More info about relationship - need your opinion&knowledge

[Dawoodal]

My wife, who i have known since the age of 12. our relationship started this year, long distance relationship.

I traveled to the country she resides in and we got married in August. We are legally married, we did an engagement party but did not do the wedding yet. we did not live together for the few remaining days that i stayed due to traditions and religion.

So i visited her and we get married in a court (Legal marriage), we had an engagement party. Then i am back now to Canada and going to start the sponsorship application and once she gets approved. I want to fly back there, do the wedding and move back together to Canada.

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Now here is my concern: we did not live together, no wedding, even our relationship status on Facebook says (Engaged) not married because we want to invite our people to our wedding when it actually happens. no shared bills, insurance, etc.

My plan is to go with the bold story above which is the truth. do you think that story would be accepted?

 

[scylla]

Where are you and your wife from? Which country?

 

[Dawoodal]

Where are you and your wife from? Which country?

We are both originally from Iraq. I am a Canadian citizen and we have got married in her country of residence, Jordan.

 

[niamahmoud]

I sincerely think you should do the wedding first before you apply, that way you have pictures and more proof of a good relationship (as opposed to a marriage of convenience which they might think to be the case considering your case). I know it if difficult with our Islamic traditions to prove and for such things to be accepted but unfortunately this is what’s needed from you.

Have the wedding, take lots of pictures if possible even have a honeymoon....providing more pictures. The more pictures and proof you have the better your application is.

 

[Dawoodal]

I sincerely think you should do the wedding first before you apply, that way you have pictures and more proof of a good relationship (as opposed to a marriage of convenience which they might think to be the case considering your case). I know it if difficult with our Islamic traditions to prove and for such things to be accepted but unfortunately this is what’s needed from you.

Have the wedding, take lots of pictures if possible even have a honeymoon....providing more pictures. The more pictures and proof you have the better your application is.

I just got back from there, not even a month ago. it is very hard financially to just go back and do all of that at the moment. It will waste so much time as well. Shouldn't they know the customs in different cultures/religions?

We have a lot of pictures together that includes, celebration photos, court photos, spending time together, intimate photos, even photos of us when we were kids. i am very concerned.

what do you mean by "marriage of convenience" ?

 

[niamahmoud]

I just got back from there, not even a month ago. it is very hard financially to just go back and do all of that at the moment. It will waste so much time as well. Shouldn't they know the customs in different cultures/religions?

We have a lot of pictures together that includes, celebration photos, court photos, spending time together, intimate photos, even photos of us when we were kids. i am very concerned.

what do you mean by "marriage of convenience" ?

The IRCC’s concern is people getting married to get the citizenship or permanent residency only for that purpose and not an actual marriage/relationship. It is also called marriage fraud.

And that being said, the more proof you have the better is your application.

In the end, it is your decision. I do know the difficulties.

 

[scylla]

I just got back from there, not even a month ago. it is very hard financially to just go back and do all of that at the moment. It will waste so much time as well. Shouldn't they know the customs in different cultures/religions?

We have a lot of pictures together that includes, celebration photos, court photos, spending time together, intimate photos, even photos of us when we were kids. i am very concerned.

what do you mean by "marriage of convenience" ?

Marriage of convenience is a marriage for the primary purpose of facilitating a PR visa.

You should make sure your marriage follows the cultural norms for your country / religion. If it doesn't, that can often create problems for the PR application. If it's normal for people to have a full wedding and very unusual to do a court marriage, then wait until you do the full wedding before you submit the PR application.

 

[Dawoodal]

The IRCC’s concern is people getting married to get the citizenship or permanent residency only for that purpose and not an actual marriage/relationship. It is also called marriage fraud.

And that being said, the more proof you have the better is your application.

In the end, it is your decision. I do know the difficulties.

but it is a real marriage :/. we have plenty of pictures that shows that we are a couple. The "engaged" on Facebook shows plenty of comments congratulating us. conversation history on whatsapp, call history on facebook chat. it shows daily long calls.

 

[Dawoodal]

Marriage of convenience is a marriage for the primary purpose of facilitating a PR visa.

You should make sure your marriage follows the cultural norms for your country / religion. If it doesn't, that can often create problems for the PR application. If it's normal for people to have a full wedding and very unusual to do a court marriage, then wait until you do the full wedding before you submit the PR application.

So i did not want to do the wedding now because i did not want for us to experience the marriage for a week then we will be separated. it would be hard for us. So i wanted to get her approved then i will go back, do the wedding and the honey moon. then come back together. I want to mention the reason behind all of this.

For us being married in Court, in my culture that means she is now my wife 100%. just the wedding did not happen and it is not a necessity in my culture/religion. the reason of the wedding is declaration for people to know and that can be done via facebook for example or the engagement party.

there is another way to do this but i dont want to do it. which is claiming that the engagement party was the celebration or the wedding.

 

[scylla]

So i did not want to do the wedding now because i did not want for us to experience the marriage for a week then we will be separated. it would be hard for us. So i wanted to get her approved then i will go back, do the wedding and the honey moon. then come back together. I want to mention the reason behind all of this.

For us being married in Court, in my culture that means she is now my wife 100%. just the wedding did not happen and it is not a necessity in my culture/religion. the reason of the wedding is declaration for people to know and that can be done via facebook for example or the engagement party.

there is another way to do this but i dont want to do it. which is claiming that the engagement party was the celebration or the wedding.

If it's culturally normal just to do a court marriage and nothing else - then you're fine. In other words, if there are many in your culture who just do the marriage in court and never do the wedding - then you're good.

 

[niamahmoud]

So i did not want to do the wedding now because i did not want for us to experience the marriage for a week then we will be separated. it would be hard for us. So i wanted to get her approved then i will go back, do the wedding and the honey moon. then come back together. I want to mention the reason behind all of this.

For us being married in Court, in my culture that means she is now my wife 100%. just the wedding did not happen and it is not a necessity in my culture/religion. the reason of the wedding is declaration for people to know and that can be done via facebook for example or the engagement party.

there is another way to do this but i dont want to do it. which is claiming that the engagement party was the celebration or the wedding.

I truly understand everything you are saying. But it is understood better in theory than in practical to the IRCC.

Also, you do realize it could take up to 12 months you will be waiting for the approval? Does that mean you won’t intend to visit her in those months? Because that will also be strange considering you are married legally.

 

[Dawoodal]

I truly understand everything you are saying. But it is understood better in theory than in practical to the IRCC.

Also, you do realize it could take up to 12 months you will be waiting for the approval? Does that mean you won’t intend to visit her in those months? Because that will also be strange considering you are married legally.

the airplane cost and all other costs will prevent me from visiting. I prefer saving the money till we do the wedding and go on a good honey moon. plus the biggest obstacle is that i have only 15 days vacation from work every year. Which i used all of them in my visit for this year. if i use some for 2019 for a visit then she gets approved in 2019 hopefully. then i will not have enough vacation days left from work

 

[Jets13]

So i did not want to do the wedding now because i did not want for us to experience the marriage for a week then we will be separated. it would be hard for us. So i wanted to get her approved then i will go back, do the wedding and the honey moon. then come back together. I want to mention the reason behind all of this.

For us being married in Court, in my culture that means she is now my wife 100%. just the wedding did not happen and it is not a necessity in my culture/religion. the reason of the wedding is declaration for people to know and that can be done via facebook for example or the engagement party.

there is another way to do this but i dont want to do it. which is claiming that the engagement party was the celebration or the wedding.

Sorry I am a little confused, if she is now legally your wife why did you not live together or consummate the marriage? You said it was because of tradition and culture? If that is the case then the wedding is not just a declaration to people. Is it that you are technically legally married, but in the eyes of the culture and tradition that doesn't take place until after the wedding? Like would her father be ok with her spending a honeymoon with you without the actual wedding?

In India if you get married in a court you are 100% legally married. But if someone didn't do a big Indian wedding like most do in the culture then that can be something that could draw attention to the file. Not sure if its the same in Iraq.

 

[canuck78]

We have seen previous examples of refusals because the court marriage isn't really a true marriage because you must wait for the wedding ceremony to live together and consummate the marriage. There was a similar case on this forum in the past couple months.
it seems like it is a step in between.

 

[niamahmoud]

We have seen previous examples of refusals because the court marriage isn't really a true marriage because you must wait for the wedding ceremony to live together and consummate the marriage. There was a similar case on this forum in the past couple months.
it seems like it is a step in between.

Exactly what I meant. It makes sense in theory but not in practical. It just makes your application stronger if you finalize the wedding and then apply.