Conjugal Partner Application Filed In Singapore

[JRS]

My spouse is living in Laos and I am from Canada. We have just submitted a permanent resident visa application with the help of a lawyer from here in Canada. The first part of our application is processed in Ontario and will determine my sponsorship, the second part will be sent to Singapore to determine if he will be granted a PR visa. Our lawyer is very good, and she has said she thinks we have a very well put together application. I noticed on the Imm Canada website they list approx 2 months for my review, and up to 31 months for my spouses review. Does anyone have any experience on timelines within these places? Or any advice for us? Thanks for any help and suggestions. JRS.

 

[tink23]

What were your grounds for filing as conjugal, rather than as married or common law?

 

[JRS]

I work/live in Canada and my spouse lives in Laos. I visit 3-4 times a year but must return each time for work. We applied for a visitor visa but were denied due to his lack of full time employment, property, and other things that would provide the Canadian government a reason that he would return to his country at the end of his visit. Which we believe is understandable. That was almost 2 yrs ago, so now we have decided to apply for a PR visa instead.

 

[tink23]

Was there a reason you couldn't get married when you were visiting??

The reason I ask is conjugal is a class of relationship that is reserved for only those who are unable to marry and meet common law status. If you don't have a reason you couldn't get married, then being approved as conjugal will be highly difficult and possibly unlikely.

 

[JRS]

Our lawyer reviewed all our documents and suggested that we apply as conjugal as it was the best possibility due to circumstances in his country.

 

[Rob_TO]

You don't face any legal barriers to getting married. And you don't face any immigration barriers to living with your spouse for 12 months (returning for work is NOT a barrier to CIC). So you may find your application will be rejected by CIC, Your lawyer doesn't seem to have a good understanding of what the conjugal class if meant to be used for.

Of course the final decision is up to the visa officer reviewing your file, so hopefully they are sympathetic to your situation. But to be certain, you really should have gotten married first. If you get married now, it may help your application to be approved.

 

[tink23]

Our lawyer reviewed all our documents and suggested that we apply as conjugal as it was the best possibility due to circumstances in his country.

Well, good luck with that. Hopefully everything goes smoothly for you despite applying conjugal. That's not really how it works, unless there is no legal way for you to make common law or get married.

As for timeline in Singapore, try posting in the Singapore thread for a more accurate timeline, as, like you said, the posting for the visa offices specifies almost 2 years. Now, since you applied conjugal, I would assume that your application will go under more scrutiny since this is a very difficult class to be under and they will want to assess that you had absolutely no way to meet common law or get married, which doesn't sound like was your case necessarily. Some lawyers really don't understand the restrictions of the cases they are navigating for immigration.

 

[canadianwoman]

Not wanting to live with him because of work is not an immigration barrier according to CIC. He cannot get a visa to come here, so that is half. You would have to show you could not get a visa to Laos to stay one year as well. Then you would have a case for conjugal if you could also not get married.
If you are a same-sex couple, then attitudes in Laos and the inability to marry there might indeed make a conjugal application successful.

 

[darrenfrances]

Out of interest, how did this application go? How long did it take to get a response from the office in Singapore? Was it successful or not?