I Need Help

[silverbee]

You also don't need to pay the whole 1040 up front - you can pay the Right of Permanent Residence Fee later (though it does speed up the process by three or four weeks at the end) or you can split it up and pay it in two months or so.

But even though you are married, I would include a LOT of proof of the genuine nature of your relationship - I would allow a minimum of a month to put all of the supporting documents together. And DO mail it off before the FBI arrives.
good luck!

 

[Vercetti]

The proof of relationship is one of the most important parts of the whole application. No only do you need to prove that it is a real relationship, but that you didn't enter the relationship in order to immigrate to Canada. I think most people on here will agree that was the bit that took the most time to pull together and obsessed everyone so much.

Make sure you print off all the forms and go through them, and look at the document list to see what sort of things that need sending in to help prove your relationship.

I looked at the recommended items for proving your relationship is genuine and I am a tad concerned.

We had a courthouse wedding(took a few photos) and want to do a proper ceremony in a year or two when I am in Halifax with her. But here's the kicker: We only told a few people (her roommate, my best friend who lives in Montreal, and the two witnesses we needed). Neither of our families knows we are married, they know we are engaged but not that we are married. We decided not to tell them because we want people to come to our wedding ceremony when we have it. It will already be hard enough to get people to come without them knowing we are already legally married (because one half of the guests will have to travel to another country in poor economic times), so we decided to only tell a few people so all of our family would be at the wedding. Is that ridiculous? Does it make us look like frauds?

We have gone on three trips together. One to Las Vegas, one when she came to my home in Texas and one when I went to her home in Halifax(which is also when we got married). We have a lot of photos from those three trips. Do I send in all of them? Even the ones without us in them(IE: in Vegas we took a lot of pictures of the statues and sites). I am not really concerned about the photos, but rather the fact that we don't have joint bank accounts or life insurance or rental agreements with both our names on them. We are newly wed and 21 we just simply didn't think about that stuff. Is that a bad reflection on our relationship's genuineness?

I live in Texas and she lives in Canada. We were planning on doing all of that stuff once I moved to Canada. All I have is some phone records showing calls and text messages between us. But our phone bills were getting so high that we both went out and purchased Blackberrys so we could message each other for free via Blackberry Messenger. We started using that as a form of daily communication in July and I didn't even think to record the chat logs! I started recording them as of yesterday so we could have something but I am worried that it won't be enough. I think we have a total of 2 "romantic" e-mails sent to each other but we did most of our talking on MSN Messenger. I can print those logs off and include them. Would they actually go through and read our conversations?? That is A LOT of material to look over.

I guess I am just a little worried that we could get rejected, someone ease my mind :-X

 

[HoneyBird]

Evidences (ideas) I think there is a way to get chat logs from msn and blackberry but someone else will have to advise you.

List of evidences.
Evidences:


-letters from relatives/friends supporting the relationship indicating it's genuine. (her roommate and your best friend for instance?)


-plane ticket stubs



-photocopies from your passport



-pictures from all your trips to visit her

Label the photos month/year/where

If you visited her for birthdays/Christmas/valentine's day etc those are considered special holidays for couples and show that you are there for her in those times. So make sure and label 'christmas' or valentine's day to the back.



-marriage certificate


-pictures of wedding ceremony

-pictures of the wedding reception (you can indicate you will have one later on)

-wedding cards etc.

-pictures of the honeymoon!


-pictures of you meeting her family/friends/coworkers for like dinners, lunches, at Christmas time, at family weddings, on vacations etc and vice versa. Label these! Month/year/where/who



-receipts for hotel, restaurant, and activities during your visits with her and vice versa





-financial evidence (not applicable to you but its part of the evidences that anyone can bring forward)

- joint bank accounts,

- joint credit cards

- joint leases or records of joint purchases

- any wills, estate planning docs,

- life insurance beneficiary etc



-Phone bills from your phone's & phone bill's from her phone's


-Chat logs from Skype


- saved text messages – download them from the phone to the computer to print.



-Phone cards: Not normally accepted as evidence because it does not show who you have called.But you can request the card company in Canada and they will supply you with the info for up to 6 months.



-letters to each other/ cards to each other For letters and cards they want the envelopes as well if possible to show the date and that you actually mailed them.

- Photos of gifts and gift receipts for birthdays/anniversaries/Christmas etc.


-emails and correspondence from before and after the relationship.

-emails/letters/etc showing communication with her family and vice versa e.g. her mother, sister, brothers etc.



-facebook communication e.g. comments on photos of the two of you, messages for congratulations on the marriage etc.

 

[HoneyBird]

other useful stuff here\

In assessing the genuineness of a marriage, the Immigration usually considers a broad range of factors including, but not limited to,

how the couple met and how the relationship evolved,
the duration of the relationship and the amount of time spent together prior to the wedding,
the nature of the engagement and/or wedding ceremony,
the intent of the parties to the marriage,
the evidence of ongoing contact and communication before and after the marriage,
the spouses' conduct after the wedding,
the level of knowledge of each other's relationship histories,
the provision of financial support,
the partners' families' knowledge of and involvement in the relationship,
the knowledge of and contact with extended families of the parties,
the level of knowledge about each other's daily lives,
and plans and arrangements for the future.

 

[HoneyBird]

another poster here had this as an idea of how to organise your information:


Chapter 1: Communication
Section A: Text Messages
Section B: Phone Records
Section C: Cards Given To Each Other
Section D: Notes and Letters To Each Other
Section E: Cards Given To Us By Friends and Family
Section F: Cards Given To Friends and Family by Us
Section G: Letters of Support
Section H: Messages Sent When Going To Canada
Section I: Messages About Doing Activities Together
Section J: Messages Sent To Each Other Before Meeting
Section K: Messages from (sponsor)'s Family Wishing (applicant) a Happy Birthday
Section L: Messages Between (applicant) and Her Friends Talking About (sponsor)
Section M: Messages Sent While (sponsor) Was Visiting (applicant)

Chapter 2 Joint Documentation
Section A: Envelopes Received At Shared Address
Section B: Joint Purchases On Joint Credit Card
Section C: Joint Scotiabank Account
Section D: Joint RBC Account and Documents
Section E: Shared Family Plan with Telus
Section F: Miscellaneous Joint Correspondence

Chapter 3 Receipts
Section A: Receipts From Outings Together
Section B: Receipts For Purchases of Gifts and Cards

Chapter 4 Engagement/Wedding
Section A: Our Engagement Journal
Section B: Emails Between Us and Our Wedding Planner
Section C: Our Permit To Marry In The Park As Well As Our Ceremony Agreement With Our Commissioner
Section D: Copies From Our Wedding Guestbook
Section E: Copies Of Cards Given To Us For Our Wedding
Section F: Messages About Engagement, Planning For Wedding, Reception and Our Honeymoon
Section G: Congratulations Messages On Our Marriage
Section H: Congratulations Messages On Our Engagement
Section I: Receipts For Engagement, Wedding, and Honeymoon
Section J: Emails About Honeymoon Reservation and Permit To Marry In The Park

Chapter 5 Photos Throughout Relationship
Section A: Special Occasion Pictures
Section B: Pictures on Outings Together
Section C: Pictures From Wedding/Reception/Honeymoon

Chapter 6 Travel
Section A: Emails of (sponsor) and (applicant)'s Itinerary
Section B: Copies Of Our Flight Tickets
Section C: Copies Of (applicant)'s Passport Stamp and Visitor Records.
Section D: Miscellaneous Travel Documents

Chapter 7 Miscellaneous Supporting Documents
(Whatever didn't fit in the other section

 

[silverbee]

I do think that you will have to tell your parents, unless you have a very compelling reason not to, so that your application is genuine. I believe your reason, but I can see how Immigration would easily doubt it. I think that immigration - and being together with your partner in one country - is more important.



In terms of "proof", this is what I did:

I started a thread about this a few months ago when I was putting together my application:

http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/-t44714.0.html

I included:
A 25-page document with pictures inserted (in Word) with captions with about 60 pictures total that has an outline narrative of our relationship.
Joint Lease
Joint bank account
Joint adoption for our dog
Joint travel: tickets
TONS of mail to our address together, including government, bank, phone, friends, cards to each other, cards from family with us as a couple, bills, utilities, etc.
Phone Records shoring our correspondence the few times we were away and also when we were together
Emails between the two of us (anything and everything, but DO NOT mention the application in the content)
A print out of our facebook (relationship status) - a lawyer told me to do this!

Plus a Cover Letter
Table of contents of all attachments divided into categories (Communication/ Travel / Mail , etc)
Narratives from both of us about our relationship (one chronological, one more personal) - this is very important
Two stat declarations and two emails from friends/family


Not that I know if it was enough yet... but hopefully soon...

 

[Vercetti]

-letters from relatives/friends supporting the relationship indicating it's genuine. (her roommate and your best friend for instance?)

I am thinking of getting letters from those people plus her and my relatives. She met my parents and my brother(only family that lives remotely close) when she came down and I met almost every member of her family(extended included) when I went up to visit her in Canada.

Suppose we get letters from each of these people, would that be all I need to do? Get them to write something saying that she brought me to visit them, introduced me as her fiance(which I was at the time) and have them sign it? It wouldn't need to be notarized or anything like that would it?

 

[silverbee]

Yes, at least two letters need to be notarized.

 

[canadianwoman]

The letters don't need to be notarized. Two notarized letters are needed for common-law relationships, but Vercetti is married.
However, notarized statements and affidavits carry more weight than just letters or emails, so if possible include a few.

 

[Vercetti]

So just include 1 notarized letter or so from each side of the family? Which will corroborate the story for the others?

Do we get the family members to write a letter? Or do we type up a letter and get each person to sign it (IE: 1 uniform letter saying the same thing, but different signatures saying that it happened)?

 

[MandiF]

Sent an email to both sides of the family and lots of close friends and family asking them to write me a letter in their own words so they would say how they first knew about us, and what they had done with us as a couple, and even some who only met us together after the wedding.

This way I think it showed it was completely genuine as it was in all their own words and in different formats. As we are married I didn't get any notorised, but just had signed letters and some emails. Some people were short & sweet about the details, others had loads of personal details and very touching and heartwarming.

 

[silverbee]

Do not write the letters for them: have them write, in their own words, about your relationship, how the met you, what sorts of things you do when you visit them, and of course that they know and approve or your marriage. good luck!