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Akbar2021

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Aug 13, 2021
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I'm a Canadian citizen living outside Canada and presently married since August 2014. We have 6 years old son and he is also a Canadian citizen. I was separated from my previous spouse since January 1, 2014 and got divorce with her on 2018. I have been applied to sponsor my present wife last year and went through all the process. She completed her medical exam on June 2021. However, recently she got a Refusal letter from Singapore Visa office due to the following reason:

"Subsection R117(9) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations states that a foreign national shall not be considered a member of the family class by virtue of their relationship to a sponsor if (c) the foreign national is the sponsor's spouse and (i) the sponsor or the foreign national was, at the time of their marriage, the spouse of another person, At the time of your marriage, your sponsor was married to someone else. You are therefore not a member of the family class. "
She got 60 days to satisfy the visa officer.
What we can do and how much possibility that she can satisfy visa officer to get access in Canada along with us?
Thanking you
 
If you married your current wife before divorcing your previous wife, your current marriage is considered invalid under Canadian law (was a polygamous marriage at the time you entered into it).

You should consult a lawyer. You may have to divorce and remarry. Or it may be possible for you to qualify as common law (do not know).

But if the facts as you put it above are such, the response from IRCc seems correct on the face of it.

It's quite possible that it will not be possible to 'fix' the problem with this application and that it would be pointless to appeal it (better to re-apply after fixing the underlying issue.
 
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I'm a Canadian citizen living outside Canada and presently married since August 2014. We have 6 years old son and he is also a Canadian citizen. I was separated from my previous spouse since January 1, 2014 and got divorce with her on 2018. I have been applied to sponsor my present wife last year and went through all the process. She completed her medical exam on June 2021. However, recently she got a Refusal letter from Singapore Visa office due to the following reason:

"Subsection R117(9) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations states that a foreign national shall not be considered a member of the family class by virtue of their relationship to a sponsor if (c) the foreign national is the sponsor's spouse and (i) the sponsor or the foreign national was, at the time of their marriage, the spouse of another person, At the time of your marriage, your sponsor was married to someone else. You are therefore not a member of the family class. "
She got 60 days to satisfy the visa officer.
What we can do and how much possibility that she can satisfy visa officer to get access in Canada along with us?
Thanking you

Your marriage is not recognized by Canadian laws since you got married to your second wife before finalizing your divorce to your first wife. Most likely your application is going to be refused.

Assuming you and your wife have been living together continuously, I would respond to the letter and ask that IRCC consider processing your application under common law class instead and then provide evidence that you have been living together continuously for at least one year. It's worthy trying this. IRCC will probably not consider it but still worth trying.

Assuming the application is in fact refused, I would then recommend reapplying through the common law route. This will probably be less complicated then submitting a new application through spousal sponsorship since you would need to get married again to make your marriage valid per Canadian law.
 
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