Married in Canada, Living/Returning to Colombia

[cinc]

Hello,

My fiance and I both live in Colombia (I am Canadian, he is Colombian). I have worked here for four years and he is from here, currently enrolled as a full time student. He visited Canada with me Summer 2011 on a single-entry visitor's Visa. We want to get married December 2012 in Canada, and have recently applied for a multiple-entry visitor's Visa. I'm extremely worried about him getting this as we did disclose that we are planning on getting married but both he and I have reason to come back to Colombia. I was told by numerous people that it was better to be honest, but from reading many posts on the forums that doesn't seem to be the case. We hope to receive the answer in the next two or three weeks. My questions are:

1. Will it be helpful that he has already visited Canada once and returned?
2. Will it be helpful that I have reason to (have to) come back to Colombia?
3. If the Visa is denied, any suggestions of what to do next?
4. If denied and we get married in Colombia and reapply without the wedding in Canada, would we stand a chance at the Visa?
5. Could we have applied for a Visa without mentioning the plan to marry, gotten married, and returned to Colombia without a problem?

I'm concerned because I've read that they won't give him the Visa because they will think he's going to stay in Canada, however BOTH of us live and are set up in Colombia. Eventually (years) we will likely move to Canada (if all goes as planned) and we really didn't want to do anything that would effect or jeopardize our future.

Any answers or advice for next steps are greatly appreciated. Thank you!

 

[frolic]

1. Will it be helpful that he has already visited Canada once and returned?
2. Will it be helpful that I have reason to (have to) come back to Colombia?
3. If the Visa is denied, any suggestions of what to do next?
4. If denied and we get married in Colombia and reapply without the wedding in Canada, would we stand a chance at the Visa?
5. Could we have applied for a Visa without mentioning the plan to marry, gotten married, and returned to Colombia without a problem?

1. It is helpful that he has shown already that he followed the rules of his previous visa.
2. Showing any reasons to return will help his case. Showing your reasons to return as well will only help.
3. Visa is denied you do what everyone else has to... marry somewhere else.
4. Wedding in Columbia is just as legal as one in Canada in the eyes of CIC. Applying for a temp visa then would still be problematic and perhaps even more so because you are then married and once he is in Canada you could turn around and do the in-Canada application for PRV.
5. Best to be honest because you dont want them marking you down as commited fraud at any time. That would cause huge problems for the future.

 

[cinc]

Frolic,
Thanks very much for your reply. The application is on it's way to the VAC so our fingers are crossed.

 

[cinc]

GREAT NEWS! He received a six year multiple entry Visa!!!! There is hope!

 

[divermonty]

May I ask you a question?? I am from Canada but have resided in Honduras for the last 7 years, my girlfriend and I both work as dive instructors on the island of Roatan and she too is Colombian. I am heading back to Canada in August 2012, and would love for her to see Canada. However by doing some research here we are finding it to be very difficult to obtain her a visa. Would you have any advice on getting us started in the right direction. We are aware that she will have to return to Medellin to start the process.... Any advice would be muchly appreciated... congrats on his 6 years extension....

Thank you

Monty & Margarita

 

[cinc]

Hi Monty,

Yes, it does seem difficult, but clearly not impossible. We have been successful twice now and two people I work with eventually (after a couple of tries) got Visa's for their boyfriends. We tried to put together the most complete package possible and included these things (which may or may not have been helpful) on top of the basic required documents both times that we applied:

- letter of invitation letter from everyone in my immediate family that included their profession, address, passport number, also stating that they would be providing free accommodations
- my fiance wrote a letter explaining his trip and connections to Colombia
- I wrote a letter of invitation explaining my connection to coming back to Colombia
- letter from my place of employment in Colombia saying that I would be in the middle of a contract in December
- daily itinerary of what we would be doing, who we would be staying with, address, expected cost (this was challenging to do when he visited for six weeks but might show that you have a very specific tourist visit planned) while in Canada.
- letter from my fiancé's parents' places of employment (he is a student with very minimal income) as well as a letter from them saying that they would financially help in his trip and explaining how important their only son was to them in their life (trying to show intent to return to Colombia)
- letter from the University my fiance attends showing that he was currently enrolled

Something else that I'm not sure helped or not was that he has travelled throughout South America. I'm not sure that it helped or not but some people told me it would look good for him to have stamps in his passport.

Other things that I don't know if they are helpful for you to know or not:

- He speaks English so everything was written in English. In our application the first time for a single entry visa we were friends, not boyfriend/girlfriend. In our second application for the multiple entry visa we were engaged.

- We tried to apply for him to come in December but were told at the VAC in Bogota that we could not apply more than four months in advance. We went home, wrote a letter explaining that we needed to plan a wedding, which is why we were applying early and returned the next day with the letter and applied again.

- I'm pretty sure you can't apply in Medellin, but that it has to be in Bogota where the VAC/Embassy are.

- We applied on May 15th, received the Visa on June 14th (high season). The first time it took 23 calendar days. I mention this because the wait was stressful for me.

- Everyone I spoke with/read from, said no matter what tell the truth. We did and in the end it worked out for us. So, for your sanity, it would be best to tell the truth.

If you have any other questions, don't hesitate to ask. I'm on vacation in Canada right now so my response time might be a few days but I will do my best to help. Good luck!

 

[frolic]

GREAT NEWS! He received a six year multiple entry Visa!!!! There is hope!

Glad it worked out for you.

 

[OrangeMark]

I hope that you might be able to shed some light on how your situation evolved. I am very curious how everything worked out.

In a similar situation, I am from the US and my wife (colombian) and I were married in the US. We would like to move to Colombia in about two or three years. We would like to get married in Colombia and begin the process now, so that when we do move, things might be a bit easier.

Thanks for the update if you are still on the site.

 

[cinc]

Hello,

I randomly come on here from time to time to see how things are going for other people. In a nutshell it's all worked out very well. My husband got his multiple-entry visa in June 2012 after being totally honest in our application saying we were planning on getting married. We married in Canada, December 2012, returned to Colombia in January and have been living here ever since. We applied for his permanent residency in March 2013 thinking it would take the 17 months listed online for him to receive it and then have a year from his medicals to land in Canada. Much to our surprise, he got an email asking for his passport saying his Permanent Residency Visa five months later in August 2013. Luckily it's good for a year so we don't have to rush and will be moving to Canada in July 2014.

We didn't have to get married in Colombia though. I'm not sure if that's more of what you're asking about. I have two friends that married Colombians in the States and live here with their husbands in Colombia with no wedding in Colombia necessary.

 

[mmjmcmackin]

Hey. So I read your story and it is very similar to what my fiance and I will be going through shortly. Can I ask, how did the move go? Did you have an agency or someone helping you with the application for the permanent residency visa?

 

[cinc]

Hello,
Sorry for the delayed response. Everything went great! We have been here for almost three years. Let me know if you have any questions.

 

[cinc]

Oh, and no help needed. I just followed the guidelines closely and sent them a ton of pictures, wedding cards, etc. (that were all returned to me). I wouldn't spend the money to hire someone unless you are tight for time or feel really uncomfortable completing it.