NEED ADVICE: Worried Spousal Sponsor

[waiguoren]

Hi Everyone:

This is a great site with a wealth of information and I’ve learnt a lot. I am posting up my case hoping that a few of you can help me out with some advice. I apologize in advance for what turned out to be a very (!) long post, but I wanted to be as clear as possible. Sorry!

About me

I’m a Canadian citizen in Hong Kong who is planning to marry my Taiwanese girlfriend early next year. We are getting married as soon as possible so I can sponsor her and we can both return and live in Canada as soon as we get her PR. I will apply outland through Hong Kong.

We have no children, no previous marriages and have been together over 5 years, so originally I thought we had a rather straightforward relationship. However, after reading the forms, because we’ve both been out of Canada, and had a long distance relationship with both of us moving around for study and career, I see things are not so simple.

I hope some of you can share your opinions on some of my ‘worries’.

Proving our relationship

We haven’t spent too much time together in the past few years. After us both living in Taiwan, she left in Sept 2010 for two years of grad. school in the US and I returned to Canada. Seeing her was limited to her holidays and when I could drive down and visit. As soon as she graduated she flew to see me (I now live in Hong Kong) but she can only stay one month at a time due to visa restrictions on Taiwanese.

Because we used Skype and IDD cards there aren’t a lot of records. She does have passport stamps and we have pictures from her visits to Canada—we plan to get a doctor in Canada and a colleague in HK to each write a letter attesting to the relationship.

Also, because of all the complications, we are planning to have a quick wedding (just our parents) and wait until after the immigration process to have a family celebration and honeymoon in Canada. We will have an engagement party in Taiwan, however.

Worry #1: Will the long distance relationship and speedy wedding work against us in establishing the genuineness of our relationship? Any advice?

Proving my ability support her

I have been filing income tax returns in Canada while abroad, but for the last three years, I have had hardly any income. The reasons are: a) for the two years she was abroad, I only worked about 6 months. And b) I was studying abroad before that (didn’t claim these fees on my tax, though.) I haven’t paid tax as yet on my new job in Hong Kong (started Jan 2012).

I have savings in Canada, but they are joint accounts with my mother who manages my finances while I’m out of the country. I can show about $30k in these shared accounts and maybe another $10k in a personal one. I am working in Hong Kong at the moment, but I simply don’t have a job offer when I return to Canada. I can ask family to show that they will support me with a place to live when I return, however.

Worry #2: Will these joint bank accounts and ‘empty’ income tax statements be enough to convince a visa officer that I can support my new spouse in Canada?

Proving my intent to return

As I mentioned, since I’ve worked abroad all these years, I really don’t have a job to return to in Canada. It is going to be as much of starting a new life for me as it is for her. I can show that my contract and visa ends at a certain date in Hong Kong and show that my family has offered us a place to stay, but other than that I am at a loss of how to prove I’m going back.

Worry #3: Is this going to be an issue? What’s the normal procedure?

Worry #4: She has a multiple entry visitor visa that usually allows her to stay for 6 months when she visits Canada. It’s valid until 2015. If we start the PR process from abroad, will she still be able to use that to enter Canada if we want to return earlier? Or should she stay away from Canada during this process?

Any help on the above or any other pitfalls or potential problems in our application that I should know of would be much appreciated.

Thanks for taking the time to read all my worries!

C.

 

[CharlieD10]

1. Plenty of long distance relationships make for successful sponsorships (I should know, I'm one of them). The important thing is to document the inception and growth of your relationship and how you got to the marriage commitment.

2. What the officer is looking for is that you're not on social assistance and have transferable skills to Canada, as well as a basic plan for supporting yourselves. Aside from your savings, you should also document in your re-settlement plan (more on that later) how you will account for the basic necessities such as shelter. If you will be living with someone on your initial return, make sure you say so.

3. The procedure is to give as detailed a plan as you can. Mention all the things you plan to do to leave where you are, and what you are doing to get yourselves settled into life in Canada. If you are looking at school or work, document it and what results you've had so far. They are not expecting concrete plans, but a mere statement of intention is not enough, either.

4. She can visit during the processing as she already has a TRV. However, she should retain proof of ties to her home country, and make sure she travels with a return ticket and proof of these ties. A good idea is to give her copies of the sponsor approval letter once you have that. Make sure she uses the proper terminology at the airport: she is "visiting", she is not "moving". "Moving" is not done until she has the PR visa in her passport, even if she is coming to stay until her processing is completed.

 

[waiguoren]

Thanks for the quick reply, CharlieD10.

So it seems I should supplement the documentation with clear plans and history of the relationship. We definitely have pictures of travel and in Canada, emails, etc. but I guess I was worried because of the quick wedding we will have (in order that she can join me in Hong Kong) and the fact we won't have the traditional wedding (not a lot of family there or a honeymoon). So it is your opinion that the relationship background matters more than the actual wedding?

As for transferable skills, we both have Master's degrees from well-known North American universities and I have Canadian teaching experience. She speaks English well, but really doesn't have any work experience yet as she's just starting out. She hopes to be a music teacher. I understand your point, but I'm not too sure about what other transferable skills she'd have...

I guess the best thing is to be looking for work via the internet and contacting old employers? I guess I could give details of some programs I thought of doing in order to find a new career in Canada. This seems difficult to do from abroad.

Thanks again for taking the time to respond!

J.

 

[CharlieD10]

As long as the wedding is special and not obviously done just to facilitate immigration and fits your circumstances, you should be fine. We had the whole traditional shebang planned and had to scrap those plans for a wedding 2 months early with a dozen people and dinner out afterwards instead of a reception. We clearly explained why it was necessary to make the decisions and choices we did, and it was not questioned. If you are delaying your honeymoon, explain that too. If you're not having one altogether, explain why. Absolutely the background matters, the genesis of the relationship must make sense to the officer, otherwise you could have a huge traditional wedding and it would still be questioned.

Transferable skills really refers to ability in one of Canada's national languages, and the ability to become self-supporting, which she will clearly have with her education and the fact she already speaks English. No worries there.

Yes, you can start looking for work or looking into programmes at school or elsewhere to get into. All of these will contribute to your plan for re-settling in Canada. It's difficult, but not impossible, for these to be done at a distance. Think about where you'll live, and get confirmation in writing if this will be with a relative. Think about what you'll have to do to leave Hong Kong (resign from job, cancel visa, pay taxes?), and document your plans for that too. Sometimes it's easier to show how you're leaving the place you're at than show what will happen when you get to Canada, but that will help too.

 

[waiguoren]

CharlieD10, thanks again for answering my questions and helping to put my mind at ease. This gives me a few more ideas of what to add to my application. Cheers!

 

[Sweden]

Hey waiguoren,

Just to ease your mind even more - I'll give you my example : my partner has been approved as my sponsor.
He has been a student for the last 3 years, and has worked in total 5 months during the summers. He has a loan for university, and no job offer back in Canada when we move.
yet he was approved without further questions, because we wrote a plan on where we intend to live (with family at the beginning), which job we will be looking at, etc, and also the steps that we needed to leave where we currently live when the PR is approved.

It was no problem, so as long as you document your intention, keep record of the employment search you may start soon, and take time to be clear about your intention, you will be fine. There is no minimum income for spousal sponsorship.

Plus - you already have an income now, and you have some savings (all of which my partner didn't have), so don't worry about it.

We wrote a timeline including the date we intend to move, and the steps before that needed in the country where we live to show that we were serious about it, and it seemed to convince CIC!

AS you are starting in advance, you have plenty of time to gather proofs for your relationship. The forms can be a bit overwhelming, especially if you have been moving a lot, and not being together all the time, but with a bit of work, it will go well. There again, for us we wrote a timeline explaining where we were, at what time etc . Basically to show that we have a continuous relationship, even if we didn't always live together, and that we took the opportunities we had every time we could meet. The advantage of the timeline is that you can also reference the supporting documents in it, making it easier to understand (example> when X came to HK after graduation, please see attached plane ticket, and photocopy of passport stamp).

Start a draft, add elements. Leave it for a little while, come back to it and try to see it with an external eye - would that be convincing for a stranger? where does it lack evidence/clarity? how can you address that ? etc... it took us 3 months to put together the application, and because of the many travels that we did, I thought it was too much - but at the end, with a little organisation and patience, and lots of late evenings, the application came out quite nicely...

So - you can do it! and if you have questions, this forum is always a good place, don't hesitate to ask, pretty much everybody goes through the same ups and downs, and questions, so you can find support for sure.

Good luck with your application,
Sweden

 

[waiguoren]

Hi Sweden,

Forgive me for my slow reply-busy weekend! Thanks for the reassurance, I really hope I get a VO like yours.

The timeline documentation strategy you describe sounds like a really good idea and like you, I think it will take several months to compile. That gives me a lot good ideas and we could probably find some sort of software that would help us organize all the info in one list before printing it out.

Thanks again for sharing your situation and approach, it helped a lot.