Marriage location from spousal sponsorship perspective

[ilya.can.visa]

Hi,

Myself and my girlfriend just got engaged and are planning to get married soon. I intend to sponsor her as a spouse to come to Canada and start a family. I am a Canadian citizen and she is not. However, she does have a visitor visa for about another 3 years and have stayed with me in Canada for 2 months last summer / autumn. We are now thinking of all which needs to be done and in which sequence. One of the questions that came up is what is the best location to get married. Since we are planning to live in Canada, we thought that it makes sense to register the marriage in Canada, so that there is potentially less need for translations and notarial certifications, and Immigration Canada will receive a genuine Canadian marriage certificate with the sponsorship application. Here is the full list of questions:

1. What are the pros and cons of registering a marriage in Canada vs within my fiancee's country?
2. We want to register the marriage before having an official celebration, which we are planning for the summer. Would that be an issue from the point of view of proving the genuineness of the relationship? Since there will be no wedding photos yet when applying for sponsorship (as soon as possible after getting married)?
3. Would getting married in Canada have any effect on my fiancee's visitor visa? And for that matter, would her having a visitor visa be considered undesirable from sponsorship application point of view?
4. If we get married in Canada and she goes back to her current home country, would outland sponsorship application be an issue? From what I understand, outland application is faster, but I am just not sure whether a Canadian marriage certificate would be undesirable for outland applications, e.g. it makes more sense to have foreign marriage certificate for outland applications from Canada Immigrations point of view?

Any insights / guidance would be very much appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

 

[DollyM]

It doesn't matter where you get married as long as both parties are present for the marriage ceremony (the legal portion where you do vows and sign the register) and the marriage is legal in the jurisdiction where you marry. Your fiance can come to Canada as a visitor and get married on her visitor's visa no problem.

 

[ilya.can.visa]

Thanks for the reply. Would getting married in Canada nullify the visitor visa? Or the next entry to Canada would need to be a different visa type, as we would officially be married at that time, e.g. the border officer may deny entry?

 

[canuck_in_uk]

Hi,

Myself and my girlfriend just got engaged and are planning to get married soon. I intend to sponsor her as a spouse to come to Canada and start a family. I am a Canadian citizen and she is not. However, she does have a visitor visa for about another 3 years and have stayed with me in Canada for 2 months last summer / autumn. We are now thinking of all which needs to be done and in which sequence. One of the questions that came up is what is the best location to get married. Since we are planning to live in Canada, we thought that it makes sense to register the marriage in Canada, so that there is potentially less need for translations and notarial certifications, and Immigration Canada will receive a genuine Canadian marriage certificate with the sponsorship application. Here is the full list of questions:

1. What are the pros and cons of registering a marriage in Canada vs within my fiancee's country?
2. We want to register the marriage before having an official celebration, which we are planning for the summer. Would that be an issue from the point of view of proving the genuineness of the relationship? Since there will be no wedding photos yet when applying for sponsorship (as soon as possible after getting married)?
3. Would getting married in Canada have any effect on my fiancee's visitor visa? And for that matter, would her having a visitor visa be considered undesirable from sponsorship application point of view?
4. If we get married in Canada and she goes back to her current home country, would outland sponsorship application be an issue? From what I understand, outland application is faster, but I am just not sure whether a Canadian marriage certificate would be undesirable for outland applications, e.g. it makes more sense to have foreign marriage certificate for outland applications from Canada Immigrations point of view?

Any insights / guidance would be very much appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

1. Get married wherever you want.

2. Even if you are only having a civil wedding, take photos. Have people there. Make something of it.

3. Getting married does nothing to her TRV.

4. You can apply outland if you want. Where you get married and how you apply has nothing to do with each other. It is perfectly fine to marry in Canada and apply outland.

 

[ilya.can.visa]

Thank you for the response.

With regards to #3, where getting married doesn't affect the TRV. When she visited the first and only time, the border officer requested to see the copy of my invitation letter. No issues there. Now, after our status changes, when we are officially husband and wife, would specifying in invitation letter that she is visiting her husband in Canada be an issue at the border? The officer may consider that suspicious, since there is now motivation for her to stay for a long time while not yet having the permanent residence status. Especially if an outland sponsorship application is in progress, where Immigration Canada may prefer the applicant to stay out of the country until decision is made.

I may be overthinking this, but I just wanted to collect as much information as possible, to make sure we comply with the various conditions.

Thanks again.

 

[canuck_in_uk]

Thank you for the response.

With regards to #3, where getting married doesn't affect the TRV. When she visited the first and only time, the border officer requested to see the copy of my invitation letter. No issues there. Now, after our status changes, when we are officially husband and wife, would specifying in invitation letter that she is visiting her husband in Canada be an issue at the border? The officer may consider that suspicious, since there is now motivation for her to stay for a long time while not yet having the permanent residence status. Especially if an outland sponsorship application is in progress, where Immigration Canada may prefer the applicant to stay out of the country until decision is made.

I may be overthinking this, but I just wanted to collect as much information as possible, to make sure we comply with the various conditions.

Thanks again.

She doesn't need an invitation letter. She just says that she is visiting her spouse.

 

[Addus]

On the where to get married thing.

I’m British and my spouse is Canadian (we live in Canada) and we got married on the spur of the moment in Las Vegas, US during a vacation (we didn’t plan it until we were there and we didn’t consider the immigration aspect at all). We had no guests but we still got lots of pictures and video.
Once we were back we headed to the uk to celebrate with my family and also had a celebration here in Canada.

We just got decision made last week and cic had no problem with how we got married (we included an explanation etc and they never asked for more) so at least in our experience how you get married is not necessarily super important when combined with other proof.

Might not be super relevant but I thought you might want to hear a case where it screams “red flag” because we had no family/friends at wedding and didn’t do it on our home countries but where it all worked out in the end. So I think you might be over thinking how important where you get married is. What’s important is the overall narrative of your relationship.

 

[canuck78]

On the where to get married thing.

I’m British and my spouse is Canadian (we live in Canada) and we got married on the spur of the moment in Las Vegas, US during a vacation (we didn’t plan it until we were there and we didn’t consider the immigration aspect at all). We had no guests but we still got lots of pictures and video.
Once we were back we headed to the uk to celebrate with my family and also had a celebration here in Canada.

We just got decision made last week and cic had no problem with how we got married (we included an explanation etc and they never asked for more) so at least in our experience how you get married is not necessarily super important when combined with other proof.

Might not be super relevant but I thought you might want to hear a case where it screams “red flag” because we had no family/friends at wedding and didn’t do it on our home countries but where it all worked out in the end. So I think you might be over thinking how important where you get married is.

Tends to depend on the citizenships involved. No benefit of becoming a Canadian if you are from US, UK, Australia, most European countries, Japan, etc. Sudden or quick marriages between Canadians an citizens from countries that aren't as wealthy, stable and generous with their social policies are looked at more carefully.

 

[Addus]

Tends to depend on the citizenships involved. No benefit of becoming a Canadian if you are from US, UK, Australia, most European countries, Japan, etc. Sudden or quick marriages between Canadians an citizens from countries that aren't as wealthy, stable and generous with their social policies are looked at more carefully.

Of course. In our case it wasn’t quick either. It was sudden but we had been together 3 years.
I don’t discount that the wedding is important, just that it’s part of a bigger picture which is more important.

 

[ilya.can.visa]

She doesn't need an invitation letter. She just says that she is visiting her spouse.

Thanks once again. Final clarification: when she comes here before getting married here, does she need invitation letter? Since we are still not married at that border crossing, but will be on the next. If yes, then what can the invitation letter say, can it say fiancee? Or can she say to the border officer that she is visiting her fiancee?

Thanks again!

 

[ilya.can.visa]

Of course. In our case it wasn’t quick either. It was sudden but we had been together 3 years.
I don’t discount that the wedding is important, just that it’s part of a bigger picture which is more important.

Thanks Addus, and yes, I am certain that for British citizens the rules are more relaxed, as well as for some other countries as Canuck78 mentioned. There is not even a need to have a visa to visit Canada.

 

[canuck_in_uk]

Thanks once again. Final clarification: when she comes here before getting married here, does she need invitation letter? Since we are still not married at that border crossing, but will be on the next. If yes, then what can the invitation letter say, can it say fiancee? Or can she say to the border officer that she is visiting her fiancee?

Thanks again!

No, she doesn't need an invitation letter when entering.

 

[ilya.can.visa]

No, she doesn't need an invitation letter when entering.

Thanks once again. While I understand that she doesn't need an invitation letter when entering, is there any risk saying that she is visiting her fiance (since this is before getting married)? Or it is better to say that she is visiting her spouse (but we are not yet married)?

 

[canuck_in_uk]

Thanks once again. While I understand that she doesn't need an invitation letter when entering, is there any risk saying that she is visiting her fiance (since this is before getting married)? Or it is better to say that she is visiting her spouse (but we are not yet married)?

Never better to lie. Visiting a fiance is fine.

 

[DollyM]

Thanks once again. While I understand that she doesn't need an invitation letter when entering, is there any risk saying that she is visiting her fiance (since this is before getting married)? Or it is better to say that she is visiting her spouse (but we are not yet married)?

Why would she say she is visiting her spouse when she's not married to you? There is no reason to lie to immigration, EVER.