Court Marriage seen as red flag?

[sunnamont]

Hi everyone!
I have some questions regarding marriage and language

1 - I saw @canuck_in_uk 's reply at this thread from 2015 saying:

"A court marriage will be a big red flag. You will need STRONG relationship proofs to overcome the lack of a traditional wedding. If all you have is a few pictures from the past year, it will be an uphill battle."

But I would like to know if it is still true, even with family photos, plane tickets, family/friends statements and documents proving genuine relationship?
also would they consider the current pandemic of Coronavirus, if a couple were to marry in court and have no wedding party or honeymoon? what about financial motives? (cant do the party if there's not enough money)
Wouldn't it raise questions if a marriage date is too close from the date the application is sent?

2 - I also have a question about the process language, does it have to be ENTIRELY in french? (application for Quebec)
I know that the Forms for Quebec need to be in French and filled in french, but would it be a problem if my proof of long distance relationship or anything attached is in ENGLISH?(some screenshots of facebook posts and messages)

3 - I saw that all forms's dates can't be over 90 days before mailing it, but is there anything like that as well for the time I'll get my certified translation of documents?

Thanks

 

[Jets13]

Hi I will attempt to answer question 1.
That would depend on what is normal for a culture. For example in India they have big weddings, a court marriage would just raise suspicions, and you just would have to provide more proof. Whereas in western cultures, a court marriage or a smaller ceremony is ok, as you are also more likely to have other proofs in the western world like cohabitation and long periods of openly dating that is not common in India. Similarly if there was an arranged marriage in India and the couple only met a few days before the wedding that is normal in that culture, but if someone was to do that in Canada that's not as normal.

So all that would depend on what is normal in your culture. Having said that, with coronavirus that is thrown out the window. I know of some people that have cancelled their big lavish weddings and will have to do just a smaller one, they cannot have 600-700 people at the wedding. So my guess is that can be a potential explanation that to me seems reasonable.

 

[canuck78]

It makes a big difference whether you have a long dating history with lots of time spent together versus something like an arranged marriage.

 

[sunnamont]

Hi I will attempt to answer question 1.
That would depend on what is normal for a culture. For example in India they have big weddings, a court marriage would just raise suspicions, and you just would have to provide more proof. Whereas in western cultures, a court marriage or a smaller ceremony is ok, as you are also more likely to have other proofs in the western world like cohabitation and long periods of openly dating that is not common in India. Similarly if there was an arranged marriage in India and the couple only met a few days before the wedding that is normal in that culture, but if someone was to do that in Canada that's not as normal.

So all that would depend on what is normal in your culture. Having said that, with coronavirus that is thrown out the window. I know of some people that have cancelled their big lavish weddings and will have to do just a smaller one, they cannot have 600-700 people at the wedding. So my guess is that can be a potential explanation that to me seems reasonable.

Thank you for your reply
I am from Brazil and our wedding parties are pretty much like the Christian weddings they usually hold in Canada, but we are not interested in a marriage with religious tradition.
It'd be nice to have a party just for celebration of our relationship, also both me and my partner are very young, we have no money to make a big celebration with all our family/friends.

 

[sunnamont]

I'm in Canada living with my partner, we'll marry so he can sponsor me and we can be together, we already got plans for our future, would that be seen as a Marriage of Convenience, if we lay it out like that for the immigration agent?
However we have no money for a wedding party atm and we'd like to do it in the future, we have strong relationship evidence but our cohabitation evidence is lacking since we are living together for 7 months (3 year relationship)

 

[canuck_in_uk]

Hi everyone!
I have some questions regarding marriage and language

1 - I saw @canuck_in_uk 's reply at this thread from 2015 saying:

"A court marriage will be a big red flag. You will need STRONG relationship proofs to overcome the lack of a traditional wedding. If all you have is a few pictures from the past year, it will be an uphill battle."

But I would like to know if it is still true, even with family photos, plane tickets, family/friends statements and documents proving genuine relationship?
also would they consider the current pandemic of Coronavirus, if a couple were to marry in court and have no wedding party or honeymoon? what about financial motives? (cant do the party if there's not enough money)
Wouldn't it raise questions if a marriage date is too close from the date the application is sent?

2 - I also have a question about the process language, does it have to be ENTIRELY in french? (application for Quebec)
I know that the Forms for Quebec need to be in French and filled in french, but would it be a problem if my proof of long distance relationship or anything attached is in ENGLISH?(some screenshots of facebook posts and messages)

3 - I saw that all forms's dates can't be over 90 days before mailing it, but is there anything like that as well for the time I'll get my certified translation of documents?

Thanks

Did you read the rest of the post (and the rest of the thread) where I clearly explained that it was a cultural issue applicable to those from countries such as India where large traditional weddings are the norm?

 

[zabrodov]

"A court marriage will be a big red flag. You will need STRONG relationship proofs to overcome the lack of a traditional wedding. If all you have is a few pictures from the past year, it will be an uphill battle."

But I would like to know if it is still true, even with family photos, plane tickets, family/friends statements and documents proving genuine relationship?
also would they consider the current pandemic of Coronavirus, if a couple were to marry in court and have no wedding party or honeymoon? what about financial motives? (cant do the party if there's not enough money)
Wouldn't it raise questions if a marriage date is too close from the date the application is sent?

Me and my wife got married very quietly. There was no ceremony, no party, no photos at all. No one was invited although it's very common in our country to arrange a real wedding. Moreover, my wife is older than me, so it's an additional drawback.

In order to prove the authenticity of our relationship, we explained our decision in the LOE, talking about making the day just for two of us and talking about financial reasoning as well.

Since it's kind of a red flag, we decided to emphasize some strong points in our application rather than focus on the weaknesses. We have been married for 3 years before the sponsorship, so we led with that. We also carefully selected our photos that would show our long lasting relationship. We provided some photos of us moving to another country for a couple of years. We provided photos of us with our child. It might seem that having a child together just compensates for every weakness, but we still wanted to show more, especially in terms of history. Not just some good looking photos or vanilla texts but the photos and texts from various time periods, showing the continuous intimate communication that has been lasting for years.

If you have your wedding as a red flag, just be more careful and selective of other proof.

 

[sunnamont]

Me and my wife got married very quietly. There was no ceremony, no party, no photos at all. No one was invited although it's very common in our country to arrange a real wedding. Moreover, my wife is older than me, so it's an additional drawback.

In order to prove the authenticity of our relationship, we explained our decision in the LOE, talking about making the day just for two of us and talking about financial reasoning as well.

Since it's kind of a red flag, we decided to emphasize some strong points in our application rather than focus on the weaknesses. We have been married for 3 years before the sponsorship, so we led with that. We also carefully selected our photos that would show our long lasting relationship. We provided some photos of us moving to another country for a couple of years. We provided photos of us with our child. It might seem that having a child together just compensates for every weakness, but we still wanted to show more, especially in terms of history. Not just some good looking photos or vanilla texts but the photos and texts from various time periods, showing the continuous intimate communication that has been lasting for years.

If you have your wedding as a red flag, just be more careful and selective of other proof.

Thank you for sharing your story It makes me think that we explain it nicely, we won't have any problem

 

[Vendi]

I'm in Canada living with my partner, we'll marry so he can sponsor me and we can be together, we already got plans for our future, would that be seen as a Marriage of Convenience, if we lay it out like that for the immigration agent?
However we have no money for a wedding party atm and we'd like to do it in the future, we have strong relationship evidence but our cohabitation evidence is lacking since we are living together for 7 months (3 year relationship)

I think that's okey I came to canada last year September and we are getting married next month we shall not have party because of this corona but think we good to go