Marriage celebration on daughter's 1st birthday? Can I list this as event in IMM5532?

[Luv4all88]

Hello everyone, I am hoping if you can help me regarding our application/ situation to apply my wife's sponsorship. We are married 2 years and 3 months.

In IMM 5532, there is question asking "Were there formal events to recognize or celebrate your relationship eg engagement ceremony, traditional or customary marriage ceremony, commitment ceremony, partnership ceremony, reception, honeymoon, etc?", and then it asks to list the events..

We had a small marriage ceremony(nikah and rukhsati) of about 20 people and due to my health issues at the time, we decided to hold a celebration later. I stayed with my wife for 4 months during which time my wife became pregnant and once my health issue was resolved it was necessary for me to come back to Canada for financial reasons.
On my next visit we still couldn't hold any event with our families, relatives and friends because my wife gave c.section birth to our daughter so it wasn't easy for her recovery wise and also we were mostly preoccupied for daughter's care. I stayed for 2 months and returned.

My next visit happened to coincide with our daughter's and wife's birthday(same day) in Dec 2023, so we decided to hold an event at a restaurant to celebrate our marriage with our family, relatives and friends on our daughter's 1st birthday as that idea appealed to us at the time and we felt it made our event more special and memorable.

But now I am really confused if I can list this as event to celebrate your relationship as the IMM5532 asks? We have many group photos together and with our daughter to show all our family, friends, and relatives recognize our relationship. But I am not sure how the immigration will perceive this, or will they see it as unusual if I list birthday of our daughter and wife as event? (while decoration is presented as birth day, balloons, cake etc, it clearly shows our relationship, married couple with daughter, photos with almost everyone, and I am giving my wife and daughter some jewelry as gifts since I couldn't give my wife anything much special on our actual marriage day).

 

[scylla]

Hello everyone, I am hoping if you can help me regarding our application/ situation to apply my wife's sponsorship. We are married 2 years and 3 months.

In IMM 5532, there is question asking "Were there formal events to recognize or celebrate your relationship eg engagement ceremony, traditional or customary marriage ceremony, commitment ceremony, partnership ceremony, reception, honeymoon, etc?", and then it asks to list the events..

We had a small marriage ceremony(nikah and rukhsati) of about 20 people and due to my health issues at the time, we decided to hold a celebration later. I stayed with my wife for 4 months during which time my wife became pregnant and once my health issue was resolved it was necessary for me to come back to Canada for financial reasons.
On my next visit we still couldn't hold any event with our families, relatives and friends because my wife gave c.section birth to our daughter so it wasn't easy for her recovery wise and also we were mostly preoccupied for daughter's care. I stayed for 2 months and returned.

My next visit happened to coincide with our daughter's and wife's birthday(same day) in Dec 2023, so we decided to hold an event at a restaurant to celebrate our marriage with our family, relatives and friends on our daughter's 1st birthday as that idea appealed to us at the time and we felt it made our event more special and memorable.

But now I am really confused if I can list this as event to celebrate your relationship as the IMM5532 asks? We have many group photos together and with our daughter to show all our family, friends, and relatives recognize our relationship. But I am not sure how the immigration will perceive this, or will they see it as unusual if I list birthday of our daughter and wife as event? (while decoration is presented as birth day, balloons, cake etc, it clearly documents our relationship, photos with almost everyone, and I am giving my wife and daughter some jewelry as gifts since I couldn't give my wife anything much special on our actual marriage day).

No, you would not list your daughter's birthday. This question relates to marriage ceremonies, engagements, commitment ceremonies, etc. So in your case you would include information about your marriage.

 

[Luv4all88]

I am super confused now, so celebrating our daughter's 1st birthday together cannot be accepted as commitment ceremony? esp when most of the event is also showing our relationship is being recognized?

Because if I cannot list this as event, it would delay our application more as our anniversary is in Feb and I am not comfortable submitting it without a marriage event to list it in the IMM5532 since we had a small ceremony in this 1st place even though we have lots of other proofs(visits, financial, chats, outings).

 

[scylla]

I am super confused now, so celebrating our daughter's 1st birthday together cannot be accepted as commitment ceremony? esp when most of the event is also showing our relationship is being recognized?

Because if I cannot list this as event, it would delay our application more as our anniversary is in Feb and I am not comfortable submitting it without a marriage event to list it in the IMM5532 since we had a small ceremony in this 1st place even though we have lots of other proofs(visits, financial, chats, outings).

A birthday is not a commitment ceremony. A commitment ceremony is a specific type of ceremony that two individuals may do in lieu of getting married.

You should list your marriage here only.

If you want to mention other events such as the birthday party that supports your relationship, then you can do that in an LOE.

 

[armoured]

My next visit happened to coincide with our daughter's and wife's birthday(same day) in Dec 2023, so we decided to hold an event at a restaurant to celebrate our marriage with our family, relatives and friends on our daughter's 1st birthday as that idea appealed to us at the time and we felt it made our event more special and memorable.

But now I am really confused if I can list this as event to celebrate your relationship as the IMM5532 asks? We have many group photos together and with our daughter to show all our family, friends, and relatives recognize our relationship. But I am not sure how the immigration will perceive this, or will they see it as unusual if I list birthday of our daughter and wife as event? (while decoration is presented as birth day, balloons, cake etc, it clearly shows our relationship, married couple with daughter, photos with almost everyone, and I am giving my wife and daughter some jewelry as gifts since I couldn't give my wife anything much special on our actual marriage day).

I don't see any reason not to include this information - personally I think the question of whether you include it as 'relationship/marriage' celebration or general relationship support is irrelevant.

But you will in either case need to have LOE to explain that you did not have the marriage etc ceremonies because [reasons], but you did have the 1 year daughter's birthday celebration with guests similar to wedding.

Background: we did include baptism celebration because it was larger than our wedding (we got married much closer to date of application in small ceremony - well after birth of daughter - as we couldn't get married for a while for techincal reasons.)

@scylla believes you shouldn't, I don't think it's so clear cut as you're going to have a letter of explanation anyway, so you'll have to decide.

 

[YVR123]

Hello everyone, I am hoping if you can help me regarding our application/ situation to apply my wife's sponsorship. We are married 2 years and 3 months.

In IMM 5532, there is question asking "Were there formal events to recognize or celebrate your relationship eg engagement ceremony, traditional or customary marriage ceremony, commitment ceremony, partnership ceremony, reception, honeymoon, etc?", and then it asks to list the events..

We had a small marriage ceremony(nikah and rukhsati) of about 20 people and due to my health issues at the time, we decided to hold a celebration later. I stayed with my wife for 4 months during which time my wife became pregnant and once my health issue was resolved it was necessary for me to come back to Canada for financial reasons.
On my next visit we still couldn't hold any event with our families, relatives and friends because my wife gave c.section birth to our daughter so it wasn't easy for her recovery wise and also we were mostly preoccupied for daughter's care. I stayed for 2 months and returned.

My next visit happened to coincide with our daughter's and wife's birthday(same day) in Dec 2023, so we decided to hold an event at a restaurant to celebrate our marriage with our family, relatives and friends on our daughter's 1st birthday as that idea appealed to us at the time and we felt it made our event more special and memorable.

But now I am really confused if I can list this as event to celebrate your relationship as the IMM5532 asks? We have many group photos together and with our daughter to show all our family, friends, and relatives recognize our relationship. But I am not sure how the immigration will perceive this, or will they see it as unusual if I list birthday of our daughter and wife as event? (while decoration is presented as birth day, balloons, cake etc, it clearly shows our relationship, married couple with daughter, photos with almost everyone, and I am giving my wife and daughter some jewelry as gifts since I couldn't give my wife anything much special on our actual marriage day).

My respond is a mix of the previous 2 replies.

You just pick a date that happens to be your child's birthday and include decoration for birth day as well as your marriage. The fact is that you held an event to celebrate your marriage with your family and relatives. So include that in the form and include a letter of explanation.

 

[Luv4all88]

ok thanks everyone for your replies, I am thinking of listing the event as marriage celebration in the IMM5532, and write a LOE so that I can explain how/why doing it on our daughter's birthday made it more meaningful or special for us. Hopefully it won't come across as misleading. Because if I choose not to list it where the question asks for ceremonies, events, it would make no sense or just go against us as I feel the visa officer might wonder why I didn't list it since it shows our relationship/marriage much more/better than the actual marriage day due to our situation at the time.

 

[armoured]

and write a LOE so that I can explain how/why doing it on our daughter's birthday made it more meaningful or special for us. Hopefully it won't come across as misleading.

Oh, puke. Please don't get all prolix about why it's more meaningful. Short, factual: you could not have the marriage celebration as intended because [reasons.] You substituted / combined celebrations with your daughter's birthday as and when you could, because you were better and out of the country in between.

It's not a romance novel, save the purple prose for toasts at family events, where the 'more meaningful' stuff might be impressive.

 

[Luv4all88]

ok thanks, I was trying to overly explain so that it was clear to officer that it wasn't just meant to be a birthday, but now will mention it as combined marriage & birthday celebration in IMM5532 and attach a short LOE. I guess from pics they will be able to make out that it was a combined event.

 

[armoured]

ok thanks, I was trying to overly explain so that it was clear to officer that it wasn't just meant to be a birthday, but now will mention it as combined marriage & birthday celebration in IMM5532 and attach a short LOE. I guess from pics they will be able to make out that it was a combined event.

Sure, write that, just skip the flowery language (it was the 'meaningful' part I found objectiionable). I wouldn't emphasize the 'combined marriage event' per se but this was the family/friends event that you held (combined with birthday of daughter) because you hadn't been able to when you got married.

[The distinction may sound trivial, and maybe it is/depends on culture possibly?; it just sounds to me like overcompensating/defensive to call it a combined marriage event. Made it a bigger thing because we hadn't been able to have a proper marriage party sounds better to me. But really, perhaps it's just me and my tight-ass upbringing.]

We had this christening event outside Canada and a 'family event' in Canada (forget what we called it, but similar to yours), photos etc. These are helpful to profile/relationship case.

Again, I really only differ from others in this thread in thinking that what is put for the marriage ceremony question is not the principle question, since there's going to be a letter of explanation anyway.