couple differnces

[boujasim]

Hello

ive been wondering for a while now,how much does differnces between married couples have an impact on immigration?
like age differnces,religion,cultures and such

in my case me and my spouse are of the same age,infact both of us are born on the same month,she was born and raised in leb,i was born in dubai moved around the gulf for a while and setteld in lebanon and have been living here since 1993,iam muslim and she is christian,my family knows about us and approve the marriage,her family do not know about our marriage but do know we love each other and are together.
we met thru my friend who is an ambassador and my wife used to work at the embassy.

now i want to gather opinions from you guys,you think our relation is suspecious or in any way weird?
iam worried because we really have no fotos only around 10 and 6 of those fotos are with friends of us.

also i want to ask,do you think its a good idea to get a written letter from the ambassador stating that she introduced us,like confirming what i have written on the application?

thx in advance and merry christmas to you all,may God bless you,your families and all your loved ones.

 

[RobsLuv]

The whole "genuine relationship" thing is about proving that the relationship was not entered into simply to facilitate permanent status in Canada for the foreign national. So you need to be able to demonstrate that your relationship has developed "normally". This takes into account things like age, education, religion, etc., because of the fact that "normal" relationships usually follow a pattern in that people tend to be attracted to those with whom they share "commonality". If there is a huge age difference between you, but everything else (culture, education, religion) is consistent, the age difference will not be a huge "red flag" issue. But the more things about you relationship that appear inconsistent, the more they'll suspect that the relationship is about "getting into Canada".

It's your responsibility to provide as much evidence and documentation of your genuine relationship as you can find. If a letter from the ambassador might help, include it. But it will not "weigh in" as being more valuable as any other piece of evidence, and that alone will not erase doubts if you've provided nothing else to demonstrate a genuine, continuing partnership that's about more than immigrating to Canada.

 

[boujasim]

thx robs.

i have another question, i really havent sent alot of "evidence" i only sent around 6 photos,wu recipts and some other things like letters and poems she wrote me and a print out of a website she made for me.

now i was wondering,since i barely sent any documents,is it possible for IO to simply refuse my application for not sending alot of evidence or will he\she send me a letter requesting additional evidence?

 

[boujasim]

true, for example iam sunni-muslim, my mother is shi'ite,my aunt(from my dads side) is christian,we all go to the same schools,uni,cafes and political wise,we have two coalitons,both combine:marounits(christians),sunni's,shi'ites and druz.

i dont know why iam freaking out but its just that i read on a diff forum about a guy who has a huge problem because he and his wife come from diff religions,diff education levels,diff countries and he is 6 years older than his wife, i really just want this whole thing to end,i want to know will they let me join my wife in canada or not? if not she must leave canada and we go live in caracas-venezuela. we got married and the very next day she left to canada to sponsor me so we can begin our lives...

its all too confusing to us i hope this ends soon.

 

[chocolover]

Sorry for the stupid question, but I can't tell: which one of you two is doing the sponsorsing?? Is your wife sponsoring you or are you sponsoring her to come to Canada? IN any case, I don't think they will outright reject your applicaiton but in the presence of little documention, it seems the case get's dragged out. Start taking more pictures of the two of you, keep letters card etc. If you can open joint accounts. In my case, I had little of that too, but we had an interview and in the interview we had questions where we both answered them easily. As someone else here has said what is important is that you can show the the relationship is genuine no matter what the differences between you and your spouse. if you can show the genuineness through photos, letters etc, then great (we had little of that) but if you don't have that then be prepared to have to prove it in an interview situation.
Good luck.

 

[TinaP]

Hi Boujasim,
If you can prove that your relationship is genuine, then it shouldn't be much of problem. As chocolover is saying, start gathering the evidences. As you said, your wife left for Canada on just next day after your marriage. In the forms (if you have seen those), they ask for the honeymoon pictures too, if any. They also ask for period of living together.
Well, now as she has left for Canada, you can't take pictures together, but e-mails, phone-bills can help you. There were differences in age, education etc in my case too, but we had provided all evidences like hundreds of pictures, e-mails, 1000$ worth phone-bills, bank-accounts together etc. There are many froud cases happen just for the PR status, and hence CIC has become very much suspicious about geniune cases. So, it's your responsibility to prove them that your relationship is geniune and continuing and not only to get admission in Canada.
Best Luck

 

[boujasim]

thx you all.
i just recived the papers where my wife assigned me as her beneficery, you think this is important? like would it add some important value to prove our relation?

 

[MARLENA]

Definitely it will help you if you added her as beneficiary and also you can add her on your home bills as well.

 

[mingus]

Hi Boujasim,
the 1st thing listed on my husband's rejection letter was the fact that we are different. Different religion (Muslim/Christian), different backgrounds/culture,different level of education ( I have degree from university, he is a trades person). Personally I think they give this reason to almost everyone they reject since I have seen many,many people say that they had this as one of their reasons for rejection.

I also think that this reason is a pile of horse cxxp! I know many people who are Canadian and marry and have exactly the same differences. Canada is a very big country and believe me there are major culture differences between people who are from the east coast and those from Central Canada or Western Canada.

The religion thing also bothers me, I feel like saying - you know that Christians and Muslims can get along, we all don't want to kill each other LOL. Gee there was a time (not that many years ago,less than 100 in Canada) that Christians were killing each other because they believed different things.

Sorry for the rant... I just think that this is a catch all that CIC uses.

 

[boujasim]

hey mingus, this is an old thread(dec 2008)

anyways, the only difference between me and my wife is our religion, but it is normsl in my family both my brother and sis married froma diff religion, my aunts are married to christian men, my mum and dad are from different islamic sect(belive me christian muslim is easier than sunni and shia'a)

both of us are of the same age,infact both of us are born on the same year and month.

but u know i think it also depends on the society, lebanon is an open minded society, so things like culture differences and religions are not really a problem,while in jordan its totally different where they are very conservative, for example in jordan if a guy wears baggy pants with his boxer showing the police will arrest him,coz there is a law that phorbids this while in lebanon you can walk naked and no one would care

 

[Lia]

I hope this is not an issue for the officer viewing our case... My husband is muslim, I am jewish, and we have a 15 years age difference.

 

[boujasim]

haha!!
its totaly fine, but i think it would be a problem if ur israeli, coz no one in the muslim world would accept this, if ur a canadian jew or european jew its perfectly fine, the problem is with israel not jews.

 

[Lia]

No, I am not israeli. I am brazilian - and proud of it.

I don't think it will be a problem at all. We are in a genuine and continuing relationship and totally have how to prove it - I guess that the tons of e-mail, mail, and MSN chats, plus nearly 400 pictures will be enough for them, but if it is not, we can send more, all we sent was a small sampling of our relationship. He visited me many times during the time of our relationship, I visited him also (and currently am in Canada, living with him), he knows my family - and they simply love my husband -, I know his family - and they treat me like I were their daughter/sister...

 

[Rasha]

Lia,

Keep in mind, anyone's comments here are based on their own point of view and perceptions. In reality, people are individuals and from all walks of life..I cringe when I hear ppl make blanket statements [based on their mentality, experience etc..] when in reality no one knows what an I/O will think and consider. Yes there are blanket ideals some would have you believe but how firmly planted are those, to begin with?

More importantly with respect to Arabic relations...the simple fact that an Arab is married to someone not of his/her citizenship [quite probably] sets them apart from the 'arab mentality' to begin with..so the cultural norms that would generally be expected and I dare say followed, are really out the window in the first place ...

Tell your story, let it shine, be honest, and you will be fine [and I am not trying to rhyme here lol].

 

[Lia]

Hi Rasha!

I know that, thank you. We are all just exchanging experiences, although none of us here are immigration lawyers. In fact, this forum helped me a lot when the Visa Office or CIC would not give me the proper answers about things I needed. CIC even gave us (my husband and I) informations that were absolutely wrong. haha

By the way, I liked your sentence: "Tell your story, let it shine, be honest, and you will be fine". We explained our story, how a persian man and a latin american woman met, fell in love and got married after dating for a while (over a year), with so many details and in so many additional pages (since there was no enough space in the form) that I think they must be sick of us by now.