all,

I actually migrated to Canada at a very young age and been here over 25 years.... My parents did a good job at keeping us in touch and nostalgic towards our ancestral village, and one summer I met my wife while visiting our village, even though our families knew each other from before, both families left Lebanon a long time ago and I met her about 3.5 years ago.

Also, I guess August is a very popular month, we're having our religious wedding in August as well

Cheers!

I don't want to scare you but you should prepare well for the interview.
I had clients the other day (I shoot weddings), she was sponsoring her husband in Lebanon, they did the same as us, civil wedding applied afterwards and waited for the visa to get a religious wedding (they are doing it in Canada though) They had many complications and it took them time to get the visa.
The following things, according to my analysis are the reasons of the complications.

1- She was Born in Canada.
2- When she MET him she was already a Canadian citizen or permanent resident.
3- They mentioned that they did the civil wedding to apply for sponsorship and that they are planing of having a religious wedding after they receive the visa.
4- he has family in Canada. That gave them another reason to believe that he is committing marriage fraud.

They did not believed the marriage was genuine and they asked for a lot of proof. Luckily, everything worked out eventually and the guy is here and they are getting married soon.

I suspect they asked for interviews because when you met you were already a Canadian citizen, you do not have kids yet and the periods between you first met, your marriage and you filed the application is relatively short. I suggest you prepare well for the interview, gather more proof if you can, Facebook screenshots, photos, gifts receipts etc...

I am sorry if I scared you, but Im OK with you hating my guts if it means giving you a heads up to be prepared.

 

[lebcan]

guys,

Chris, TSI, SOON Canadian,

other than the civil marriage thing? did your spouse travel to canada to see u? do u visit regularly lebanon?
btw we did not mention the religious marriage in our application. we just said that we got married in canada and that is it
how about you?
i really hope i wont have an interview!!

 

[chris_z77]

guys,

Chris, TSI, SOON Canadian,

other than the civil marriage thing? did your spouse travel to canada to see u? do u visit regularly lebanon?
btw we did not mention the religious marriage in our application. we just said that we got married in canada and that is it
how about you?
i really hope i wont have an interview!!

The only time my wife left Lebanese borders was to Cyprus for the civil wedding.
Yes I have been visiting Lebanon regularly.
I think the decisive factors that might give some doubts about the genuine marriage is that if the sponsor met the spouse after he obtained permanent resident and if the sponsored person have close family in Canada. Those 2 factors combined makes them think of marriage fraud

 

[Canadian_Leb]

The only time my wife left Lebanese borders was to Cyprus for the civil wedding.
Yes I have been visiting Lebanon regularly.
I think the decisive factors that might give some doubts about the genuine marriage is that if the sponsor met the spouse after he obtained permanent resident and if the sponsored person have close family in Canada. Those 2 factors combined makes them think of marriage fraud

Hi Chris,

Just curious.. If you dont mind why did you do your marriage in Cyprus? Is it because of civil marriage? Why dont you do in Lebanon? Might as well does it matter if it is religious or not.

From my understanding you cant do civil marriage in Lebanon unless you marry religiously! To me it does not matter marriage is marriage whether it is religious or not as long as it is registered in the country you live in.

I dont think whether it is religious or not matters to the immigration officers. I dont think it has any bearing on the genuinity of it. I think as long as it is legal in that country the nit is fine

 

[chris_z77]

Hi Chris,

Just curious.. If you dont mind why did you do your marriage in Cyprus? Is it because of civil marriage? Why dont you do in Lebanon? Might as well does it matter if it is religious or not.

From my understanding you cant do civil marriage in Lebanon unless you marry religiously! To me it does not matter marriage is marriage whether it is religious or not as long as it is registered in the country you live in.

I don't think whether it is religious or not matters to the immigration officers. I don't think it has any bearing on the genuinity of it. I think as long as it is legal in that country the nit is fine

I never said that a Civil marriage is the cause of the officer's doubt. But if you say that "yeah we got a civil marriage to apply for visa, and we are planing of doing a religious marriage as soon as we get the visa" might be interpreted by the office as you did the civil marriage exclusively for a visa, and not because you love each other and have a genuine relationship.
If you are marrying someone to grant him a visa and a PR status, that's marriage fraud! so if you include in your application "We did a civil marriage to apply for sponsorship and we are planing to do a religious one after" That will be enough to raise a lot of red flags for the officer, and he definitely want to do an interview.

As for my case, Ww had our civil wedding because at the beginning we did not want an extra-vaganza wedding with all the festivals, and that would definitely be the case if we did a religious wedding in Lebanon.
But later on we said we wanna do a party, since my wife will be leaving to Canada, it is nice to do a party gather all our friends and loved ones, it would be like a goodbye party and a late marriage celebration at the same time. Than we found out that we have to invite a lot of people (metel ma bi 2oulo wejbet)... That we said, screw it let's do a full wedding.

As you said, marriage is marriage and it does not matter to the officer if it's civil or religious. But the moment you mention that you had a civil wedding to be able to apply for sponsorship, it will definitely draw a big question mark for the officer!

 

[TSI]

Hi Chris,

Just curious.. If you dont mind why did you do your marriage in Cyprus? Is it because of civil marriage? Why dont you do in Lebanon? Might as well does it matter if it is religious or not.

From my understanding you cant do civil marriage in Lebanon unless you marry religiously! To me it does not matter marriage is marriage whether it is religious or not as long as it is registered in the country you live in.

I dont think whether it is religious or not matters to the immigration officers. I dont think it has any bearing on the genuinity of it. I think as long as it is legal in that country the nit is fine

From what I read up on and from talking to others, I think both Chris and Canadian_Leb have valid points.

(1) Marriage is marriage as long as it is legal in the country it is performed, it also helps if you registered it/filed taxes in Canada as married, can't make it more official than that

(2) Yes, being in Canada for a long time and then marrying someone from the "old country" does raise some concerns (especially if that person has family in Canada as well, which is the case for my wife!!!), but no more than from any other country (Canadian folks marrying others from the US or the UK), it does put the onus on the couple to prove that the relationship is truly genuine.

Lebcan, to answer some of your questions, we tried really really hard for my wife to visit me in Canada, but they kept refusing her visa application (for pretty much the same reasons as others here: Family ties, Travel History), so I ended up going to visit her as much as I possibly can, which averaged about 5 weeks per year, so it's extremely difficult, but we both feed off each others' strengths to keep going, lately it's bee more difficult simply because we miss each other so much! But we stay hopeful and positive.

I think the recommendations for an interview have alot to do with the points that Chris made: I've been in Canada for over 25 years, yet met a girl from my ancestral village, 1.5 years later we're married, and she has family in Canada. I suspect your case is a little less complicated?

Chris, can't hate you for trying to help out!!!!!! I appreciate your input and insight, as I am sure we all do! So thank you for that!

 

[Canadian_Leb]

I never said that a Civil marriage is the cause of the officer's doubt. But if you say that "yeah we got a civil marriage to apply for visa, and we are planing of doing a religious marriage as soon as we get the visa" might be interpreted by the office as you did the civil marriage exclusively for a visa, and not because you love each other and have a genuine relationship.
If you are marrying someone to grant him a visa and a PR status, that's marriage fraud! so if you include in your application "We did a civil marriage to apply for sponsorship and we are planing to do a religious one after" That will be enough to raise a lot of red flags for the officer, and he definitely want to do an interview.

As for my case, Ww had our civil wedding because at the beginning we did not want an extra-vaganza wedding with all the festivals, and that would definitely be the case if we did a religious wedding in Lebanon.
But later on we said we wanna do a party, since my wife will be leaving to Canada, it is nice to do a party gather all our friends and loved ones, it would be like a goodbye party and a late marriage celebration at the same time. Than we found out that we have to invite a lot of people (metel ma bi 2oulo wejbet)... That we said, screw it let's do a full wedding.

As you said, marriage is marriage and it does not matter to the officer if it's civil or religious. But the moment you mention that you had a civil wedding to be able to apply for sponsorship, it will definitely draw a big question mark for the officer!

Definitely makes sense...

 

[lebcan]

Well guys, after this process is done, i am certain we can all work as immigration officers!! lol
you guys have a great way of analyzing things here.

TSI, yes i would say my case is quite simpler...no family at all in Canada, been there twice already, our marriage was done there, he filed as married as per your advises here, i know my husband before he left to Canada since he used to live in the same village etc..

i dunno....hopefully kil chi bikoun ok elna killna!

Candude and the others khtafo i had one question in mind by the way, if i do get the pr, we book one way ticket or it should be a round trip ticket? just thought about it since i wanna book soon..

 

[chris_z77]

Well guys, after this process is done, i am certain we can all work as immigration officers!! lol
you guys have a great way of analyzing things here.

TSI, yes i would say my case is quite simpler...no family at all in Canada, been there twice already, our marriage was done there, he filed as married as per your advises here, i know my husband before he left to Canada since he used to live in the same village etc..

i dunno....hopefully kil chi bikoun ok elna killna!

Candude and the others khtafo i had one question in mind by the way, if i do get the pr, we book one way ticket or it should be a round trip ticket? just thought about it since i wanna book soon..

Round trip for sure... I suggest the return date on the Holidays. No matter how much you are eager now to come to canada, after a while u will miss home... A visit during the holidays is always a good idea and it will give you more and more proof that it was a good decision to leave lebanon and it makes you realize that canada is now ur home
No big price difference between one way and round trip anyways

 

[Canadian_Leb]

Hi guys,

I was wondering if anyone tried contacting the beirut embassy. I sent an email about 10 days ago. I did not even get an automated response.

I thought they would at least let you know that they got your message.


just wondering ...

 

[Soon_Canadian]

Hi guys,

I was wondering if anyone tried contacting the beirut embassy. I sent an email about 10 days ago. I did not even get an automated response.

I thought they would at least let you know that they got your message.


just wondering ...

I emailed them around 10 days ago, and same thing here, no reply and not even automated response.

As for the question asked earlier:

My wife is a pure Canadian, she was born there and her parents were born there...etc
I am pure Lebanese, never been to Canada before, i applied 3 times for visitor visa and got rejected for same reasons as everyone else.
My wife came to Lebanon as a tourist and we met on the first day she arrived, we got married 1 month and a half later, i know i know, everyone tells us the same thing, we are crazy....but crazy in love
We have been married for 2 years and a half now, she visits me every 8 weeks for 4-6 weeks!

 

[Canadian_Leb]

Hi canadian_leb
My MP's name is devinder Shory, hopefully tomorrow I'll stop by his office
I never had the chance to today

Hi Adam

Did you have a chance to get a hold of your MP. I have been trying to get a hold of mine since last week and unfortunately nothing yet.

They didnt answer my email; I called and left a message to call me back and they did not. I even called today again and no one returned my calls

I am not sure if they would be of any help/