Hey thanks to everyone here for the well wishes! We were just as surprised as you, despite the huge odds of being refused (TRV from a high overstay risk country: Vietnam, married to a Canadian), but we're so ecstatic about being approved for it. Yes she got an email that confirms the TRV has been approved, and she was also instructed to go pick up her passport this afternoon (her time), so I won't know myself whether she got a single entry or multiple, or for how long it's valid, but I'll know after I wake up tomorrow, and I"ll keep you guys posted!
I think after this TRV application became approved from a tough country, I'm convinced more so than ever, that having a detailed and comprehensive application package can overcome long processing times and overcome obstacles like red flags, whether its a PR or TRV. My wife's red flags with the TRV are that she is married to a Canadian, is from Vietnam, and does not own property or a business, just has a bank account with money. CIC says the avg. processing time for TRVs in her country is 36 days, but she got approved in 21 days with no interview or request for additional docs.
Both of us really worked hard on the TRV (my wife took a couple days off to work on it), we sent in a lot of extra documents that CIC did not ask for, such as my income tax returns, my wife's personal letter to CIC, photos of us together, proof of insurance for her stay, hotel booking info for our future trip to Europe in December along with detailed plans and itinerary, household registry confirming she has lived in her house her entire life with her family, showed BOTH her Vietnamese and USA criminal record checks, etc. I think this really helped boost our chances.
I also credit the fact that we both chose to handwrite our letters instead of typing them (gives a more personal feel), her bank account had only her money (I did not help "top up" her bank, which commonly leads to refusal), our extra documents were all on one PDF file that was so organized, the officer only needs to click on the links to be immediately directed to a specific document and also has a link that allows them to return to the main page. Also for the "Purpose of Visit", which is a common reason for people to be refused, we didn't just simply say "My wife's purpose is to visit me", we were VERY detailed. I gave a timeline of what we're going to do on each day she's here, we submitted proof of a hotel booked in Vancouver when we go there, we indicated where we will go, what we will do, etc.
Our letters to CIC were very detailed and we made sure to indicate why she's a genuine tourist: the fact we have a future trip to Europe planned, complete with itinerary and booked hotels, the fact I visited my wife many times, but she's never visited me once, the fact that when she's here I will continue to work in order to support both of us, etc. Even though pics are optional, I think sending in pics are a good idea because when the VO sees your spouse's face and see you guys together, it will sort of give them a good feeling about you and whether you "look" like a good person who won't overstay, yeah I know it sounds kind of discriminatory, but these things happen I think.
Anyway, enough with my blabbering, I'll let you guys know tomorrow morning how long her visa is valid for. By the way, she's going to land here in 3 weeks and we're going to stay for about a month. We don't plan on extending her stay, because we've seen a few cases where the applicant was refused entry a 2nd time because they stayed longer than what they asked for, even when allowed by the visa officer. So because of that, we want to keep her on good terms with CIC, and so we won't stay longer than what we asked for. It's ok because after she goes home in late September, it's only a couple months away before we go to Europe!
Also, congrats on the people who got PR cards and DMs!! Oborinini, I'm really happy your wife is watching our progress, we're really touched, and I wish you guys nothing but the best, your PR application seems to be going real great! Calgary_man sorry about your TRV refusal, hope the rest of your PR application will go smoothly.
