Does CIC look down on less "traditional" marriages?

[AllisonChains08]

The reason I ask is because my sister just got married in September and it was amazing what a royal pain all of the preparation and whatnot is that goes into it. It was very hard on my family both physically and financially to pull her wedding off. If my fiancee and I do end up getting married even within a year of that, I was thinking of us both just flying out to Vegas and doing the elopement sort of thing. We could spend our honeymoon there as well, neither of us have ever been. The only thing that makes me hesitant about this is it's not really "normal". Would it be harder to prove that a marriage like this was genuine? I certainly don't want any problems in that area so I was just curious. I don't want any flags to be raised because our marriage wasn't in a church with me wearing a big 50 lbs. dress and him in a suit. Thanks!

 

[arewethereyet]

When my wife and I got married we focused more on what type of marrage we wanted and I must admit did not give a lot of thought to what CIC might think. I suppose we figured that because it was organised the way we wanted it would appear genuine and not like we were trying to satisfy any external influence be it officials, family or peers.

We organised the weeding at my wife's Church (Unitarian) in Canada. Used the function room within the confines of the Church building, got a local restaurant/catering company to come in and do the food, and kept the invites down to just immediate family and a few friends. The main thing was we wanted a very intimate wedding where everybody would be together on a long table at the wedding lunch. The minister was very helpful and we designed our own 'humanist' style wedding only having to leave in the official bits. We had a bit of music playing at key parts; start, signing the register, and end. And got relations to take loads of photos. Unfortunately a lot of my guests could not make it in the end as they had to come from the UK, but my parents offered to organise a UK based function recently so anyone who could not make it to Canada came to that one (although that was done after our application was sent off).

For the wedding in Canada, I think we paid about $700 for the catering for 20 people (Starters, Thanksgiving style meal, mini-cake stylee deserts), $250 for the minister/church, the cake we had done a Sobeys so probably about $20, the flowers were kept pretty simple and we laid out and packed up all the tables etc. I think the honeymoon stay in a hotel and the subsiquent 5 days holiday cottage was more expensive.

I felt more relaxed at my own wedding than when I was best man at my brothers. Probably because we were totally in control of everything, and it turned out exactly how we wanted and everybody said they had a fantastic time.

Hope this helps

 

[Leon]

It totally depends on the IO but for some, eloping may make it look like you got married for PR. You could also arrange a small wedding and invite only the closest family members. There's no law that says you have to invite 200 people and wear a 50 lbs. dress.

 

[maua]

Is there anywhere in the marriage license/certificate that says, "elopement" or "traditional church wedding"? I truly doubt it. I chose to do the church ceremony. My sister chose to use a Justice of the Peace who came to her venue and did her wedding. My friend is more private and went to the court house and had the Justice of the Peace to perform her wedding there. All our wedding Marriage licenses/certificates are identical and neither one if us is more 'wed' than the other. Does the Immigration Officer ask to see the wedding album too? How would the immigration officer even know you eloped? Does everyone who gets married in Vegas get more closely scrutinized because they may have eloped? What about those who chose to do a destination wedding in Vegas?
Like someone said, you don't have to go through the 'royal pain' Go to the courthouse, get married and have a small reception for your close family and friends. Or have a backyard ceremony and invite a wedding officiant to perform your wedding. By the time I was done planning mine, I wished I had done what my sister did and invited 10 people. Good luck either way.

 

[toby]

I am only guessing here, because I've not spoken to any CIC offiers about how they look at different types of wedding. But look at the CIC questions related to the wedding. They seem to be interested in whether friends and family knew about the wedding, was there a ceremony to celebrate the engagement -- i.e. were there lots of witnesses or was it a furtive affair possibly designed just to get a visa later?

A traditinal wedding with reception certainly provides for lots of witnesses. So, if you're planning a smaller ceremony, just make sure you take lots of photos, and drag along a few friends if you can to make sure the ceremony seem legit.

 

[Leon]

You have to send proof of your relationship to prove that your marriage is real and not for PR. Most people send pictures of their wedding as well. There is a message on this board somewhere from somebody who was called for an interview about their wedding and the IO found it very hard to accept that they did not have a traditional wedding. Eloping may not be a problem at all for some IO's while others will question why you would not want your family there, even if you may have chosen a small informal wedding.

 

[Eric Parker]

My wife is still a little stressed that there was a question about if we had an "Engagement Party" or not. Both of us didn't even know such events existed, much less actually happened. The fact that we had to 'explain' why we didn't have an 'engagement party' was somewhat annoying to us. We also am a little worried that a lot of her relatives came to our wedding as opposed to a very small contingent of my relatives - mostly because the wedding was in Canada and most of my relatives can't travel from the US because it costs too much for a passport, plus some of them are very unemployed and that going to a wedding (as opposed to looking for employment) was low on their priority list. I hope that a VO is reasonable about this.

"others will question why you would not want your family there, even if you may have chosen a small informal wedding"
..believe me, I invited a whackload of my relatives, and the response from most of them was that my life was not a priority to them, or it was just too expensive to attend, or there was no way to obtain passports. I just hope a VO is not too uptight and anal about this fact.

 

[N27]

Hi,
I dont have a traditional marriage. We husband and I got married at a City Hall in MA, USA . Either my family or my husband's family was in the "wedding". It was just my husband and me. In my application I explained why our family were not present and how In the future we plan to get married in our home country with a traditional wedding etc, etc. Also I did not have an engagement party either. He was living in the USA and I was in Canada. I did not wear a white dress, it was a simple dress. My husband was wearing jeans and a T-shirt.
I only sent a few pictures for the wedding (mmmm 7 picts)
we applied Inland, My husband was approved for PR Oct 7.09 we are waiting for the PR interview

Application received May 6.09, started processing on may 26.09

 

[AllisonChains08]

Well, it's not that I don't want my family there, I just wanted to do something simple that wouldn't cause a lot of work or problems. I guess my best bet would just be to do it where I live then.. but I have one other question regarding that. Would it look bad if only people from my family came, and none from his? I honestly don't think anyone in his family would come all the way from Canada just to see him get married, they aren't a very tight knit family.

 

[rjessome]

I think it depends on "what else" you have with your application as proof. We were questioned heavily about our lack of a traditional wedding. However, we had a lot of other proof to show that compensated. But it was nerve wracking. Good luck.

 

[AllisonChains08]

Well, I'm a little worried about the proof thing. I have a lot of emails that we exchange, but no phone records because we use a voice chat program called Vent instead of the phone. It does not keep any kind of record like Skype does. We also currently have no pictures of ourselves together because the two times we've been together in person I never bothered taking pictures, because we both hate having them taken. I guess the next time we see each other I'll have to do that whether we like it or not.

 

[JamesM]

Well, I'm a little worried about the proof thing. I have a lot of emails that we exchange, but no phone records because we use a voice chat program called Vent instead of the phone. It does not keep any kind of record like Skype does. We also currently have no pictures of ourselves together because the two times we've been together in person I never bothered taking pictures, because we both hate having them taken. I guess the next time we see each other I'll have to do that whether we like it or not.

Heehee, Vent. =)

I think someone mentioned earlier in the year that there is a way to get the records of Vent. I can't find it tho.

When it comes down to it, if your relationship is genuine and you provide all the evidence you can, it wont be an issue.

 

[AllisonChains08]

Yeah they did, sounded really confusing though so I haven't tried yet.

 

[Al.Abed]

Allison,

in my case, i didnt even have a wedding and I didnt have any proof of relationship besides a marriage certificate and 10 pix (same day same outfit) of us together. all we did was go to the court and write up the marriage contract. I wanted to have my real wedding AFTER her paperwork is done

wife got her passport request letter last week and now it says Decision Made online. so as long as there is nothing fishy about your relationship, i dont think they care HOW your wedding was done. just my opinion.

i hope decision made was POSITIVE but they asked for passport so Im guessing so.

 

[mitamata]

Like others said, it depends on the big picture. You would not get refused just because you eloped. But if you eloped, neither of your relatives knew about your marriage, you have no evidence to show you've known each other for a while, then yes, you'd probably get refused. It also depends on where the PR applicant is from. For someone from the US, I don't think it would matter much. If you were from a more religious, traditional country, then you could be given grief if you skipped the traditional wedding. But again, that alone with a good explanation as to why you didn't do it should probably not get you rejected.
Do what's right for you. But if you can, at least have some friends with you for witnesses. Plus, you need somebody to take the pictures. It might not be a big ceremony, but a couple of pictures showing you two happy and in love can go a long way .)