GCMS notes detailing reasons behind rejection - confused as ever! Please advise.

[starseed35]

Hello all. I posted on this forum a month or two back and was offered some great advice by you all after my boyfriend's TRV was rejected. A little background: I'm a Canadian living and working in Malaysia. I'm in a relationship with a Malaysian citizen and we had planned on going back to Canada to visit my family at Christmas and his TRV was denied. We were confused as to the reasons behind his rejection, and one poster (MikeyMike I believe) advised to order the GCMS notes from the government. We recently received the notes and are puzzled as ever. If anybody could shed some light on the situation, I'd really appreciate your thoughts.

Here are the comments from the GCMS notes:

Applicant 29 year old Malaysian male. To accompany a girlfriend who is teaching in Calgary. Application provided no proof of relationship with invitor. Invitor has indicated living with the applicant, but I note the address indicated on documents are different. I have concerns regarding the BF of the relationship. No indication of length of relationship, no open sponsorship. I'm not satisfied the applicant is a genuine visitor to Canada that will leave at the end of stay. Refused.

My questions are as follows:

1. Do the visa officers thoroughly read the TRV application and supporting documents that applicants send in? The GCMS notes are ridden with errors - I do not teach or live in Calgary - I was born in Calgary, but I work and live in Malaysia permanently and we sent a lot of documentation to prove this. The notes also say that the addresses listed on documents are different - they were not. My boyfriend and I live together at the same address in Malaysia and we stated this on all documents. We also sent in a copy of our apartment rental contract. No other address was listed for my boyfriend so I'm not sure what they're referring to.

2. Applicant provided no proof of relationship with invitor. I wasn't aware that we needed to, aside from stating our relation to one another on the application, as well as my family and I mentioned this in our invitation letters. What exactly would the CIC like to see as proof of our relationship? Photos of us together? Text messages?

3. I have concerns regarding the BF of the relationship. - What does this mean?

4. No indication of length of relationship. I stated the length of our relationship in my invitation letter. Either the visa officer did not bother reading my or my family's invitation letter at all, or did they expect us to get some sort of document stating the length of our relationship apostiled by a lawyer???

5. No open sponsorship - what does this mean?

6. Malaysians are meant to send in their visa applications to the Canadian Embassy in Singapore. Does anyone know if it's possible to instead apply to another Canadian embassy located in another country? Or even to Ottawa?

Thank you in advance for sharing your thoughts.

 

[iyuk13]

I don't know about the rest but I do know one thing.

BF is bona fide. The VO has issues on how genuine your relationship is. The VO probably thinks that you and your boyfriend are in a relationship for the purpose of him getting a visa to remain in Canada.

Hopefully someone else would be able to comment on the other points raised in the GCMS notes.

I wish you all the best starseed35! Don't give up.

 

[Jalex23]

It seems that you are sure you did everything right.

It also seems that CIC understood that you were teaching/living in Calgary. This can also be understood as an invitation letter usually is written by someone IN CANADA, not from OUTSIDE Canada. All other reasons stated by CIC only make sense if you did a mistake in your application that confuse CIC.

No, CIC won't go throughly all documentation submitted. It is your responsibility to give SIMPLE, CONCISE and OBVIOUS argumentation on your case. If you submit too much you are risking that one document might confuse CIC.

If you are sure CIC got confused and you did everything right then resubmit the same documentation. As a fresh pair of eyes will look into the documentation again you can address CICs concerns in the explanation letter.

 

[SenoritaBella]

1. Good question. Doesn't seem like they read yours, at least not thoroughly.

2. May be a few letters/emails from beginning of relationship and a few over course of your relationship. Normally a married couple would provide a copy of their marriage certificate. So in the absence of that, I suppose emails/letters and photos would do.

3. I think they suspect he is a) either using you to get to Canada and/or b) that he will not leave Canada at the end of the visit. Perhaps he did not show strong ties to his home country. Examples of strong ties are - steady employment, leave of absence from his job, ownership of properties/business, etc... things that would compel him to return in order to take care of.
- Are you moving back to Canada? If yes, then this works against him (having a love interest in Canada weakens ties to his home country). If no, did you submit proof (e.g. leave of absence, employment letter) stating when you are expected to resume work in Malaysia?

4. #2 above would have helped corroborate the length of relationship

5. A visitor visa is for temporary stays.. They suspect he won't leave after the visit, therefore sponsoring him(for permanent residence) would be the appropriate route to take.

6. He has apply through the embassy that handles applications for Malaysians (i.e, country of nationality) or his country of residence(if living in another country and has been legally admitted for 1 year). Example: if he was living in England and had been legally admitted for 1 year, then he can go through the London visa office. Hope this clarifies it.

If you intend to apply again, be sure to address all the officer's concerns, submit proof of adequate funds, etc (because they can refuse the application for any of the other reasons on the refusal checklist).

 

[starseed35]

Thanks again for all of your comments.

It also seems that CIC understood that you were teaching/living in Calgary. This can also be understood as an invitation letter usually is written by someone IN CANADA, not from OUTSIDE Canada. All other reasons stated by CIC only make sense if you did a mistake in your application that confuse CIC.

I wrote an invitation letter in which I explained that I was a Canadian citizen living and working for the Malaysian government in Malaysia long-term and that I was inviting my boyfriend to return to Canada with me to visit my family and friends for the Christmas holidays. My parents also wrote a letter stating that their daughter (me) was living and working in Malaysia and that they were inviting my boyfriend (and I) to stay at their home in Canada for the holidays. In the future, should I NOT include an invitation letter, since I'm residing in Malaysia? Should I only submit my parents' invitation letter?

3. Are you moving back to Canada? If yes, then this works against him (having a love interest in Canada weakens ties to his home country). If no, did you submit proof (e.g. leave of absence, employment letter) stating when you are expected to resume work in Malaysia?

I have no plans to move back to Canada and I have been working abroad for nearly 10 years now. Would it be helpful to submit old work visas to show the CIC that I have been living outside of Canada and have no plans to return, as this is my "pattern?" We did submit proof - his employment letter, a leave of absence letter which also mentioned that he would be receiving a sizeable bonus in early 2015 (i.e., incentive to return). I also did the same - my employment letter, leave of absence granted, work visa. All documentation by our employers stated that we must be back in Malaysia by January 5th.

5. A visitor visa is for temporary stays.. They suspect he won't leave after the visit, therefore sponsoring him(for permanent residence) would be the appropriate route to take.

We applied for a TRV because that's what he was supposed to be - a temporary visitor for a few weeks in December until early January! I don't know how else to prove we would have left at the end of our stay. Should I be sponsoring him for permanent residence??? Would he have a better chance of being admitted if I sponsored him for PR? That's not our intention though - to stay in Canada forever ... we just wanted to take a little holiday to see my family for the holidays.

In the future, when we reapply, do you guys think the issues that were recorded in the GCMS notes should be addressed by my boyfriend in a cover letter? Is it best to address the issues pointed out in past visa rejections, or is it better to not mention he had previously been denied a visa? (Though I know they would have it on record.) Do you have any ideas how to make the visa officer pay better attention to the application?

Thanks again for your encouraging words and advice.

 

[Jalex23]

I wrote an invitation letter in which I explained that I was a Canadian citizen living and working for the Malaysian government in Malaysia long-term and that I was inviting my boyfriend to return to Canada with me to visit my family and friends for the Christmas holidays. My parents also wrote a letter stating that their daughter (me) was living and working in Malaysia and that they were inviting my boyfriend (and I) to stay at their home in Canada for the holidays. In the future, should I NOT include an invitation letter, since I'm residing in Malaysia? Should I only submit my parents' invitation letter?

Well this is a tricky one. An invitation letter is from someone living in Canada and INVITING another one to Canada. It is ok to write an explanation letter (where you explain that you want him to ACOMPANY you) to Canada. You are actually not INVITING him as you don't live in Canada. Your parents CAN'T invite your bf unless they establish a solid relationship with your bf and submit proof of that relationship (no, you being his bf doesn't count).

Now, look at the words you are chosing: "that I was inviting my boyfriend to return to Canada with me to visit my family". How are you "returning"? Either you are returning back to live in Calgary for good or you were visiting Malaysia for a short period of time. Chosing the correct set of words is important. Be careful of the words you chose, as sometimes CIC is quite strict on this.

Anyway as I said previously. GCMS notes only make sense if CIC did got confused that you are indeed living in Calgary and INVITING your bf back home (Canada is not your home atm). That is why the GCMS notes say that you haven't applied for sponsorship (as this is the correct way to go when a Canadian wants to "import" his/her partner); also that iss why CIC thinks you live in different places (he in Malaysia you in Canada) and so on....

Again, if you think you did everyting right resubmit your exact same application addressing CIC's concerns in your explanation letter.

 

[starseed35]

My invitation letter read as follows (it was more more detailed than this excerpt):

I would like to invite ________________, a Malaysian citizen bearing passport number _________, born on ___________ to visit and stay with my family in Calgary, Alberta from approximately __________ to ___________. The above mentioned visa applicant ___________ is my boyfriend and we have been dating since ____________. We currently reside together at _________________ in Malaysia, where I am employed as a ______________ with the Malaysian government and he is employed as a ______ with _________. _________________ will be accompanied to and from Canada by me. The purpose of his visit to Calgary is to visit my family and friends during the Christmas holiday season, sightsee around Alberta. Both of our jobs in Malaysia require us to return to Malaysia by January 5th, 2015, as noted in our leave of absence letters from our employers.

Was my language concise enough?

As for my parents writing an invitation letter in the future, how can they submit proof of their relationship to my boyfriend? They have visited Malaysia twice in the past, but I do not have any photos of them together. Any ideas?

Last, in our next application, when we need to submit some kind of evidence as to our relationship, would it be appropriate to submit facebook messages or whatsapp messages? I don't think we've ever corresponded via email.

Thanks again for taking the time to share your opinions!

 

[SenoritaBella]

It was a good letter but I think it lacked details and perhaps confused the officer as to where you live. A few things I would suggest:

1. begin by describing yourself - name, citizenship, that you live in Malaysia, how long you've live there, what you do for a living and for how long (attach a recently signed employment letter, most recent pay stub) and same thing for your partner.
2. where you live - attach the lease/mortgage of your apartment in Malaysia, recently received mail in both of your names (which also helps proof common-law relationship) or in each of your names to the same address (to show you live together)
3. describe your relationship briefly - how you met, how long you've been together, when you moved in, etc and attach some facebook msgs, whatsapp msgs, few photos that show the progression of your relationship.
4. does not hurt to mention your parents have visited both of you in Malaysia - attach copy of their ticket/boarding passes. If you have letters/msgs of your parents talking about him/sending him greetings(good things ofcourse), you can include a few - to help show they have a relationship with him(even if it's through you mainly).
5. perhaps say you plan to visit your parents from x to y date to spend xmas with them and you will like your partner to join you so that he can visit your family(and the meet the other members he hasn't seen yet?) and friends, etc. It's will also give you guys an opportunity to sightsee. If you are going to sightsee, perhaps include an itinerary of places you'll visit and include copies of your tickets.
6. If you can each get your employer to give you a signed "leave of absence" letter or vacation approval letter which clearly states how long you will be gone for and when they expect each of to be back to work, I think it carries more weight than a personal declaration.

Just my suggestions, don't know if it will work but you can make the final decision on what you want to include and how to present it. Goodluck, hope it works out for you guys this time around.