Need some advice

[Big_Canuck]

I met my wife in August of 2008 in Austria. At the time I was here travelling and playing american football. I had planned on going back to Canada in November of that year to get a real job. I decided to stay because I wanted to be with my then girlfriend and see where things would go. It reached the point the next year that we either go our seperate ways or get married (my time allowed in Austria was up). We knew we wanted to marry each other pretty much from the start, so it wasn't a difficult decision. We got married in August of 2009. Now I have gotten a job in Canada and will be starting in October. My wife will follow me as soon as the immigration process is finished.

My question is, how much of that should we include in our application? We basically did get married because we had to (so I could stay). But we knew we wanted to get married, so it really wasn't that big of a deal, and we have been happily married for almost a year now. I'm not sure how I should approach this (I want to tell the truth, but I don't want them to look at it as though we are married for convience and thus do not qualify).

Thanks for your help!!

 

[BeShoo]

Of course you shouldn't say you got married because you had to. According to your story, you probably would have gotten married eventually, anyway. If fact, you were probably common law partners (or almost) at the time of the wedding (if you had lived together a full 12 months). The whole history is important. Anything you can do to show how your relationship developed over time will suggest that yours was not a "marriage of convenience."

What you were forced to do because of the circumstances was not "to get married" but "to get married at that particular time." So long as you can satisfy the criteria for a genuine relationship, everything should be fine.

 

[RobsLuv]

What they're attempting to determine with the "genuine relationship" piece is whether or not the relationship is about getting the foreign national status in Canada. So, even if you had married just so you could stay in Austria, that has no bearing on a determination of whether your wife married you to get into Canada - so it's not relevant to this application. The reality is that neither of you married for immigration purposes - you married each other because you wanted to. So, document the development of your relationship - when you met, how you met, how things progressed, when you married and where and how long you've been together since. Remember - if you submit the sponsorship application while you're still in Austria, you'll need to include proof with the application of your intent to move back to Canada.

 

[Big_Canuck]

Thanks for the input, I guess I just needed to hear that from somebody else, give me peace of mind.

I have a job in Canada starting in October, so no worries about the intent to move back to Canada

 

[RobsLuv]

There you go, then. You'll be fine.

 

[BeShoo]

What really matters is that your marriage is genuine. I just posted a list of factors that you might find useful in gathering that evidence. It's here: http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/spousal-sponsorship-t46995.0.html;msg357857#msg357857