Canadian Citizen living in Japan wife my Japanese wife

[schreck]

Hi all,

I'd like to sponsor my Japanese wife within the family class, for a PR.

Now, here is the deal. I am currently living and working in Japan with my wife. Unfortunately I do not have any strings to Canada at the moment. Therefore, I am not able to provide any sort of proof that once the PR is granted, we would go and live in Canada.

Is there any way around it? Or is our only chance if I travel to Canada by myself first and try to find a job, get an apartment etc.

Thanks for your input.

 

[rjessome]

Hi all,

I'd like to sponsor my Japanese wife within the family class, for a PR.

Now, here is the deal. I am currently living and working in Japan with my wife. Unfortunately I do not have any strings to Canada at the moment. Therefore, I am not able to provide any sort of proof that once the PR is granted, we would go and live in Canada.

Is there any way around it? Or is our only chance if I travel to Canada by myself first and try to find a job, get an apartment etc.

Thanks for your input.

You don't have any friends or family in Canada that would help you when you moved to Canada by giving you a temporary place to stay at least? If you do, you could have them write a letter stating that.

 

[toby]

I am in a similar position.

TO show my intent to return to Canada, I arranged via my brother (who lives in Canada) a lease in Canada, and gave a deposit. The agreement to lease has long expired, due to the slow processing of our application. I explained where we wanted to live (although this has changed in the meantime), and what measures I was taking to find a place to live.

I don't think you have to actually establish ties to Canada before the Application; just show serious intent.

I have seen on this site some elaborate plans to find work, housing, etc etc. Anything to show that you are seriously looking to settle down will impress CIC about your serious intent to return to Canada.

And, as Rjessome suggests, get a friend or family member to state that you can stay with them until you get more settled.

Good luck. Getting approved as a sponsor is the easy part; getting the local visa office to approve your wife is more difficult -- although it seems that Japanese people get approved more quickly than do Chinese people.

 

[fleo]

Unfortunately I do not have any strings to Canada at the moment. Therefore, I am not able to provide any sort of proof that once the PR is granted, we would go and live in Canada.

Try thinking a bit broader than that: do you intend to go live in Canada? If so, you must have already looked into some options - at least in terms of which city will you choose, what are your employment prospects (doesn't have to be anything firm, just show that you are both looking into options and there's room in the job market for your set of qualifications), are there friends or family members who would be willing to help you the first little while (and testify to that), does your wife speak English (or is she working on it), do you have any savings that would help you make the transition easier, etc.

It would be unreasonable to expect you to be fully prepared to move at the very beginning of your application process, and I don't think CIC does. Just show you are taking the whole re-establishing thing seriously and thinking about all the different aspects of it, and if on top of that you can find someone to "back you up" from Canada you'll be fine

 

[schreck]

Thank you all for your feedback and information.

Because my family has relocated to Europe some years ago I can not get them to provide me with a place for the first little while. In regards to the location, we are planning on moving to the greater Vancouver area. I have been looking for jobs online just to see how the market is and (at least to me) there seem to be a fair amount of jobs in my area (marketing) around.

Speaking about the location. I have a friend in Toronto, could I use him as 'the person who will help me out' for the first little while? I mean even if we are not planning on moving to Toronto.

My wife speaks English very well and financially we are stable (not rich but we have some savings ;D).

Thanks...

 

[waitingintz]

Hi Schreck

I think even just explaining why you want to relocate might be enough. My partner and I each wrote a statement that we included in the application and I spoke about a lack of job stability in our current location etc... You must have reasons for moving... that would be a good start for demonstrating your intentions.

Also, your family might not be able to offer you a place to stay but maybe they are happy about your decision? My parents wrote a statement in which they said how happy they were that we decided to move to Canada and that they feel we will have so many more opportunities there, etc, etc. Think of it as a list item you need to tick off... offer them any thing as long as you submit something.

Then, if they request more evidence you might actually have to fly over, open a bank account, apply for a credit card, etc.

 

[fleo]

Schreck, I'm not an expert but all that sounds perfectly decent Include a letter from your Toronto friend, explain (and prove ) that you have an amount of savings that would allow you to support yourselves in Canada for an X period of time, during which you believe you will easily find a job (feel free to back this up by showing a number of job offers in your area of expertise; you could just printscreen it from whatever site you're searching on), and so could your wife, and you are both pretty much ready to start moving as soon as PR is approved.

Good luck!

 

[schreck]

Fleo and all others,

Thank you for the useful information!

After reading all this it does not appear all that bad!

Just wondering, would you recommend getting an immigration lawyer or is it a waste of money?

Thanks.

 

[fleo]

That depends, mostly on how complicated is your case and how comfortable you are with presenting it. Here's what rjessome said on a similar topic:

The answer to your question depends on you and how comfortable you are with your ability to prepare a convincing application. I would also judge it by the embassy you are using. As everyone on this board knows, some are much more difficult than others. And as another poster pointed out, are there any complications to your case that you know about at the outset and are having difficulty explaining. If it's straightforward and you have lots of convincing evidence of genuineness AND you trust your abilities to describe it in a convincing fashion, then I would say NO, you can do it yourself.

If there are no red flags in your case and you think the application looks solid, then you probably don't need a lawyer - but if your wife is 40 years older than you, this is her third marriage, she doesn't speak English and your Japanese is questionable, you two met through marryandemigrate.jp and she's dumping inordinate amounts of cash into your bank account every Monday, you may want to consider hiring one.

 

[schreck]

thanks...well our case it not quite as complicated as this one. I'll read a bit more into it. I am just a bit worried because we went through a similar situation once before, when we applied for a visa in Australia. At that time we hired a lawyer as we were not married yet. I think that makes things much harder...

 

[fleo]

Well, the case described above was more of an illustration than a real example Point being, if there are some aspects of your relationship that could rouse the VO's suspicions and you're not entirely comfortable addressing them on your own, then yes, experienced lawyer who knows what visa offices want to see might be a good option for you.

Here's a topic that might give you a better idea:

http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/to-hire-an-immigration-lawyer-is-it-worth-it-t46417.0.html