Experienced members: Help me get a smooth process

[SquirrelBR]

Dear Friends,

I would like to thank all who come here and dedicate their time to others. This community has been awesome for us.

Here are details of our case:

My wife and I are both Brazilians. (Sao Paulo office approval is +90% with many interviews waived). I'm in Canada right now but I will apply outland. We have been dating since april, 2009. We have several pictures with friends, family, and also during many trips (10+) scaterred around Brazil. We are sending these along with some relevant emails. From june 2009 through oct 2012 we have been boyfriend/girlfriend. She lived with her parents and 4 brothers, and I in my appartment that my father would also sleep 2 days a week. We have never mixed our finances together in this get to know phase.

When she received her visa in november 2011, I was reluctant to come to Canada. I just had found a good job in the finance industry and she would have a hard time doing the equivalences of her Physioterapy diploma here. But it was her dream, so she without consulting me much came here in canada in june 2012. Fearing to lose her I bought a wedding ring while she was in Brazil, but we didn't feel doing any engagement party besides a dinner with us. Her mother never liked me much, because during our relationship I was only studying at the university and I was old (I had a really hard time at the top univ. here, so after staying for 8 years at engineering school with only intern jobs I decided If I would have a diploma I should change to another major and it took another 3 years to complete, the 3 years we dated, and my father supported me so I focused on graduating). I asked for a multiple entry visa just before she came and got it, My visa didn't mention her in the application, because she was not here at the time I asked for it.

The following months after she left were very sad for me. I was in a bad mood, gained 20 pounds in 4 months, etc. So I decided if I didn't go to Canada to marry her, the relationship would follow apart. And so I did, quit my job, sold my car, closed the appatment and arrived at the end of oct-2012. At the airport I had a hard time as I gave them a letter of invitation from her and said I was staying with my friend (her), but I was moved to another line with an women officer that told me she knew she was my fiance, kept telling that there was no job for me here and If we lived togheter etc (which was not true, I wasn't doing anything wrong but who knows what she wrote on my "file") and almost didn't allow me to come here.

I married her here one month later. Our families weren't at the wedding due to the short notice, and her mother not thinking I was the perfect husband for her daughter.

I gathered almost all evidence I could get, we have 100+photos, including recent ones as of february, 2013 ( I think its an overkill but better send them). We have a joint account here canada bank RBC. I have been transfering some funds (3k dollars at a time, 3 times) from my account in Brazil to our account here.

I also had an account opened with her in march/2012 to start saving some money, that didn't work so well but I have some checks with both her names and client since 03/2012 written. I am unsure to use this since this could start the whole (common law) fiasco and it was closed some months after due to the HSBC being crap service.

Here are my concerns:

- the VO questioning why i didn't marry her in Brazil, or worse, excluding me in this common-law-like
- how to approach the questions of the engament and marriage withouth both families (we had marriage at the notary with 15 friends for here and a brunch, followed by a honeymoon on St Saveur just for the weekend). We have some greeting cards.
- due to the fact that her mother doesn't like me still (I wonder if ever), including statements from her side of the family are hard as the woman would never do something to help me stay with her daughter. So I think including statements only of our side of the family would look awkward.
-should i use the check from 2012-03 joint acount in Brazil or just mention our account here at RBC?
-should I say I proposed to her in may-2012?

Please, help me with ideas on how should I approach the marriage questions on the immigration forms that describe our relationship.
I would really like to have an interview waived but I fear not including statements from family will raise concerns.

Once again, thank you all for the support.

 

[Tipha]

I'm trying to help you as far i can, you wrote a very detailed story....first of all in general be honest in your application, explain everything, if there is not enough space on the forms attach extra sheets for that (write the form and question it is refered to on the sheet!). Make sure you leave no open questions or confusion in your story and say as it is/was! For example regarding your marriage include what you just wrote here too, explain also the relationship you have to her mother and why, just everything. You don't have to included letters/statements from your family or friends, but its an advantage if you have some, but not a requirement. Include just all you have, pictures of the wedding, together with family, trips and outings you went on together etc. (don't include too many, just the most important one, 100 would be way too much unless they are really all needed to support your case), you can even print out facebook pages that supports your story (in case you use it, or other social network sites you are on) like status changes to married, comments of friends and family on your relationship etc., flight-tickets of your visits to each other, emails, receipts of gifts you gave to each other, cards and letters you sent each other....just all you have that would help to show your relationship is true, how it developed and supports your story. You can also include the bank statement from opening the account together, if you put each other under your benefits or insurances, include that too.
I wrote also a little timeline of one page about our story and attached it, like stating the important dates with explanations behind it how our relationship developed and what we did on those dates or in that time frame. You can do that but don't have to. Maybe others have more ideas for you in that direction.

Oh and it doesn't matter where you marry, you can marry wherever you want as long you meet the requirements for it in the country/state you marry at, so there should be no problem with why you didn't marry in brazil, it's just a choice you 2 made, but explain why it was with short notice and not a lot of family! That's important. My husband and i had a very very small wedding with just 3 of his family attending, my family couldn't come, we had no time either to plan all and not the money for a big one, we explained it all in the application (and it was fine), also we had no engagement party either or reception, explain it as you did in your post. It could only be an issue for certain nationalities, like for indian weddings for example it's often expected to have a huge one with a lot people attending, so the VO expects that kinda too, or at least explain why it wasn't so! I don't know what is expected regarding weddings for brazilians...
Use the right proposing date for the engagement, say as it was!

Good luck!

 

[SquirrelBR]

I think that some details, such as her mother not liking me, dont't need to be written.

It is difficult to write this answers, as I would like to answer all possible doubts of the VO and yet make it easy on them. I'm pretty sure if we organize, go straight to the point, be complete with documents and not overstate things is the way to do this.. But I need help. My work history is very complicated (theres a question for that) and we didnt have families both in the engagement or in the ceremony.

The form is funny also, there's a question for the first date, and it says about presents as if they were common for first dates . I think it was written with distance relationships in mind....

Still waiting for some ideas...