Confused on which country to get married

[Frogweb]

Hi,

Thank you to anyone who replies.

Story:
--
I am a Canadian Citizen.
Met a girl in Toronto 2 years ago.
We started dating and planned to get married.
She left Canada to go and work in Australia.
She is now ready to go back to Toronto Canada.

She has to go back to Japan to get her papers ready.
I would like to know which would be faster.

a) She goes back to Canada (she can still come here as a visitor) and we get married in City Hall.
b) I go to Japan to pick her up. Get married there instead.

I'm hearing that it's faster for her to get PR if we get married outside of Canada. Not sure if this is true.
I understand that I have to sponsor her to come to Canada but not sure if we should get married here or in Japan.
I'm hoping that regardless of what choice we make, she can stay with me in Canada while the papers are being processed.

If someone can please confirm with me.

Thanks for the help.

Frogweb

 

[dominokitty]

It doesn't matter where you get married, as long as it's legally binding! Get married wherever you like, but plan to have your family members attend if at all possible. They want to know that the marriage is legitimate (not done for immigration reasons) and that your relationship is known to your friends and family.

 

[kks87]

It doesn't matter where you get married, but if you want it to happen sooner rather than later that may affect where you chose to get married. You need to review the requirements for foreigners getting married in the country of your choice. This may involve getting long form Canadian Birth Certificate, notarized declarations of single status, marriage search to prove you are not married here, authentication of all the above, translation, and possibly other documents the country may require. So this would be the longer route, it can take months to get all these documents together if you haven't already started.

On the other hand, from what I remember of my research, foreigners can get married in Canada without having to provide all of the above documents, they just have to swear they are not currently married in order to obtain a marriage licence and show the required identification. If a sworn declaration is all the is necessary - and others can correct me if im wrong, then this would be the quicker route. Here's a link to obtaining a marriage licence in Ontario: http://settlement.org/ontario/daily-life/life-events/marriage/how-do-i-get-a-marriage-licence/

If you want her to live with you in Canada while waiting for the application to be completed you would either have to do the inland app but it can take a lot longer to process, or an outland application if she can obtain sufficient visitor status in the meantime as it is much much quicker.

 

[mcharade]

I would suggest getting married in Canada. If you get married in Japan, you'll need to order a Japanese marriage certificate which will then need to be translated by a professional so that you can use it as your evidence of marriage. Obviously, the Canadian certificate isn't going to need any translation.