Multiple TRV refusals and their impact on PRV

[MilesAway]

Hi everyone,

I've been reading this forum daily for quite a while now. Have pulled a few all-nighters even, reading up on the process and others' experiences. So, now I would like to ask a few questions from our resident experts if that's alright.

My partner is Russian. We first met while I was in Russia studying. We became close friends and the relationship progressed from there. I'm hesitant to note, but it should be noted, that she was still married at the time. Her divorce is in the process of being finalised (her husband has found someone else also, and she is married too, so it's a big complicated thing, but I digress). I think it was around April 2010 when things started getting serious. I went back to Canada in June 2010 as my visa had expired and I didn't have enough money to stay in Russia.

The months apart were extremely difficult, and I didn't have the vacation time at my job to go visit her. So in December 2010 she applied for a TRV to come visit me in February 2011. She was refused due to insufficient funds and that the officer was not convinced she would return to Russia. We applied again shortly thereafter, and I sent her money hoping that would help, but it didn't. The second refusal came for the same reasons. At that point we had lost about 1000$ in application costs, events we had planned here and notary costs, not to mention the plane tickets (she did finally manage to exchange them for tickets for me to go to Russia in May 2011). So I visited in May 2011 for 5 days (stupid job...) and did some job interviews here. I got a job teaching English and moved back to Russia in August 2011.
I have seen her every day since then, but we didn't live together due to the marriage/divorce proceedings.


She has a business contact in Toronto who invited her to Canada in July to attend a hockey camp and build a stronger business relationship in regards to growing women's hockey in Russia. So she applied for a visa in May, and only got her refusal yesterday, over 2 months later, and 3 weeks after the intended trip. The refusal reason? "No compelling reason to travel". Well, possibly because the trip has come and gone? There was the typical 2nd reason of lack of ties to Russia.


So my problem is as follows. We have already bought tickets to the Women's World Hockey Championships in Ottawa, in April 2013. Given her history of refusals, I'm not overly optimistic, however I don't foresee my hometown hosting the world again in the near future, and it would be fantastic to see such high-calibre hockey in my home city. I was there for the 1990 (91?) championships as a 5 year old.

Is CIC likely to be more lenient for a high-profile sporting event? Should we even bother applying? And if we do apply and are refused again, how would that impact our future PRV application (I'm thinking late 2013-early 2014 as common-law spouses, because getting married is not an option in Russia. In fact, even declaring common-law isn't an option as I would risk losing my job under the new anti-gay propaganda laws.)

Any ideas on this topic? I know it's far in advance, but we're wondering if we should just cancel our tickets and give up.


Canada, it's a great country, but we won't allow anyone to visit it. :

 

[OhCanadiana]

Hello!

Can you elaborate/clarify if your goal is to are stay in Russia and visit Canada for the championship or if you want to move back to Canada with your partner?

Thanks!

 

[MilesAway]

My goal is to stay in Russia, just to go home for the championship for a visit.

We would only be applying to move to Canada in late 2013, so 6 months or more after the championship.

 

[OhCanadiana]

My goal is to stay in Russia, just to go home for the championship for a visit.

We would only be applying to move to Canada in late 2013, so 6 months or more after the championship.

Thanks for clarifying. I have a question on the second part and address that below. Let me address the TRV first.

If you decide to apply again for a TRV, the key will be to show she has very strong ties to Russia so that there's no question she'll be heading back there. If you visit the visitor section forum, folks may have some specific suggestions that they can share with you. I would also consider including ties you have to Russia to show that she will have incentive to head back with you to Russia and that she is unlikely to stay in Canada. It will be hard given that she's been refused before but you can try.

You may want to consider ordering the CAIPS notes for her prior applications to see the details of why she was refused to try to address those concerns specifically in your next application.

The second part of your answer introduces a twist depending on what you mean by "applying to move to Canada in late 2013."
- If you mean you plan to submit your application in late 2013 then ... good luck with your TRV! Unless you are flexible in which case read (ii) below.
- However, if you mean you both want to move in late 2013 then it's a bit trickier because you will need to apply to sponsor her before that (to give the application time to process). That has two implications: (i) folks report it's much harder to get a TRV after applying for sponsorship so you'll want to keep that in mind and (ii) you may want to consider applying for sponsorship now (under conjugal partners, if it applies - your comment on "declaring common-law isn't an option as I would risk losing my job under the new anti-gay propaganda laws" indicates you may be able to make the case) and hope it gets approved quickly enough so that she gets approved in time and you can use her PR visa to land during the game and then return to Russia to wrap things up for 6 months and head back to Canada. You'll need to set a cancel ticket if we haven't been approved deadline and live with the uncertainty.

 

[MilesAway]

Thanks so much for the reply!

I didn't realize that we could get CAIPS notes for TRV applications, for some reason, I thought those were only available for immigration cases.

Yes, we would only be submitting the PRV application in late 2013, with the intention of moving in late 2014, ideally June-August 2014 as my contracts always end in June (I'm an English teacher, under contract through the school year, freelance in the summer).


I'm not sure what else I can do to convince them really. While I was in Canada, I made it crystal clear to them that I was planning on moving back to Russia, so not sure why they would have though that she would stay in Canada. Her husband was staying in Russia, so that would be some incentive to return, one would think. Same with this application, the idea was for a business proposal to help grow and improve women's hockey in Russia, so how can she do that if she stays in Canada? Do the VO uses their brains or is it lobotomised during the hiring process? (Sorry, just a bit frustrated).


As for the common-law thing, I know we could get some proof, but not nearly as much "official" proof as if we were a hetero couple. We are going to try to get a joint bank account, although I'm not overly optimistic and it might be a hassle here. Her name is on the lease, not mine, because I'm a foreigner. We don't get mail of any kind so that's out. It's a cash society, so I don't have records of big purchases. But I will deal with all this when the time comes to apply. I've started collecting things already, including 650 e-mails, 2 archives of msn chat, a few thousand facebook messages and some messages from Russian facebook, accumulated over time, clearly showing how we went from friends to partners.


I am long-winded, and I do apologize for that.

I have faith that it will work out in the long run, but I still want her to see my hometown, to see the world championships and to meet my folks.