just back from the canadian visa office in paris....they are so confusing

[mirkopal]

hi everybody,
thanks to ur help i finally have the ideas clear; we are going to apply as common law couple...
i went this morning to the canadian embassy in paris - visa office...just to have confirmation about some issues we discussed before...
the officer at the counter told me:

1) ok for eligibility as common law partner...and that the 1 year living together could be followed no matter where...(in my case france) with proofs..
2) concerning the office that will treat my demand: i told her that i m italian as my partner but who resides in france....and that we are doing the medical visit in italy and to put Rome as visa office to check...
we thought that because we have a lot of proofs of relationship (letters and etc) written in Italian so it could be easier for an officer in rome...
ok and here the woman she got into a big confusion: she told me at the beginning yes u could put rome....after she told me why not paris?
and after again 'rome is ok'....maybe it could be longer...she even told me to do the medical visit AFTER when the file will pass the missisauga step (i mean when the visa office will call u)...but i know (previous experience) that if yous end all the documents right the way to missisauga (med and criminal checks) it s esier...also because the med certificate will last for 1 year...

so here s the question: what an officer in the visa office in rome will do? his role is to check if ALL THE PROOFS are clear to show our period living together or he s going to have information on my personal s partner private life (like if he pays all the bills or something like that, if he pays taxes in france..)
because if he only have to check the proofs of relationship, no matter where we lived , thery are TANGIBLe and under his/her eyes to evaluate...the only difference is that if he ll be called for an interview or if he ll go to have his visa, well he has to go rome to take it (and that s not a problem for us)
if an officer have to do a check on my partner s private life, well it is sure that maybe is going to take more time because he has to comunicate with paris immigration office (maybe)...

i mean the girl at the counter she was more confused than me...but i kjnow that you guys aren t !!
thanks a lot!!!

ps for people who wants to have information about PR card in Paris...they decided right now NOT TO GIVE ANY INFORMATION ABOUT PERMANENT RESIDENCY iat their visa offices anymore...I had to praise them because i waited there for 40 min!!!

 

[rjessome]

There is no guarantee that the visa officers in Rome can speak Italian. If you want to submit personal emails to any embassy, I suggest you have them translated into English or French. For personal stuff like this, you can translate them yourself.

Yes, the girl was wrong about the medical. Remember that the person you talked to was NOT a visa officer. She is a locally engaged staff member.

Now as far as the VO's job, they will check two things. First that you meet the criteria for being in a common-law relationship. Second is that your relationship is genuine. You have to be objective about your file when preparing to see what the red flags may be that could delay processing and require an interview. You were sponsored to come to Canada yourself and now you are sponsoring a new partner. They may check to see when you met your current partner to ensure you were not already in a relationship with him while in the first relationship. That's just one area that I would address based on your other postings. You just want to ensure that you think of and answer any questions that a VO might have at the outset of the application. Good luck.

 

[mirkopal]

thanks a lot for your advices...
well the only proof that I have that i was no longer in a relationship with my former partner is that we changed house 4 days after we broke up...not living togehter...after that we did not have any contact...
do u think i can ask him to write a letter saying that we were not together when i have started a new relationship? there were only 3 months different between the two...

 

[toby]

I second what rjessome says: the locally-hired staff at a Canada embassy can be quite wrong about immigration matters. I was told by the receptionist at the Beijing embassy to send my application for my wife's permanent residency to beijing, whereas the CIC website is quite definite: send it to Mississauga.

 

[mirkopal]

ok thanks guys...so the thing is
NEVER BELIEVE PEOPLE AT THE COUNTER AT CANADA'S VISA AND IMMIGRATION ABROAD!