Actually yes, she does have a son, we are hoping that wont be a hold up. Thankfully she had the good sense to list the father as "unknown" on the birth certificate. Which has proven to be very apropos, as the father is a complete no show in the kids life.
And yes there is no huge difference in the ages (depending on your definition of a huge age gap) I am 45, she will be 35 this year.
The one thing we where hoping would be in her favour, was that fact that she has already been admitted to Canada once on a work Visa, but the company she was working for, was just screwing the people they where bringing in from over seas left and right ( but that is a story for another time). Anyways, at that time it was six months to process, do to unforeseen snafus dealing with Philippines paper work, that cost us a lot of time.
But back to the point, the only possible red flag could be her son, but even at that the complications there should be greatly limited (I have my finger crossed behind my back as I type that) we are only coming on the 7 month mark now since we started, so a little premature to cry foul to loud yet, but I am definitely trying to keep an eye on the buggers.
This whole situation does suck though, and I feel for those who have been stuck in this longer than I. My wife and I have our second anniversary coming up in a few short weeks. Second one apart as well. We are still optimistic, but some days are a lot harder than others. Thank god for the kindred soles on these forums! Trying to explain any of this to anyone who hasn't done it, is like talking Chinese to deaf German. Although the German may smile politely and nod at what you say, he just hasn't got a clue, what the hell you are on about.