My grandmother was denied supervisa, please help.

[Patrick H]

Hello, this is my first post. Hello. I live in Montreal with my 2 sisters, mother and father . We are all Canadian Citizens except my grandmother.My grandmother had to return to Colombia, South America as her 2 year visa was up in August. She has a sister and a son that both are living in Colombia . We enjoyed very much her being with us and we urged her to apply for a super visa. Upon her return we helped her to apply and got all the necessary papers including Canadian medical insurance, health papers etc. She also renewed her passport as well. Her first 2 year visa went well and yesterday we got the notice that her super visa application is refused. Reasons being proof funds, previous voyages, family ties in Canada and Colombia, reason for her visit and her assets and finances. Nothing has changed for her since she first applied for the 2 year visa.
What can we do to correct this.? She was always staying with us and hope to have her here for Christmas. Will applying for a 2 year regular visa help instead. Thank you.

 

[scylla]

It sounds like she needs to provide stronger evidence of ties to her home country.

When you say that she was here on a 2 year visa - was it a super visa or a regular visitor visa? Was she in Canada for 2 years straight?

 

[Patrick H]

Thanks Scylla. I will ask my father what kind of visa she had. Yes, she stayed a full 2 years with us also babysitting my 4 year old sister and doing housework and cooking while my parents were working and my sister and I were in school. She is 55 years old and her husband ( my grandfather) died in Colombia not long ago. Her ties to Colombia is a sister and a son who live apart and she has a house ( condo) that she owns but rents out when she is away. I will let you know what type of visa she had tomorrow. I was just wondering if she can reapply for that same visa instead, so maybe she will be accepted.

 

[scylla]

If she spent two years straight in Canada - then it's too soon for her to be applying for another visit to Canada. To CIC, it most likely looks like she is trying to use visitor visas to live in Canada - which she is not allowed to do. I would expect if she applies for a super visa or regular visa again now she will be refused for being unable to demonstrate strong ties to her home country.

I would recommend she remain in her country for 6-8 months before attempting to apply for another visitor visa (or super visa) to Canada.

 

[Patrick H]

She came in with a regular visitor visa which expired this August. She does not have much money in Colombia except for a small condo that she owns, fully paid, and has a sister and son who live separately in their own homes. Perhaps I should have mentioned that during her stay in Montreal she was dating a Canadian for 18 months and were discussing marriage plans for the future. They genuinely love each other. Her fiancee is taking care of his 94 year old father who owns a home and the fiancee has not worked for over 15 years as he was also taking full-time care of his mother as well who passed away this July. Both his parents have a high diabetes. My grandmother's fiancee's father wishes she lives and takes care of him full-time this way her fiancee can go back to work again. Her fiancee said that if he knew she was going to be refused her visa that he would have married her while she was still in Canada and go through the process of spousal sponsorship. Her fiancee's father fully paid for the house valued at $550,000 and offered my grandmother and his son to permanently live with him until he dies. I know they were going to get married some time next year and also that my grandmother would love to be able to go back and forth to Colombia when she can to visit her family on a regular basis once she is marries and has financial support by her husband. Colombia is a very poor country . She stayed two years here because the airline tickets are expensive to go back and forth twice a year.
What do you suggest they do ? Thank you so much for your time to answer.

 

[scylla]

None of this informaiton changes my answer. She needs to spend a number of months outside of Canada before attempting to apply for a visa again if she wants a good chance of being approved. She can certainly apply again now if she wants to. Chances are she's going to be refused again. If she is, her fiance would have to fly to Colombia to marry her there and then sponsor her for PR so that she can come to Canada.

Hopefully when she cam on the regular visitor visa she kept applying for extensions to be legally allowed to remain in Canada - and didn't just stay two straight years without applying for an extension.

 

[Patrick H]

Thanks Scylla. No, she stayed 2 straight years as she thought that was it and had to re-apply in Colombia again. She had no knowledge of extension. She really wants to go back to Colombia from time to time because of family but on the other hand she also has her daughter with 3 grandchildren here as well. Her fiancee is looking forward to going there before christmas and get married if he finds someone to take care of his dad. Can he get married without him having to go to Colombia as he has to constantly be with his aging father ? Or can immigration grant her a few weeks to come into Canada just for the purpose of Marriage ? Her fiancee thinks that if she has to wait another 6 months or so to re-apply for a visitor visa, he would might as well marry her now and those 6 months would otherwise go for waiting time to process permanent residency. Sorry to ask so many questions. We are at a loss here and don't know what to do at this point.

 

[Patrick H]

Scylla, sorry I forgot to ask you something. I was just talking with my grandmother'e fiancee just now. He wants to know if he marries her in Colombia, what are the chances she will be accepted according to him being : 64 years old now getting his full pension in 3 months, he does not have a job ( his job was taking care of his dad for the last 15 years ), he lives with his dad in a house fully paid, he pays no rent or anything, my grandmother will live with them. My grandmother will also come help us here. None of us have any criminal stuff like that at all. My mother will take care of his father if need be that he must come to Colombia for the marriage. I really appreciate your time to read this.

 

[scylla]

If she stayed for 2 years on a regular visitor visa without applying for an extension then she overstayed her allowed / legal visit by 18 months - and was in Canada illegally for 18 months. A 2 year visitor visa does not allow you to remain in Canada for 2 years straight. You are allowed in for six months or less - and then have to apply for an extension to your visit to be allowed to remain in Canada. Since she failed to apply for an extension, she was in Canada illegally for most of the last 2 years. Again, all of the details you are providing about why your grandmother wants to return to Canada don't matter. From CIC's perspective she abused her visitor priviledges and has been using a visitor visa to illegally live in Canada. Based on the new information you have provided, it's pointless to apply for either a visitor visa or a super visa anytime soon - they will be rightfully refused - especially if she says she wants to come to Canada to get married. She abused her visitor priviledges and violated the conditions of her visa by overstaying for 18 months. Forget about the visitor visa / super visa - it's not going to happen.

Yes - her fiance will have to travel to Columbia to get married if she can't come here. There is no income requirement for a spouse to sponsor their partner for PR. You just can't be on welfare and you can't be bankrupt. You should assume that the processing of her applicaiton may take longer than normal due to her overstay. CIC will most likely look at her application a lot more closely to verify her relationship is genuine and not a marriage of convenience.

 

[Patrick H]

I know my grandmother and I am sure she would not do anything illegal by overstaying. All I Know that during the 2 years she was here she never went out of the country. I will ask my mother if she indeed renewed it after every 6 months as she is more knowledgeable about that matter and it is she who would drive my grandmother to have it renewed periodically. That I am not 100% sure she did that but I will let you know for sure tomorrow after I talk to her about it. Thank you very much for your patience and time with me.

 

[scylla]

I know my grandmother and I am sure she would not do anything illegal by overstaying. All I Know that during the 2 years she was here she never went out of the country. I will ask my mother if she indeed renewed it after every 6 months as she is more knowledgeable about that matter and it is she who would drive my grandmother to have it renewed periodically. That I am not 100% sure she did that but I will let you know for sure tomorrow after I talk to her about it. Thank you very much for your patience and time with me.

You can't drive anywhere you have the visa extended/renewed. Your grandmother would have submitted an application to CIC to request an extension.

 

[scylla]

Here's the process she would have followed to extend her visit in Canada:

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/visit/extend/visa.asp

 

[Patrick H]

Hello Scylla. I got some facts straightened out this morning from my parents. My grandmother arrived in July 2013 on tourist visitor visa and during the first few months she applied for refugee status. She was hoping to get that as she was seeing a lady to help her fill out the necessary papers. This person was not the government but a private , perhaps an immigration lawyer or something like that, that gave her the runaround by letting her wait for papers to arrive from the government and so on. I am not saying the lady that did all this for her is bogus or otherwise, just that she had my grandmother waiting for many months. During this long time of about a year of waiting she never applied for visa extension. She was never told to by anyone. My mother always was communicating with that lawyer lady. Eventually she was refused refugee status after paying fees and such and soon after the refusal notice her 2 years expired sometime in July this year. The government was aware of her stay here as well as her application denied for refugee. Just before she was to leave the country, she applied for a 30 day extension which she received. She could not have done anything illegally as the government knew of her situation up till she left. After talking to my grandmother this morning, she is willing to wait another 4-6 months if need be to re-apply for her tourist visa or super visa. I know my grandmother will visit often her country as she has a sister and a son there. She just wants the freedom to travel back and forth. I hope everything works out good with her. I may have other questions, I don.t know for now.

 

[scylla]

This is not good news. It complicates things significantly. With a refugee applicaiton refusal under her belt, there is zero chance she is going to be approved for a visitor visa anytime soon. There is no point applying - either now or eight months from now.

If her relationship with her fiance is serious, he should fly to Colombia and marry her there - then sponsor her for PR. She will have to remain in Colombia until the application is processed and her PR visa is approved. She should expect the processing of her application to take longer than normal due to her failed refugee claim.

Again, forget about the visitor visa and super visa. They are lost causes.

 

[Patrick H]

Thanks Scylla. I will tell that to her fiancee. I don,t know what they will do. I am sure he would want to know if he could marry her while he is in Canada and she is in Colombia. Any advantage if he has to go himself to Colombia ? What he needs to bring once he gets there, documents etc. Tonight I will tell him that so he can look into it. Usually how many months, can it take before she can come back here after she marries. ? roughly.