inland application questions

[andydandy]

I was hoping I could get some help with a few questions I have. I am a Canadian Citizen and my wife is a German Citizen. We are married and she is a PhD student in Canada, so We are going to apply for her permanent residence through spousal sponsorship from inland.

Here are some of my questions:

Spouse/Common-Law Questionnaire (IMM5285) Question 3 asks for if we are living together (we are), and it asks for the period of cohabitation. I can fill out when we moved in together, but what am I supposed to enter for the "to date"? Hopefully forever or until one of us dies...!?!

Generic Application form for Canda (IMM0008) Similar to the above question, question 10 asks current country of residence with from and to date listed. We know what to fill in for from date (date she entered Canada as a student), but what should we enter for the to date? Should we enter the end date on her student visa?

Application to Sponsor (IMM1344) Sponsor Details section - I think my situation is a bit complicated to fill this out... My passport has my chinese name and my english name for given names, so this is what I have entered into BOX 1. However, when I immigrated to Canada when I was 4, my landing document and citizenship card both only have my chinese name for my given name. I just started using Andrew, and they let me put Andrew on my driver's license and passport. So i'm not sure how to answer Box 2 (have you ever used any other name eg. nickname). Should I put Andrew as a nickname in that box? And finally in box 6c) it asks "full name at the time you became a permanent resident" and an additional checkbox of "same as your current full name?". Not sure what I should enter. If I answer no in this checkbox I'm assuming I would need to provide some document showing that I changed my name, but I've never officially changed my name to add Andrew as a given name. I just started using it and now I guess it is official since it is on my passport.

For supporting documents that need to be provided and have a certified translation, from what I can tell, it is just her birth certificate and police report. Our marriage license is in english. She has a national ID card, and entered the info into one of the application forms. Does this mean we should also submit a photocopy of it?

Thanks!

Andrew

 

[GustavesF]

I was hoping I could get some help with a few questions I have. I am a Canadian Citizen and my wife is a German Citizen. We are married and she is a PhD student in Canada, so We are going to apply for her permanent residence through spousal sponsorship from inland.

Here are some of my questions:

Spouse/Common-Law Questionnaire (IMM5285) Question 3 asks for if we are living together (we are), and it asks for the period of cohabitation. I can fill out when we moved in together, but what am I supposed to enter for the "to date"? Hopefully forever or until one of us dies...!?!

Generic Application form for Canda (IMM0008) Similar to the above question, question 10 asks current country of residence with from and to date listed. We know what to fill in for from date (date she entered Canada as a student), but what should we enter for the to date? Should we enter the end date on her student visa?

Application to Sponsor (IMM1344) Sponsor Details section - I think my situation is a bit complicated to fill this out... My passport has my chinese name and my english name for given names, so this is what I have entered into BOX 1. However, when I immigrated to Canada when I was 4, my landing document and citizenship card both only have my chinese name for my given name. I just started using Andrew, and they let me put Andrew on my driver's license and passport. So i'm not sure how to answer Box 2 (have you ever used any other name eg. nickname). Should I put Andrew as a nickname in that box? And finally in box 6c) it asks "full name at the time you became a permanent resident" and an additional checkbox of "same as your current full name?". Not sure what I should enter. If I answer no in this checkbox I'm assuming I would need to provide some document showing that I changed my name, but I've never officially changed my name to add Andrew as a given name. I just started using it and now I guess it is official since it is on my passport.

For supporting documents that need to be provided and have a certified translation, from what I can tell, it is just her birth certificate and police report. Our marriage license is in english. She has a national ID card, and entered the info into one of the application forms. Does this mean we should also submit a photocopy of it?

Thanks!

Andrew

First two questions, leave it blank then write in "Present" by hand once it's printed. That's what we were advised to do by CIC.

I'd use your passport name as your full name, and your original name as anadditional name, but I don't have any real info regarding this. I know in the case of my wife, her last name changed when we got married, and the only document we had with her married name was her passport. CIC advised us to wait till her passport updated so we could fill out her PR application with her married name. That leads me to believe that if your name is on a passport, that's good enough for it to qualify as your primary legal name for CIC's purposes. So, perhaps that's helpful to you. Take it or leave it though on this one...

Can't help you with the last one.

 

[andydandy]

Thanks for the answers GustavesF.

You mentioned that CIC advised you to enter "present" for the to dates. Can we call CIC to ask questions regarding filling out the application? From the CIC website I didn't see any contacts that you can call to ask questions.

 

[GustavesF]

Thanks for the answers GustavesF.

You mentioned that CIC advised you to enter "present" for the to dates. Can we call CIC to ask questions regarding filling out the application? From the CIC website I didn't see any contacts that you can call to ask questions.

I was somewhat lucky that an acquaintance knew a case agent who was able to give us advice regarding our applications.
It's not standard practice, as CIC strives to be as useless to applicants as possible in order to reduce backlog.

I say somewhat, because even in our case we were wrongly encouraged to apply inland, which of course I now know was the biggest mistake of my life.

As far as entering "present" goes, that information was at least valid 2 years ago when I was getting my papers together.
Several people have reported issues with failing to put "present" in those boxes. CIC processing agents are generally very dumb, and can't deduce what an "ending date" coinciding with your submission date implies.

A rule of thumb is not to believe anything that anyone at CIC tells you, as they typically just make things up on the spot.
As ridiculous as it sounds, you're far more likely to get accurate information from this forum.

 

[andydandy]

Got two more questions.

Should my wife do the medical exam up front, or wait submit the permanent residence application and wait until CIC tells her to do the exam?

Does she need to also get a police report for Canada (she has been living here for 3 years now), or just the other countries (besides Canada) that she has lived in for more than 6 months?

 

[GustavesF]

Got two more questions.

Should my wife do the medical exam up front, or wait submit the permanent residence application and wait until CIC tells her to do the exam?

Does she need to also get a police report for Canada (she has been living here for 3 years now), or just the other countries (besides Canada) that she has lived in for more than 6 months?

You don't need to do a Canada police report.

The medical exam is a toss-up. You can do it now if you want to *possibly* avoid a delay in processing your application way way later down the line, but CIC takes at least forever to even look at your application, so they can decide it's not valid anymore once they get around to it.
I did mine up-front, and it looks like they are accepting it regardless of being old at this point (because I'm still not through first phase).

If I was doing it all over again, I would not have sent my medical with the application as it caused me to submit a few weeks later.
Delaying the submission of your application by a month is not worth it. Delaying it by 3 days, worth it.

CIC can take months to process a single week of applications received, so getting it in as soon as possible is recommended, as long as there are no errors or missing required documents.
The difference between submitting in July 2013 and August 2013 was something like 7 months of processing. That can happen again any day.

 

[andydandy]

how big are your inland applications?

I've been looking through some of the help documents written in this forum and someone took pictures of their application and showed how they organized it, and it was over 500 pages long, with 300 or so pages of proof of relationship! This is starting to worry me.

If we follow the document checklist (IMM5443) I don't know how I can have that many pages. Most of the forms are self sufficient, with only a couple where we need to attach some more information, particularly the Spouse/Common-law partner questionnaire (IMM5285). In this one we have added a paragraph or so on the types of outings and trips we do together, and we attached a couple pictures from us travelling/vacationing for each year we have been together (maybe about 10 pictures in all). My wife (applicant) also listed dates when I met her close friends and family members, and about 4 or 5 photos from our wedding ceremony. This seems like all they are asking for (in fact they only asked for one photo from each ceremony).

The rest of the checklist just indicates what we need to submit like all of the IMMXXXX forms filled out, birth certificates, police reports, my proof of income, marriage certificate, etc.

The only other thing in the checklist that I guess would relate to showing proof of our relationship is photos of marriage (which we already added to the spouse/common-law partner questionnaire (IMM5285).

There are a couple other points about proof of conjugal relationship or proof of common-law relationship that asks for stuff like joint bank accounts, bills, etc, but it doesn't ask for this information if we are married.

Am I missing something, or was that one example that I saw of 500+ pages just over-doing it, or do we need to show more proof of our relationship in addition to the IMM5285 (plus attachments of photos of outings and wedding) form and I guess additional photos from the wedding that maybe we should add?

Thanks,
Andrew

 

[canuck_in_uk]

I was hoping I could get some help with a few questions I have. I am a Canadian Citizen and my wife is a German Citizen. We are married and she is a PhD student in Canada, so We are going to apply for her permanent residence through spousal sponsorship from inland.

I would strongly advise you to consider an outland app. I believe that Vienna averages around a year, significantly faster than the 26 months inland is currently sitting at. She can be in Canada while an outland app processes.

Am I missing something, or was that one example that I saw of 500+ pages just over-doing it

500 pages is seriously overkill. The average app is WAY less than that. It should fit in a large envelope, not a box.

 

[andydandy]

I would strongly advise you to consider an outland app. I believe that Vienna averages around a year, significantly faster than the 26 months inland is currently sitting at. She can be in Canada while an outland app processes.


500 pages is seriously overkill. The average app is WAY less than that. It should fit in a large envelope, not a box.

hmm, so she can apply to the Vienna Embassy, but be living in Canada? I just looked through some of the forms that need to be filled out for an outland application and it seems difficult to answer if we are living together in Canada. Like, "have you visited your sponsor during the period of your relationship". What would she write for this? Yes, she has been visiting for the past 3 years on a student visa? Would she have to apply in person at the Vienna Embassy, or could we just mail it into them? Will she be able to come and go (leave Canada and come back) for vacations and travel and stuff?

thanks

 

[andydandy]

Re: how big are your inland applications?

I've been looking through some of the help documents written in this forum and someone took pictures of their application and showed how they organized it, and it was over 500 pages long, with 300 or so pages of proof of relationship! This is starting to worry me.

If we follow the document checklist (IMM5443) I don't know how I can have that many pages. Most of the forms are self sufficient, with only a couple where we need to attach some more information, particularly the Spouse/Common-law partner questionnaire (IMM5285). In this one we have added a paragraph or so on the types of outings and trips we do together, and we attached a couple pictures from us travelling/vacationing for each year we have been together (maybe about 10 pictures in all). My wife (applicant) also listed dates when I met her close friends and family members, and about 4 or 5 photos from our wedding ceremony. This seems like all they are asking for (in fact they only asked for one photo from each ceremony).

The rest of the checklist just indicates what we need to submit like all of the IMMXXXX forms filled out, birth certificates, police reports, my proof of income, marriage certificate, etc.

The only other thing in the checklist that I guess would relate to showing proof of our relationship is photos of marriage (which we already added to the spouse/common-law partner questionnaire (IMM5285).

There are a couple other points about proof of conjugal relationship or proof of common-law relationship that asks for stuff like joint bank accounts, bills, etc, but it doesn't ask for this information if we are married.

Am I missing something, or was that one example that I saw of 500+ pages just over-doing it, or do we need to show more proof of our relationship in addition to the IMM5285 (plus attachments of photos of outings and wedding) form and I guess additional photos from the wedding that maybe we should add?

Thanks,
Andrew

When I compare the forms from an outland application to an inland application, it seems like the inland one doesn't really ask much questions relating to proving the validity of the relationship. There is mainly just the Spouse/Common-Law Questionnaire, that asks a few questions. Comparing that to the outland application, both the sponsor and applicant has to give more detailed information about their relationship, and at the end of the form for both the applicant and sponsor, it states to include on an additional sheet of paper, any additional details of your current relationship that you believe would help to prove your relationship is genuine and continuing.

Why is the outland questions and requirements so much more detailed? I'm worried that when I do my application (we have pretty much completed all the forms and obtained the required supporting documents for the inland), we aren't really providing that much evidence of our relationship being genuine (because they haven't asked for very much). In total we have about 10 pictures of us on outings (mostly traveling in Europe and hiking in Canada), and about 5 pictures from our wedding ceremony. This seems to be all that they have requested (based on questions and info they ask for a marriage couple).

Do most of you who have applied from inland only have similar amounts of evidence, or are you adding more evidence, and if so, what are you including?

 

[rs33]

hmm, so she can apply to the Vienna Embassy, but be living in Canada? I just looked through some of the forms that need to be filled out for an outland application and it seems difficult to answer if we are living together in Canada. Like, "have you visited your sponsor during the period of your relationship". What would she write for this? Yes, she has been visiting for the past 3 years on a student visa? Would she have to apply in person at the Vienna Embassy, or could we just mail it into them? Will she be able to come and go (leave Canada and come back) for vacations and travel and stuff?

thanks

I'm in the same situation... PhD student currently studying in Canada and my husband is sponsoring me. We have submitted an outland application because it's generally faster and allows me to travel in and out of Canada without issues (conferences, visiting family, etc). For those questions like "have you visited you sponsor during the period of your relationship", I just explained that we've lived together for xx amount of years, etc. On the other forms, they see anyway that I'm legally in Canada.

We originally started with an inland application and then realized the outland is a much better route. It wasn't too much work to fill out the outland paperwork compared to inland.

I'm guessing too that after graduation, students can still get an OWP, in case the PR is still being processed.

 

[canuck_in_uk]

hmm, so she can apply to the Vienna Embassy, but be living in Canada? I just looked through some of the forms that need to be filled out for an outland application and it seems difficult to answer if we are living together in Canada. Like, "have you visited your sponsor during the period of your relationship". What would she write for this? Yes, she has been visiting for the past 3 years on a student visa? Would she have to apply in person at the Vienna Embassy, or could we just mail it into them? Will she be able to come and go (leave Canada and come back) for vacations and travel and stuff?

Yes. Most people living in Canada apply outland because it is pretty much always faster and there is no risk in leaving canada.

For those questions, simply put "We live together." Understand that these forms are generic, meant to apply to a variety of situations.

The application is mailed to Mississauga.

Yes, she can come and go without risking the PR app if she applies outland.