Failed to notify CIC about getting married before receiving PR

[darshana369]

Hello All,

I received my CPR in march and left to India for getting married in April thinking that I will do my landing on my way back from India. I got married in April . I became PR on may at airport but failed to inform the officer about my marriage.

In this situation am I eligible to apply for my spouse under spouse family visa. Or is there any other way I can apply. :'( :-[

I really appreciate your all your help and advice in advance.
Thank you all

 

[scylla]

Re: Forgot to notify CIC about getting married before receiving PR

You have an extremely serious problem. You can never sponsor your spouse since you failed to declare your marriage before landing. You also committed misrepresentation by landing on a visa issued to a single individual when you were in fact married. This type of misrepresentation can sometimes result in your PR status being revoked by CIC.

You have very few options if you want to live with your spouse:

1) Forget about Canada and return home
2) Have your spouse immigrate independently through one of the economic streams (e.g. Express Entry)
3) Officially give up your current PR status, return home, and apply for PR again from scratch (this time including your spouse)

 

[SamHom]

Re: Forgot to notify CIC about getting married before receiving PR

I feel really bad for all these folks. I can't believe that there is no way around this. Sure, not mentioning a wife if you have one when you first send off the application, that's one thing. Pretty bad. However if something changes just before you get your PR, you get married, or even just become a common law, and you don't tell CIC because you simply didn't think about it, I really don't think it's right for it to fundamentally screw up people's life like this.

 

[zardoz]

Re: Forgot to notify CIC about getting married before receiving PR

I feel really bad for all these folks. I can't believe that there is no way around this. Sure, not mentioning a wife if you have one when you first send off the application, that's one thing. Pretty bad. However if something changes just before you get your PR, you get married, or even just become a common law, and you don't tell CIC because you simply didn't think about it, I really don't think it's right for it to fundamentally screw up people's life like this.

CIC have made it extremely clear that any changes in status must be communicated back to CIC before the applicant becomes a PR. This is to prevent people who would be medically inadmissible to Canada from being able to use the EDE Family Class Sponsorship to bypass the medical inadmissibility.
http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/regulations/sor-2002-227/FullText.html
IRPR 117(9)(d) is there for a reason...

 

[SamHom]

Re: Forgot to notify CIC about getting married before receiving PR

CIC have made it extremely clear that any changes in status must be communicated back to CIC before the applicant becomes a PR. This is to prevent people who would be medically inadmissible to Canada from being able to use the EDE Family Class Sponsorship to bypass the medical inadmissibility.
http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/regulations/sor-2002-227/FullText.html
IRPR 117(9)(d) is there for a reason...

What's a change in status though? It's usually generic and unclear. For example the website doesn't mention that you have to contact CIC if a family member dies, but however most generic emails that they send out (such as DM) does.

 

[Turbo2000]

Re: Forgot to notify CIC about getting married before receiving PR

You are even fortunate u 'forgot' to inform the IO, like you would have been stopped from landing as PR.

Getting married is not something you easily forget after a month.

To sponsor your spouse based on marriage before the date you landed, is putting your PR status in jeopardy.

Hello All,

I received my CPR in march 2015 and left to India for getting married in April thinking that I will do my landing on my way back from India. I got married in April 2015. I became PR on 16 may 2015 at Toronto pearson airport but forgot to inform the officer about my marriage.

In this situation am I eligible to apply for my spouse under spouse family visa. Or is there any other way I can apply. :'( :-[

I really appreciate your all your help and advice in advance.
Thank you all

 

[IrisSphere]

Re: Forgot to notify CIC about getting married before receiving PR

I feel really bad for all these folks. I can't believe that there is no way around this. Sure, not mentioning a wife if you have one when you first send off the application, that's one thing. Pretty bad. However if something changes just before you get your PR, you get married, or even just become a common law, and you don't tell CIC because you simply didn't think about it, I really don't think it's right for it to fundamentally screw up people's life like this.

Not sure about OPs situation, but our PPR letter specifically stated the following questions:

Have you married?

 Have you lived with a common-law partner for at least 12 months?

 Have you separated or divorced?

 Have you given birth or adopted a child?

 Do you intend to get married or divorced prior to becoming a permanent resident?

 Do you intend to give birth or adopt a child prior to becoming a permanent resident?

And if the answer to any of these is yes, they ask that you contact CIC immediately to make adjustments to the visa.

 

[Ponga]

Re: Forgot to notify CIC about getting married before receiving PR

Sounds to me like the OP knew exactly what s/he was doing when s/he landed. S/he didn't want to delay his/her own PR by having to add their spouse to the original PR application.

The only possible solution for the OP is to renounce their PR and find another way to come to Canada again...and include their spouse this time.

 

[immigrationteacher]

Re: Forgot to notify CIC about getting married before receiving PR


I agree that she has committed misrepresentation but her case is not dead yet. Asking her husband to apply independently like in EE also cant solve the fiasco.

When she files for spousal sponsorship CPCM will likely notice the marriage date and landing date and wonder about misrepresentation- resulting in possible Section 44 report of inadmissibility. Remember CIC may (may not must) choose to charge her.


Preparation of report

44. (1) An officer who is of the opinion that a permanent resident or a foreign national who is in Canada is inadmissible may prepare a report setting out the relevant facts, which report shall be transmitted to the Minister.


If she is charged, then the matter after CIC interview will be referred to IRB member where the CIC Counsel will make preliminary arguments about the charge.Her counsel will defend her. Normally the IRB members will ignore inadvertent mistakes and she will likely emerge charge free. There is no guarantee that she will be charge free but all the cases that I have seen, were dismissed by the IRB in the end. This process can take up to 1-2 years.

Asking her to give up her PR is dead wrong and fatal advice.

 

[Ponga]

Re: Forgot to notify CIC about getting married before receiving PR

I agree that she has committed misrepresentation but her case is not dead yet. When she files for spousal sponsorship CPCM will likely notice the marriage date and landing date and wonder about misrepresentation- resulting in possible Section 44 report of inadmissibility. Remember CIC may (may not must) choose to charge her.


Preparation of report

44. (1) An officer who is of the opinion that a permanent resident or a foreign national who is in Canada is inadmissible may prepare a report setting out the relevant facts, which report shall be transmitted to the Minister.


If she is charged then the matter, after CIC interview will be referred to IRB member where the CIC Counsel will make preliminary arguments about the charge and her counsel will argue against. Normally the IRB members will ignore inadvertent mistakes and she will likely will charge free. There is no guarantee but all the cases that I have seen were dismissed by the IRB in the end. This process can take up to 1-2 years.

Shouldn't the onus be on the person who committed the misrepresentation, and/or their legal counsel, to convince CIC and IRB that the omission was NOT intentional? In the case of the OP here, that would be a very difficult thing to do, IMHO.

 

[immigrationteacher]

Re: Forgot to notify CIC about getting married before receiving PR

Ponga

I never stated that it is easy. Defending difficult situations is what experienced motivated lawyers do.

 

[canuck_in_uk]

Re: Forgot to notify CIC about getting married before receiving PR

I agree that she has committed misrepresentation but her case is not dead yet. Asking her husband to apply independently like in EE also cant solve the fiasco.

When she files for spousal sponsorship CPCM will likely notice the marriage date and landing date and wonder about misrepresentation- resulting in possible Section 44 report of inadmissibility. Remember CIC may (may not must) choose to charge her.

Asking her to give up her PR is dead wrong and fatal advice.

Having the spouse immigrate independently is the easiest way to solve the problem, if s/he qualifies.

Regardless of what action CIC decides to take against this person (and normally they don't take any action), the sponsorship app will be refused because the spouse is excluded from the Family Class. There is no point in even submitting it in the first place.

The options have been laid out and giving up PR is one of them. It is not wrong, nor is it "fatal advice".

 

[Rob_TO]

Re: Forgot to notify CIC about getting married before receiving PR

Asking her to give up her PR is dead wrong and fatal advice.

This may be the only way the OP can sponsor their spouse to Canada (if spouse doesn't apply for immigration on their own), if they give up PR and go through the entire process a second time from scratch.

CIC is notorious for refusing practically all sponsorships where spouses were not declared, no matter if the mistake was intentional or not.

If you have found any court cases on record where a PR has won an appeal to sponsor a spouse that wasn't properly declared, everyone on this forum would be very interested to see it.

 

[kangamoose]

Re: Forgot to notify CIC about getting married before receiving PR

The amount of threads about this that I have read lately is crazy. Even on the express entry forum, people don't seem to understand they need to declare everyone. CIC is either not making it clear enough during the application process or people just ignore it (or deliberately lie) and hope for the best.

Maybe if CIC had a "grace period" whereby new PR's who landed without declaring family members could still have them added after landing, with the understanding that if the family member failed medical or background checks etc the whole application is rejected and the new PR has status revoked. It would save a lot of heartache for families and wouldn't be a loophole for medical inadmissibility.

 

[SamHom]

Re: Forgot to notify CIC about getting married before receiving PR

The amount of threads about this that I have read lately is crazy. Even on the express entry forum, people don't seem to understand they need to declare everyone. CIC is either not making it clear enough during the application process or people just ignore it (or deliberately lie) and hope for the best.

Maybe if CIC had a "grace period" whereby new PR's who landed without declaring family members could still have them added after landing, with the understanding that if the family member failed medical or background checks etc the whole application is rejected and the new PR has status revoked. It would save a lot of heartache for families and wouldn't be a loophole for medical inadmissibility.

Yes, they're not making it clear at all. In my inland spousal application we declared other than me and the wife my parents and my sister. I've been told this is the correct way. To me personally it still would make more sense to add my grandparents as well but have been told not to.