Small Wedding

[froglover]

Hello! My American wife and I (the sponsor - Canadian citizen) are working on an inland spousal sponsorship application. We got married in February in a private ceremony with just us and the two witnesses. This is something pretty normal in our family context - my mom was common-law married to her spouse by a notary and my wife's best friend was also married to her spouse in a private ceremony with just the two of them. In my explanation of why we had a small wedding I said that it was out of concern for COVID and that we intended to have a larger ceremony later for the benefit of our families once the pandemic is better, do you think this will hurt our application? One of our friends has already mailed us a letter that says we intend to have a wedding ceremony later. We thought it would help to justify the small ceremony but now I'm worried that they'll think it means we're not "really" married. My wife is already close to my family and sees them all the time, though I've never met her mother in person (I have webcammed with her, and my wife's father is dead). We have a bunch of reasons our private ceremony was important to us, it was on a significant date, and we did go on a honeymoon after.

Am I overthinking this? I've heard they're less harsh on Canadian-American marriages than on people from most other parts of the world. I'm very anxious about this entire process and am second guessing pretty much everything we're writing on the forms.
Thanks!

 

[scylla]

Hello! My American wife and I (the sponsor - Canadian citizen) are working on an inland spousal sponsorship application. We got married in February in a private ceremony with just us and the two witnesses. This is something pretty normal in our family context - my mom was common-law married to her spouse by a notary and my wife's best friend was also married to her spouse in a private ceremony with just the two of them. In my explanation of why we had a small wedding I said that it was out of concern for COVID and that we intended to have a larger ceremony later for the benefit of our families once the pandemic is better, do you think this will hurt our application? One of our friends has already mailed us a letter that says we intend to have a wedding ceremony later. We thought it would help to justify the small ceremony but now I'm worried that they'll think it means we're not "really" married. My wife is already close to my family and sees them all the time, though I've never met her mother in person (I have webcammed with her, and my wife's father is dead). We have a bunch of reasons our private ceremony was important to us, it was on a significant date, and we did go on a honeymoon after.

Am I overthinking this? I've heard they're less harsh on Canadian-American marriages than on people from most other parts of the world. I'm very anxious about this entire process and am second guessing pretty much everything we're writing on the forms.
Thanks!

I think you're overthinking this. I'm assuming you've been together for a while, you're also living together in Canada, etc. Lots of people had simple ceremonies during COVID and this wasn't unusual for north american couples.

 

[froglover]

Thanks! We haven't been together that long, which is one of the other things that worries me, haha. We met at the end of October 2020 and have just had a very intense relationship since then. She's pretty integrated with my family at this point, though, we've both been living with my mother. I'm a generally anxious person when it comes to bureaucratic stuff so the entire application process is intensely nervewracking for me.

She also ended up getting turned away at the border the first time she tried to come up because she didn't clean the stuff she was storing out of her car. She had no trouble the second time. We've disclosed this on the forms, do any of you think it's likely to be a big problem?

 

[fashiontart]

I applied in November, and we had the same kind of wedding (and my husband is American)! It was just us and our parents (my mother was my witness; his father his). We've done bio and medical and my sponsorship was approved, so fingers crossed. But in Covid times, I feel a lot of people have had similarly small weddings.

 

[canuck78]

I applied in November, and we had the same kind of wedding (and my husband is American)! It was just us and our parents (my mother was my witness; his father his). We've done bio and medical and my sponsorship was approved, so fingers crossed. But in Covid times, I feel a lot of people have had similarly small weddings.

Different situations. Hopefully parents may be the 2 witness. This is also a fairly new relationship and not having met the bride’s mother if she lives in the US is also uncommon.

 

[canuck78]

Hello! My American wife and I (the sponsor - Canadian citizen) are working on an inland spousal sponsorship application. We got married in February in a private ceremony with just us and the two witnesses. This is something pretty normal in our family context - my mom was common-law married to her spouse by a notary and my wife's best friend was also married to her spouse in a private ceremony with just the two of them. In my explanation of why we had a small wedding I said that it was out of concern for COVID and that we intended to have a larger ceremony later for the benefit of our families once the pandemic is better, do you think this will hurt our application? One of our friends has already mailed us a letter that says we intend to have a wedding ceremony later. We thought it would help to justify the small ceremony but now I'm worried that they'll think it means we're not "really" married. My wife is already close to my family and sees them all the time, though I've never met her mother in person (I have webcammed with her, and my wife's father is dead). We have a bunch of reasons our private ceremony was important to us, it was on a significant date, and we did go on a honeymoon after.

Am I overthinking this? I've heard they're less harsh on Canadian-American marriages than on people from most other parts of the world. I'm very anxious about this entire process and am second guessing pretty much everything we're writing on the forms.
Thanks!

If you aren’t having a large ceremony later I would not lie about it. It also comes off very strange for your friend to confirm in their letter that you’ll be having a larger ceremony. Letter from friends should be about when they became aware of your relationship, time they have spent with the couple, etc.

 

[froglover]

Oh the larger ceremony isn't a lie, we do actually intend to do that. I haven't met her mother because our travel to see each other was limited by COVID. She wasn't living in the same state as her mother for most of the relationship. My parents weren't the witnesses, though. Because of my relationship with them it would have actually been weirder for us for them to be there (for one thing, they're divorced and hate each other), though I understand the government might not see it that way. It might help contextualize it that I'm transgender and neither of us are straight.

 

[scylla]

Thanks! We haven't been together that long, which is one of the other things that worries me, haha. We met at the end of October 2020 and have just had a very intense relationship since then. She's pretty integrated with my family at this point, though, we've both been living with my mother. I'm a generally anxious person when it comes to bureaucratic stuff so the entire application process is intensely nervewracking for me.

She also ended up getting turned away at the border the first time she tried to come up because she didn't clean the stuff she was storing out of her car. She had no trouble the second time. We've disclosed this on the forms, do any of you think it's likely to be a big problem?

You met in Oct 2020 and married in Feb 2022, right? That's a pretty long relationship. That's close to a year and a half.

If you were engaged in married within just a few months of knowing each others, that would be different.

 

[canuck78]

Thanks! We haven't been together that long, which is one of the other things that worries me, haha. We met at the end of October 2020 and have just had a very intense relationship since then. She's pretty integrated with my family at this point, though, we've both been living with my mother. I'm a generally anxious person when it comes to bureaucratic stuff so the entire application process is intensely nervewracking for me.

She also ended up getting turned away at the border the first time she tried to come up because she didn't clean the stuff she was storing out of her car. She had no trouble the second time. We've disclosed this on the forms, do any of you think it's likely to be a big problem?

Oh the larger ceremony isn't a lie, we do actually intend to do that. I haven't met her mother because our travel to see each other was limited by COVID. She wasn't living in the same state as her mother for most of the relationship. My parents weren't the witnesses, though. Because of my relationship with them it would have actually been weirder for us for them to be there (for one thing, they're divorced and hate each other), though I understand the government might not see it that way. It might help contextualize it that I'm transgender and neither of us are straight.

So no parents were a witness at the wedding and you’re living with your mother? When did you meet in person? Assume you may have met online. How long after meeting in person did you get engaged. As a US citizen your chances of refusal are pretty low.

 

[armoured]

Oh the larger ceremony isn't a lie, we do actually intend to do that. I haven't met her mother because our travel to see each other was limited by COVID. She wasn't living in the same state as her mother for most of the relationship. My parents weren't the witnesses, though. Because of my relationship with them it would have actually been weirder for us for them to be there (for one thing, they're divorced and hate each other), though I understand the government might not see it that way. It might help contextualize it that I'm transgender and neither of us are straight.

Personally I think the 'real, bigger marriage later' doesn't help the case much, if at all. If you've been living together for a while, that makes a pretty good case. All pretty normal for north america.

For the rest: you don't need to write a novel and you dont' need to be defensive - just explain, concisely. You had a small ceremony because that's what you wanted, and if you preferred witnesses (were they friends or acquaintances of yours at least?) to parents because [brief reasons], that should be enough to explain.

 

[froglover]

Glad to hear a year and a half is a normal length of relationship for this kind of thing!

I'm not sure what kind of answer you want about my mother. We have a complicated relationship with her and she also doesn't really believe in marriage (messy divorce). We first met in person in June. Engagement was a decision we came to together over time, hard plans started being made in November 2021, rings exchanged on Christmas Eve. If our odds of being refused are low though that's good, though. The relationship is pretty well substantiated generally.

 

[HopefulLegend]

Glad to hear a year and a half is a normal length of relationship for this kind of thing!

I'm not sure what kind of answer you want about my mother. We have a complicated relationship with her and she also doesn't really believe in marriage (messy divorce). We first met in person in June. Engagement was a decision we came to together over time, hard plans started being made in November 2021, rings exchanged on Christmas Eve. If our odds of being refused are low though that's good, though. The relationship is pretty well substantiated generally.

Given your entire case with how you've laid it out, I honestly don't think you've got anything to worry about. Keeping in mind Covid and North American (specifically Canadian/American) culture, this all falls under the umbrella of a straight forward spousal application for the IRCC.

To top if off, you both are from regions that are very similar in terms of economic/cultural lifestyle, so they generally tend to look at these with a gentler lense.

Get all your paper work and documents in order. Give things a double look through afterwards and send it off.

Good luck

 

[poporopos]

I had a small wedding as well - just me and my partner and two witnesses. When we planned it, weddings were banned in Québec due to covid unless they were outside. Also, trying to get past border restrictions due to covid was a nightmare and most people couldn't do it. On top of that, everyone on my wife's family requires TRVs which couldn't get approved fast enough and were even denied in some cases. For family members who were in the US as citizens or on green cards, one person got covid and another person is in the US Army and got deployed to the Ukraine-Russia crisis. It's all insane but I put this in my notes. We did try.

 

[Underhill]

Hello! My American wife and I (the sponsor - Canadian citizen) are working on an inland spousal sponsorship application. We got married in February in a private ceremony with just us and the two witnesses.

This is basically the scenario for me & my wife. IRCC didn't bat an eye. On its own it shouldn't be an issue.