Don't know which class to apply in

[jomonbkk]

We are a little confused and thought we should post here before going to a lawyer.

I am 28, Canadian, currently in Toronto since Sept 2017. (2 months)
She is 24, Palestinian (Egyptian Travel Document for Palestinian Refugees); currently in Abu Dhabi

We went to medical school together in Dubai and did post grad there and lived together full-time for the past 2 years.

She is very western/secular like myself and went to a Canadian International School in Abu Dhabi her whole life and speaks English natively so we found each other very compatible.

Living together is illegal in the UAE for unmarried couples. But most western expats do it. She used to live at my place.

We obviously have loads of photos from the last 2 years (we also travelled to Thailand together Jan 2017 and stayed at my father's vacation house there) We also have our degrees and post grad certificates showing we studied and trained in the same place.

We have friends who visited us at our place and can write and notarize letters detailing the same. (some of whom are Canadians that live in Canada)

We do NOT have other documentation of cohabitation because again it is illegal to live together in the UAE. we don't even have letters to our address because there is no home address postal system in the UAE we would receive letters through our Univeristy PO BOX.

I'm getting a life insurance policy from my company that obviously will name her as the beneficiary.

We cannot get married in the UAE; she is muslim (legally, if she leaves islam there is capital punishment), I am NOT a muslim.

Even if I convert to Islam her father will not sign a letter saying she is free to marry me (a requirement under islamic law) because I am not Arab and of course they want her to marry an Arab.

We tried to get married in Thailand but neither the Egyptian embassy nor the Palestinian one would give her an affidavit allowing her to get married because neither of those countries consider her to be their citizen.

She and her family are all special permanent residents of the UAE because of their passport situation, ever since they left Palestine 70 years ago or so and moved to the UAE in the 1970s via Egypt. So they can't ever be deported or removed from the country, but will also never be given full citizenship in the UAE. Her travel document acts as her passport. She has travelled to Palestine, Egypt, Jordan and Thailand in her life.

My mum lives in Canada and my dad lives in Thailand. They are aware and supportive of our relationship. As is my adult sister. She has spent a lot of time with my parents when they would come to visit and we have photos showing the same.

Her parents are vehemently against our relationship. Her adult sister is aware of our relationship and is supportive.

Her best friend from medical school lives in Hamilton, Ontario and is Canadian.

I am in Toronto and am working full time as a PA (physicians assistant) while I apply for residency so I make a good living right now.

My parents want us to get married here if she can come but how do I get her here? Do I apply as common law, conjugal? It's hard for her to travel for us to get married in a western country that doesn't ask for affidavits.

Not to mention I want to get married with all my friends and family, they all know about her. How can we afford to fly everyone to a different country?

Even if we somehow got married in a different country she would have to go back to the UAE while we apply for her sponsorship. Our main fear is that her parents will get her married off to someone which is a real possibility and they are talking about it daily and asking her to meet suitors etc.

What in the world do we do?

 

[JulianaAndrew]

Hi there. Your situation is honestly quite complicated. First of all, can your girlfriend get a tourist/visitor visa to go to Canada?
If she can get a visa to go to Canada, you could marry her there, and then apply for a spousal sponsorship from inside Canada so she doesn't have to go back to her home country and can stay there throughout the whole process.

 

[jomonbkk]

Hi there. Your situation is honestly quite complicated. First of all, can your girlfriend get a tourist/visitor visa to go to Canada?
If she can get a visa to go to Canada, you could marry her there, and then apply for a spousal sponsorship from inside Canada so she doesn't have to go back to her home country and can stay there throughout the whole process.

Hi! of course I suppose it's possible for her to get a tourist visa, I just don't know if I'm wasting my time as they will probably reject it since I am her boyfriend so they will assume she's going to stay here. She's currently applying for her medical licensing exam in the UAE while working for her Dad's company in Administration.

Also her passport blatantly says refugee on it even though she is a permanent resident in the UAE so this would probably hinder it further. Not to mention how much money is she going to have to have in her account? My salary here is pretty good but her salary in the UAE is minimal about 2000 cad per month as she lives at home and is just out from her post-grad and she has only been in this job since oct. 2, 2017. So she hasnt even had time to get a good bank balance going.

Her best friend from medical school is Canadian and lives in Hamilton but is also applying for specialization at the moment so doesn't have a good bank balance right now either as she's working paycheque to paychque and covering her own expenses.

So I'm the only one with a good job and salary but I doubt they will accept an invitation letter from me.

 

[Jaywill]

If i were in your shoes id be 100% consulting a lawyer

 

[jomonbkk]

If i were in your shoes id be 100% consulting a lawyer

Already scheduled the appointment, just curious as to how bad it really was, wanted to hear it from the visa/immigration community.

 

[canuck_in_uk]

We are a little confused and thought we should post here before going to a lawyer.

I am 28, Canadian, currently in Toronto since Sept 2017. (2 months)
She is 24, Palestinian (Egyptian Travel Document for Palestinian Refugees); currently in Abu Dhabi

We went to medical school together in Dubai and did post grad there and lived together full-time for the past 2 years.

She is very western/secular like myself and went to a Canadian International School in Abu Dhabi her whole life and speaks English natively so we found each other very compatible.

Living together is illegal in the UAE for unmarried couples. But most western expats do it. She used to live at my place.

We obviously have loads of photos from the last 2 years (we also travelled to Thailand together Jan 2017 and stayed at my father's vacation house there) We also have our degrees and post grad certificates showing we studied and trained in the same place.

We have friends who visited us at our place and can write and notarize letters detailing the same. (some of whom are Canadians that live in Canada)

We do NOT have other documentation of cohabitation because again it is illegal to live together in the UAE. we don't even have letters to our address because there is no home address postal system in the UAE we would receive letters through our Univeristy PO BOX.

I'm getting a life insurance policy from my company that obviously will name her as the beneficiary.

We cannot get married in the UAE; she is muslim (legally, if she leaves islam there is capital punishment), I am NOT a muslim.

Even if I convert to Islam her father will not sign a letter saying she is free to marry me (a requirement under islamic law) because I am not Arab and of course they want her to marry an Arab.

We tried to get married in Thailand but neither the Egyptian embassy nor the Palestinian one would give her an affidavit allowing her to get married because neither of those countries consider her to be their citizen.

She and her family are all special permanent residents of the UAE because of their passport situation, ever since they left Palestine 70 years ago or so and moved to the UAE in the 1970s via Egypt. So they can't ever be deported or removed from the country, but will also never be given full citizenship in the UAE. Her travel document acts as her passport. She has travelled to Palestine, Egypt, Jordan and Thailand in her life.

My mum lives in Canada and my dad lives in Thailand. They are aware and supportive of our relationship. As is my adult sister. She has spent a lot of time with my parents when they would come to visit and we have photos showing the same.

Her parents are vehemently against our relationship. Her adult sister is aware of our relationship and is supportive.

Her best friend from medical school lives in Hamilton, Ontario and is Canadian.

I am in Toronto and am working full time as a PA (physicians assistant) while I apply for residency so I make a good living right now.

My parents want us to get married here if she can come but how do I get her here? Do I apply as common law, conjugal? It's hard for her to travel for us to get married in a western country that doesn't ask for affidavits.

Not to mention I want to get married with all my friends and family, they all know about her. How can we afford to fly everyone to a different country?

Even if we somehow got married in a different country she would have to go back to the UAE while we apply for her sponsorship. Our main fear is that her parents will get her married off to someone which is a real possibility and they are talking about it daily and asking her to meet suitors etc.

What in the world do we do?

You are common-law. Yes, you are in a unique situation because of the country where you cohabited but IRCC generally understands that the laws and cultures of other countries are different. Get the notarized letters from friends, family, neighbors, basically anyone that knew you were cohabiting. Get as much relationship proofs as you can (pics, Facebook statuses, gifts to each other, relationships between the respective families etc.). Collect proofs showing you were in the same countries at the same times and all of the proofs regarding the attempts to get married, the laws preventing it in Dubai, the laws against cohabiting etc. With all of that and a very thorough letter of explanation, I think you would have a good chance.

While she can apply, there is little chance that she will be approved for a TRV; she is technically a refugee, has weak ties to her country of residence and little money. You guys should plan around her not being able to come to Canada until the PR app is approved.

 

[Rob_TO]

I agree with the above. You are legally common-law by living together for 2 years, the only hard part is convincing a visa officer of the cohabitation since you won't have lots of the typical proofs of living together. I would apply as common-law, submit as many proofs as you possibly can, and explain the situation you were facing as a reason you don't have more proofs. Hopefully you get an understanding visa officer.

If the common-law app were to fail, then you would have a good chance of a conjugal application. There are real barriers in place here such as the inability to legally live together or get married in her home country, and her immigration status in her country making getting travel visas elsewhere hard or impossible. With a conjugal app she should at least try for a Canada TRV once, even if it will just be rejected.