Does my Chinese wife really need lots of money in her chinese acccount to get it

[mdan1984]

Hi guys

My wife is Chinese and I am Canadian. We got married here in China. I had my father write her an invitation letter to Canada. MY wife told me that we need to have a minimum of about 15000 Canadian dollars in her bank account here in China for the Embassy to look at. It is a visitor visa so that she can visit some of my relatives. There are parts of my family that still have not seen the new addition to our family. So i want to take her to Canada to visit them. But she said that she needs to show the embassy a property that she owns here (got that) and she needs to leave behind the equivalent of atleast 15000 Canadian back in her account here in Beijing. That much? really???? really???

Thanks

Mike

 

[mdan1984]

over 10 people have read this. Does no one know? never heard of this?

 

[job_seeker]

over 10 people have read this. Does no one know? never heard of this?

This is the first time I have read about this. It is not so much about how much money she has in the bank, but "ties", like a job or a business and fixed assets, not so much about liquid assets such as money. Anyway, bank certificates serves to prove that the applicant is in a capacity to do the travel and will not be tempted to work while in Canada.

Another forum member, Toby, may be in a position to give you more details as he is sponsoring his wife, also from China. You can try sending him a personal message by searching for and clicking on his name.

 

[shakira2009]

The 15000 dollar figure might be just a rumor or some kind of "estimate" based on what other applicants who got their visas declared. I'm Mexican and live in Japan with my Canadian husband. One time I had to apply for TRV and when I was searching for information, an applicant from another Latin American country told me that I needed to show at least 5000 CAD in my bank statements in order to get approved. However I found no evidence that this was true.

As far as I know, there's nothing written on the CIC or local consulate websites about an exact figure. My only advice would be to always refer to the official websites & guidelines, and make sure you have everything they list as required documents. If you have questions, you could also contact the consulate as a Canadian citizen -I'm sure there's a separate service for citizens, ie. exclusive email address or fax # you can send inquiries to.

By the way, I got my TRV with less than 5000 CAD in my accounts. But I did show that I had a job as a permanent employee (Certificate of Employment and Certificate of Leave), plus my husband wrote a letter to the visa officer saying he would be traveling with me all the time.

Also please take these comments as reference. There's nothing that guarantees your wife will get the visa because it is examined on a case-by-case basis, and some visa officers may be more flexible than others.

 

[Suin]

I totally agree with shakira2009. my personal experience shows that even having 50 000 CAD on account doesn't guarantee visa issuance.

 

[toby]

Mike:
I have not heard of any minimum bank balance to qualify for a TRV. I do know that my wife receives lots of advice from friends here in China about how to qualify for a visa (TRV or PR), and most of it is wrong.

I have not tried for a TRV for my Chinese wife. We did try (unsuccessfully) for a student visa allowing her to perfect her Chinese. It was refused for lack of sufficient proof she would return to China.

My wife had a decent bank balance, some stock investments, an offer of a job when she returned to China, all expenses in Canada pre-paid, and family in China. No deal. About the only thing she didn't have was a home in China.

This seems to be the main criterion for awarding/denying any type of temporary visa: will the applicant return to the home country before the visa expires? Your wife owns a house, I think you said, so this will be helpful. My wife did not have a house at the time.

Later, I asked on this forum whether her owning a house would have helped the application for a student TRV. One of the resident experts here said yes, the other said not necessarily. Maybe the best strategy is to keep applying until you get a sensible, flexible Visa Officer who will say yes to the Visa.

The other criterion seems to be "can the applicant support herself or himself while in Canada"? Depending on the length of stay, I'd guess that a credit card with a decent maximum amount would suffice, plus your assurance that you will support her while in Canada. Or a joint account with some money in it might satisfy the Visa officer that your wife could support herself .

Good luck.

The additional fly in the ointment is that if you have applied for Permanent Residency, that shows an intent to reside in Canada. This in turn might raise concerns that -- if the PR were denied while your wife is holidaying in Canada -- she might then stay illegally.

Please let us know how you fare, so we can be guided by your experience.