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secret marriage is it possible to apply for spousal?

Who are you keeping it a secret from and why? I would expect extra scrutiny from the CIC, so you'd need to explain in your application why you got married this way. As long as it's a good reason, you should be OK.

Only 10 people at the wedding in itself is not necessarily bad, but it will be a red flag if in your culture 200 is the norm. My wedding has less than that in attendance, but it's not a big deal where I come from and we explained why it wasn't a bigger affair.
 
You'll have to explain why it was secret.. I'm assuming family doesn't approve or something and that can cause a red flag. Make you sure you provide loads of evidence of a genuine married-like relationship and explain throughly why your marriage had to be a secret. It needs to be a good reason though .. but I'm sure it is :) I just hope you provide a lot of evidence supporting your relationship is all! Good luck friend
 
jesmithers said:
You'll have to explain why it was secret.. I'm assuming family doesn't approve or something and that can cause a red flag. Make you sure you provide loads of evidence of a genuine married-like relationship and explain throughly why your marriage had to be a secret. It needs to be a good reason though .. but I'm sure it is :) I just hope you provide a lot of evidence supporting your relationship is all! Good luck friend
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Thank you guys for your opinion, actually we will be celebrating our 2nd year anniversary next month and my partner is planning to marry me because we don't want to waste our money in school 'coz am an international student and paying almost $7,000 CAD, so we want to get married as soon as possible to lessen my tuition fee at school. we are currently staying in one place for 2 months now since I just came here in Canada last 2 months ago.

originally we are planning to submit our application next year for common law but suddenly our condition now change our minds because I have a financial problems so I think I can't support my study in school anymore. That's why the only option that we have is the spousal sponsorship.

Our family is in our own country that's why we cannot invite them to come over here in Canada to attend our wedding. I think we will inviting all our friends here in Canada and US to attend the wedding, I think we can invite 20-30 people to witness our wedding, is that okay?


We can also prove that our relationship is legit
 
superman2012 said:
Thank you guys for your opinion, actually we will be celebrating our 2nd year anniversary next month and my partner is planning to marry me because we don't want to waste our money in school 'coz am an international student and paying almost $7,000 CAD, so we want to get married as soon as possible to lessen my tuition fee at school. we are currently staying in one place for 2 months now since I just came here in Canada last 2 months ago.

originally we are planning to submit our application next year for common law but suddenly our condition now change our minds because I have a financial problems so I think I can't support my study in school anymore. That's why the only option that we have is the spousal sponsorship.

Our family is in our own country that's why we cannot invite them to come over here in Canada to attend our wedding. I think we will inviting all our friends here in Canada and US to attend the wedding, I think we can invite 20-30 people to witness our wedding, is that okay?


We can also prove that our relationship is legit
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If you put the reason that you married your spouse is because you want to lessen your school fees is not going to fly with CIC. I'm confused how this is a secret marriage...this seems like a marriage for a financial gain which is not what family sponsorship is about :(.

Having that amount of people at your wedding is fine, I had about 8 and my husband's parents did not attend because it was a civil wedding and we were going to plan a bigger ceremony when we live together and save more.

I hope you're marrying your spouse not for fiancial help and more for help...
 
superman2012 said:
Thank you guys for your opinion, actually we will be celebrating our 2nd year anniversary next month and my partner is planning to marry me because we don't want to waste our money in school 'coz am an international student and paying almost $7,000 CAD, so we want to get married as soon as possible to lessen my tuition fee at school. we are currently staying in one place for 2 months now since I just came here in Canada last 2 months ago.

originally we are planning to submit our application next year for common law but suddenly our condition now change our minds because I have a financial problems so I think I can't support my study in school anymore. That's why the only option that we have is the spousal sponsorship.

Our family is in our own country that's why we cannot invite them to come over here in Canada to attend our wedding. I think we will inviting all our friends here in Canada and US to attend the wedding, I think we can invite 20-30 people to witness our wedding, is that okay?


We can also prove that our relationship is legit
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I am sorry if it seems direct, but it looks like you are clearly marrying for the financial gain. You are saying you guys are going to celebrate 2 year anniversary but you just came to Canada 2 months ago?
 
superman2012 said:
Thank you guys for your opinion, actually we will be celebrating our 2nd year anniversary next month and my partner is planning to marry me because we don't want to waste our money in school 'coz am an international student and paying almost $7,000 CAD, so we want to get married as soon as possible to lessen my tuition fee at school. we are currently staying in one place for 2 months now since I just came here in Canada last 2 months ago.

originally we are planning to submit our application next year for common law but suddenly our condition now change our minds because I have a financial problems so I think I can't support my study in school anymore. That's why the only option that we have is the spousal sponsorship.

Our family is in our own country that's why we cannot invite them to come over here in Canada to attend our wedding. I think we will inviting all our friends here in Canada and US to attend the wedding, I think we can invite 20-30 people to witness our wedding, is that okay?


We can also prove that our relationship is legit
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I still don't understand why you can't invite them - if your family is in your home country, what's stopping you from inviting them to come and be at your wedding? We have planes.
It seems that it's not the case that you cannot invite them but you do not want to invite them, which is a red flag.
 
If you came to Canada and a student visa once you stop going to school make sure you change your status in Canada to visitors.
 
sorry guys I just gave some information that is very confusing.

we are celebrating our 2nd year anniversary next month JUly 22. and I just came here in Canada last 2 months ago. we are in long distance relationship for almost 1 and 9 months way back and he visited me in the philippines last 2014 January. we are planning to get married for him to sponsor me as his spouse so that it will be easy for us to gather all necessary documents needed and not to wait for one year to be eligible for common law.

we are planning to have a civil wedding with 10 witnesses including my sisters (if they can grant a visitor visa just to come to our wedding). if its okay if we gonna have civil wedding and can we just have the reception when we come to the philippines?
 
Can I ask why you are calling it a "secret marriage"? Are you hiding it from your parents? If so, why? As I understand, there are certain cultural rites in Philippine weddings, will you be doing them (or arrange for them to be done back home) even if you are marrying in Canada? If you don't be prepared for more scrutiny.

Why are you inviting your sisters but not your parents? I would have thought your parents would have a better chance at a visa because they are older, likely have stronger ties to their home country (employment, own properties, etc) and attending their child's wedding is a big deal.

If you were able to get a student visa, you had to show enough funds for at least one academic year. What happened to the money 2 months after?

It sounds like you are marrying to solve some financial issues and that is not a good enough reason. If you give that as a reason, CIC will question it.
 
This thread shows the hazards with CIC -- and society -- scrutinizing weddings. The OP is an adult, she has the right to get married however she wants, and I'm sure that she has excellent reasons for doing so. Maybe her family is deeply conservative and objects to her choosing who she marries; maybe her father is a bipolar lunatic; maybe there are financial objections around the issue of dowry and whatnot. The fact is, not everyone has a big cultural wedding where two families celebrate; some people can't wait to get away from their family and their culture. I've known several people from SE Asia who felt that way, and they were all women who strongly objected to the burdens that their culture put specifically on them. Getting out of that is a huge relief.

In traditional societies, there are plenty of people who don't like the traditions -- that doesn't make them bad people. So how about you lay off the OP, mumbling about 'red flags' and whatnot, if she decides to control her own marriage. CIC is staffed by adults, you can write them a letter describing your relationship and exactly why you had the marriage you did.
 
on-hold said:
This thread shows the hazards with CIC -- and society -- scrutinizing weddings. The OP is an adult, she has the right to get married however she wants, and I'm sure that she has excellent reasons for doing so. Maybe her family is deeply conservative and objects to her choosing who she marries; maybe her father is a bipolar lunatic; maybe there are financial objections around the issue of dowry and whatnot. The fact is, not everyone has a big cultural wedding where two families celebrate; some people can't wait to get away from their family and their culture. I've known several people from SE Asia who felt that way, and they were all women who strongly objected to the burdens that their culture put specifically on them. Getting out of that is a huge relief.

In traditional societies, there are plenty of people who don't like the traditions -- that doesn't make them bad people. So how about you lay off the OP, mumbling about 'red flags' and whatnot, if she decides to control her own marriage. CIC is staffed by adults, you can write them a letter describing your relationship and exactly why you had the marriage you did.
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I'm not exactly sure where this is coming from, her first post was that she was going to get married because she can't afford the financial part of schooling since she is an international student. She has every right to get married yes but she needs to write why and if that's the only reason it may be enough to red flag and cause an interview. I think people are just trying to outline that there's certain things people need to look out for. :/

OP be sure to outline why your parents did not come to the wedding. I am not familiar with your culture so I am not sure if there's anything specific on marriage ceremonies but make sure you're able to explain why you chose a civil wedding instead of planning a big ceremony. I wrote that my family could not come due to finances and that we were going to save and plan a bigger wedding later on which we will. Just explain very well and you should be okay.
 
Sounds good in the ideal world but we are dealing with CIC where there have been refusals for trivial things like guests not dressed for the occasion, guests not smiling, rites not being performed, etc. Pretty much everyone has advised the OP to explain any deviations from the norms(of her culture) so I`m not sure I see where she is being `forced` to conform.

on-hold said:
This thread shows the hazards with CIC -- and society -- scrutinizing weddings. The OP is an adult, she has the right to get married however she wants, and I'm sure that she has excellent reasons for doing so. Maybe her family is deeply conservative and objects to her choosing who she marries; maybe her father is a bipolar lunatic; maybe there are financial objections around the issue of dowry and whatnot. The fact is, not everyone has a big cultural wedding where two families celebrate; some people can't wait to get away from their family and their culture. I've known several people from SE Asia who felt that way, and they were all women who strongly objected to the burdens that their culture put specifically on them. Getting out of that is a huge relief.

In traditional societies, there are plenty of people who don't like the traditions -- that doesn't make them bad people. So how about you lay off the OP, mumbling about 'red flags' and whatnot, if she decides to control her own marriage. CIC is staffed by adults, you can write them a letter describing your relationship and exactly why you had the marriage you did.
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bigredmoose said:
First of all, this whole forum is about getting approved by CIC, not changing the world into a place that accepts all weddings as equal. You do understand why CIC considers non-traditional weddings to be an indicator for immigration fraud, right? With that in mind, if you want to increase your odds of getting approved by CIC, you should have as normal a wedding as you can, whatever that may be for your background.

Barring that, a note explaining why you deviated from that norm is very important if you want the best chance of success.

I stand by my reply the OP.
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Why do I feel like you're biting my head off? ??? I was simply just making a suggestion on what the person should do not "changing the world". I do understand why CIC considers non-traditional weddings to be an indication for immigration fraud. Technically in my "culture" I should be throwing a wedding and having a reception with all my family. But I didn't not. Then again I'm Canadian and my husband is American. I am not familiar with OP's culture and was just merely helping out. If OP can throw a traditional wedding for her culture, go for it, but if they can't, then explain why or else fear the interview and the red flags. I'm for OP getting married and getting PR, I just don't want them to mistakenly get rejected for not explaining themselves properly.

Yeesh. :-\
 
jesmithers said:
I'm for OP getting married and getting PR, I just don't want them to mistakenly get rejected for not explaining themselves properly.
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Especially in light of the evident language barrier. "My spouse and I had a secret marriage" carries very different connotations than "My spouse and I held a low-key ceremony, attended by a few close family and friends who could make the trip to Canada."
 
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