Please advise - Arranged marriage | Sponsor Spouse | Apply or Wait?

[21Goose]

I started talking to my wife in june 2018, September we did civil marriage. We met first time in person on 9th and got married on 10th. I applied for her pr in jan and jan end we had our ritual marriage. We were asked for additional proof of relation on april 2nd and she got approved as pr 3-4 days back. So its not exactly a red flag. But be prepared to prove ur relation. And make sure u guys talk in english on text msgs as they now need translation of all the chat thats not in english or french.

Good to know. Maybe you can provide more details about your application and how you proved your relationship? What did you submit when they asked for additional proof?

 

[vinitmenon]

I started talking to my wife in june 2018, September we did civil marriage. We met first time in person on 9th and got married on 10th. I applied for her pr in jan and jan end we had our ritual marriage. We were asked for additional proof of relation on april 2nd and she got approved as pr 3-4 days back. So its not exactly a red flag. But be prepared to prove ur relation. And make sure u guys talk in english on text msgs as they now need translation of all the chat thats not in english or french.

And yes we had 2 failed trv attempts. First after we got married in September and second after i got aor and got her biometrics and medicals done. I guess this failed trv proved our genuineness.

 

[vinitmenon]

Good to know. Maybe you can provide more details about your application and how you proved your relationship? What did you submit when they asked for additional proof?

Photos from ritual marriage, ceremonies, honeymoon, airtickets for me to india, our honeymoon air tickets, bills from honeymoon, credit card statement showing expenses in india and honeymoon, my income tax return with her name on it as my spouse, our chats, call logs from facetime and whatsapp, Instagram chats, Facebook photos. Most important thing I believe we did was get her to add my name to hers in her passport (she changed her last name) and i got her added as my spouse on my passport. I also got her added as a beneficiary in my rrsp but this happened after we submitted the additional documents so i was ready to send it if required.

 

[vinitmenon]

Hello,

Will the experienced members please advise me about what shall I do in my case?

I and my wife were introduced to each other by our parents in the month of January'19. Since then we were in constant touch, texting and calling each other on WhatsApp and Skype. In between January-April, The girl's brother(he is in Canada) visited me once and our families met twice in India. At the beginning of April, I traveled to India and me along with my family visited the girl's place. We met there in person for the first time. We both agreed to go ahead with this relationship. After a gap of one day in between, we had a small ceremony in a hotel where we exchanged rings and garlands as well. This ceremony was performed by a priest and in the presence of 30-35 of our closest relatives. A day after, we submitted the documents and the photographs of the ceremony in a local court to register our marriage and get the marriage registration certificate. All of it happened within the period of 7 days I was in India. We wanted to get the marriage certificate to get an advantage of a few months in our spouse sponsorship application.

I have a lot many photographs of the day when we met for the first time, our ring/marriage ceremony, the day she came to drop me off at the airport. Apart from this, our skype and WhatsApp conversations.

I am wondering shall I go ahead and I apply for the spouse visa now as we are officially married. Will CIC approve our application or there will be issues? Or, Shall I wait till the end of this year to have a wasteful big fat Indian wedding and apply only after that? This will mean that we can't start our life together until the end of 2020.

What are your suggestions?

I believe i had also added our wedding invitation card and reception card to the application showing we will be having a ritual marriage on Jan 30 with the original application. We had explained how we met , how out parents met with exact dates, when we started talking and snapshots from that exact date we started talking.

Photos need to be from different occasions and from different days with explanation and ppl in the photo.

 

[vinitmenon]

Good to know. Maybe you can provide more details about your application and how you proved your relationship? What did you submit when they asked for additional proof?

And i also had couple of transactions from my bank to her account basically paying for our honeymoon as it was all booked from india. But when u do a transaction it doesn’t say the reason so u can show it as a financial help. So i had attached that too along with the additional document request.

 

[21Goose]

Great info from @vinitmenon . Thanks. This will be very useful to many people.

 

[21Goose]

@nealat You can start collecting all the proof now - you can see how IRCC would believe @vinitmenon because of all the documentation he provided, including things like a honeymoon, IT returns, detailed chat transcripts, call logs, and so on.

I'm assuming you are your wife must have had long conversations over chat where you got to know each other, discussed your future plans, whether you want kids, what life in Canada is like, career prospects for your wife and you - all the things that you talk about with someone you may be marrying. If you have all that, along with the other items of proof, you can get approved.

Good luck with everything. I hope you get it.

 

[YVR123]

The biggest factor that can assist in your application is honestly a child. Throughout my applications, a child is by far the strongest evidence one can provide as to a genuineness of a marriage. If this is something that you and your wife are prepared for, keep this in mind. The child doesn't have to be born either, i have submitted proof of pregnancy to support an application. Remember, one of the foundations of Canadian Immigration is family reunification.

Hope this helps!

I don't agree having a child is a good proof of a genuine marriage. Some people can do anything to go to a new county. You may disagree but well we have seen cases that a child didn't help to get approval.

 

[kcward7]

I would like to chime in as i have submitted hundreds of Spousal Sponsorship applications to India. Arranged marriages are extremely common in India and the government knows this. It is important to note this in the submission letter and to obtain letters from the parents who arranged it confirming this. I have had applications where a marriage was arranged through a matrimonial advertisement which was successful. The important thing to remember is that while a marriage had in 7 days is definitely a red flag, it is not completely uncommon. A strong application is important in this case and the photos, text conversations, plane tickets, etc are important to include. If you haven't done so already make sure you send her money transfers to further prove relationship.

The problem with waiting is that the government will question the date on the marriage certificate and you must have a strong explanation for this. Further, if you do wait, it is important to show current correspondence and evidence with your wife to speak to the genuineness of the marriage.

The biggest factor that can assist in your application is honestly a child. Throughout my applications, a child is by far the strongest evidence one can provide as to a genuineness of a marriage. If this is something that you and your wife are prepared for, keep this in mind. The child doesn't have to be born either, i have submitted proof of pregnancy to support an application. Remember, one of the foundations of Canadian Immigration is family reunification.

Hope this helps!

Your last statements are totally ridiculous. IRCC does not consider pregnancies. Having a child does not mean you have a more genuine marriage than people that don't. That would be discrimination. Suggesting that a couple could try to get pregnant to help with immigrating is ludicrous.

 

[kcward7]

We can agree to disagree here, i can only speak from my experience. Again, i am in NO WAY advocating to have a child for immigration purposes, i am saying that a couple with children will be ONE of many factors considered in an application, and a strong one at that.

That is not what you said. IRCC has rejected applications with children. It's not the biggest factor whatsoever. Again, that would be discrimination.

"The biggest factor that can assist in your application is honestly a child. Throughout my applications, a child is by far the strongest evidence one can provide as to a genuineness of a marriage. If this is something that you and your wife are prepared for, keep this in mind. The child doesn't have to be born either"

Editing to add I am publicly calling this out because there are people who would see comments like that and try to conceive for immigration purposes.

 

[nealat]

Hey all,

Thank you for contributing to the thread.

Sorry that I am replying after such a long time. A few things happened in our family lives that needed our immediate attention and we got busy there.

I don't mean to offend anyone. Just posting how I feel. Just my opinions...

@nealat why did you go for such a short time? Do you have a valid reason? If you do, show this to IRCC that you had to come back. Completely agreed with @tdsw26 on this

I can try to get a document from my workplace stating I was working on a time bound project and I was equally required at work.

I would just prepone the wedding as much as possible.

I completely agree with you. However, this was an option when I started this thread. Our family circumstances have changed since then and seems like we will have to wait.

Go visit her for no damn reason. She is your wife and you are supposed to spend time with her.
@nealat it's ok to travel from Canada to India 3 times a year, if it is necessary. I know it's expensive and don't tell me about the jet lag. But it's ok. Spend all your money and go visit her. Then come back and go again at the end of the year for your big wedding, if required. You can always make money in Canada, but you won't probably get this "newly married couple" phase ever back in your life.

I can certainly do that. At the same time, we will be having our traditional big wedding by october/november so that doesn't give much time to us make such multiple trips.

 

[nealat]

I started talking to my wife in june 2018, September we did civil marriage. We met first time in person on 9th and got married on 10th. I applied for her pr in jan and jan end we had our ritual marriage. We were asked for additional proof of relation on april 2nd and she got approved as pr 3-4 days back. So its not exactly a red flag. But be prepared to prove ur relation. And make sure u guys talk in english on text msgs as they now need translation of all the chat thats not in english or french.

@vinitmenon Thank you for joining in.

This is quite close to my circumstances as well. So, you applied for PR after your civil marriage and before your ritual marriage?
We have been talking in a mix of english, hindi and punjabi. I can get the chats translated.

And yes we had 2 failed trv attempts. First after we got married in September and second after i got aor and got her biometrics and medicals done. I guess this failed trv proved our genuineness.

I am also thinking of applying for a Visitor Visa and let's see what happens. The processing time for visitor visa right now says 13 days and I was thinking I can take a chance. If the visitor visa gets approved, can she join me here after our ritual marriage and we can apply as inland applicant?

Photos from ritual marriage, ceremonies, honeymoon, airtickets for me to india, our honeymoon air tickets, bills from honeymoon, credit card statement showing expenses in india and honeymoon, my income tax return with her name on it as my spouse, our chats, call logs from facetime and whatsapp, Instagram chats, Facebook photos. Most important thing I believe we did was get her to add my name to hers in her passport (she changed her last name) and i got her added as my spouse on my passport. I also got her added as a beneficiary in my rrsp but this happened after we submitted the additional documents so i was ready to send it if required.

@vinitmenon this got me confused a bit. So, you applied for PR after you ritual marriage? Because, only then I suppose you can have photos, air tickets, bills from honeymoon.

You mentioned your Income tax returns with her name on it? How does one do that?

our chats, call logs from facetime and whatsapp

I can add these.

Most important thing I believe we did was get her to add my name to hers in her passport (she changed her last name) and i got her added as my spouse on my passport.

May I know how many days did this process take?

 

[nealat]

I believe I had also added our wedding invitation card and reception card to the application showing we will be having a ritual marriage on Jan 30 with the original application. We had explained how we met, how our parents met with exact dates when we started talking and snapshots from that exact date we started talking.

Photos need to be from different occasions and from different days with explanation and ppl in the photo.

@vinitmenon I am a little confused here with your timeline.

When exactly did you submit the application for your spouse PR? Is it after your ritual marriage or before that?

If It was before your ritual marriage, when did you submit proofs of your ritual marriage and honeymoon? You certainly submitted a lot many proofs.

 

[nealat]

@nealat You can start collecting all the proof now - you can see how IRCC would believe @vinitmenon because of all the documentation he provided, including things like a honeymoon, IT returns, detailed chat transcripts, call logs, and so on.

I'm assuming you are your wife must have had long conversations over chat where you got to know each other, discussed your future plans, whether you want kids, what life in Canada is like, career prospects for your wife and you - all the things that you talk about with someone you may be marrying. If you have all that, along with the other items of proof, you can get approved.

Good luck with everything. I hope you get it.

@21Goose I hope you are doing great.

Certainly, I can start arranging all the required proofs. Waiting for some clarifications from @vinitmenon on his application timeline.

 

[nealat]

That is not what you said. IRCC has rejected applications with children. It's not the biggest factor whatsoever. Again, that would be discrimination.

"The biggest factor that can assist in your application is honestly a child. Throughout my applications, a child is by far the strongest evidence one can provide as to a genuineness of a marriage. If this is something that you and your wife are prepared for, keep this in mind. The child doesn't have to be born either"

Editing to add I am publicly calling this out because there are people who would see comments like that and try to conceive for immigration purposes.

@kcward7 I agree this will be going to the extreme length just to immigrate to Canada