Hey guys,
My wife had her interview this past Monday (the 16th) and unfortunately we are 95% sure we are going to get a refusal. The "reasons" the officer is planning on refusing us for seem pretty weak though. We are already looking into the appeal process now as that will likely be the road we will have to go down shortly. Very upsetting.
I went with my wife to the interview of course but they didn't have any interest in interviewing me at all.
The officer's "reasons" for wanting to refuse us were mainly due to our young age and also about how we didn't have any family at our wedding ceremony. He also made up a real creative reason of how MY parents have not come to visit us here in Thailand...so random.
I have been living here with my wife ever since she had to come back from Canada by the way (which has been almost a year now) but they still somehow doubt our relationship is genuine? I am not working or studying here and I have never left the country once since arriving. What other possible reason would I move around the world and live with my wife and her family here for? We spend every single day together. Along with my passport proving this, we had an entire backpack full of proof as well.
Our proof consisted of:
hundreds of emails between my wife and my mom over the past year or so, supporting letters from family and friends from both sides of our families, letters from the tax center in Canada proving that we had been living together in Canada, student cards proving we went to the same school (where we met), hundreds of pictures of us together with the family taken throughout our relationship (almost 3 years now), cards from family addressed to both of us, Facebook printouts of mutual friends talking about our relationship, tickets to many places we have gone together, mail from my family in Canada addressed to both of us in Thailand etc...
The interview took around 30 minutes, maybe a little longer. Some of the questions he asked were When did we meet, When did we start dating, When did we get married, Why we only had 2 other people at the wedding, Why we didn't have a reception, Arrangements that have been made for us when we go back to Canada, Who were in the pictures etc...
At the end of the interview he told my wife that "on paper" our relationship doesn't look real and that he would take the new information he got from the interview back with him to Singapore and go through it again. (so pretty much means we are going to be refused)
It seems as if the officer goes into the interview already having made a decision before hand. His views seemed to be very closed minded and pretty unrealistic given all the proof we had. Speaking of proof, he didn't even bother to look at more than half of it. How can they make honest decisions without even taking into consideration ALL of the proof. Imagine if that were the way criminal cases were dealt with...quite ridiculous.
Well that's basically how our interview experience was like. I know I'm probably not including ALL the information here but I hope this gives people a better understanding of what to expect. Its no wonder why Singapore has the lowest approval rate by far if these are the reasons they refuse people despite (I think most people would agree) very strong proof.
