Sponsoring my Korean wife for permanent residency

[storm43]

I just got an email from the Manila Visa Office about our application ...

"Dear Applicant,

This refers to your application for permanent residence in Canada.

You submitted photos which do not meet our current standard specifications. In order for our office to issue your visa(s) and/or Confirmation of Permanent Resident form(s), you must submit two (2) photos of yourself and of each accompanying family member respecting precise specifications that can be found at:

The required photos must be submitted thru the Visa Application Centre (VAC). Find a VAC in your area at

The issuance of your visa(s) and/or Confirmation of Permanent Resident form(s) is time sensitive so it is important for you to submit your correct photos within 15 days from the date of this letter. Failure to comply within the given timeframe will lead to a delay in the processing of your application.



Sincerely,


Permanent Resident Unit "

Does this mean they are close to issuing a visa/COPR if we send in correct photos? Also, We are currently in Canada... it says we must submit the photos through the Visa Application Center... but none are listed for Canada? These are only photos of the applicant.. correct?

does anyone have any experience with this?

You might have resolved the issue by now but I might still chime in for those who might encounter photo request e-mail. My wife had her photo re-taken and we sent out photos to Manila Visa Application Centre shortly after. We then received an e-mail from VAC to inform that they could not proceed in processing application due to lack of PR document transmission fee/payment in local currency. The payment instruction was very restrictive in that VAC would only accept local bank draft in local currency. We then reached out to Manila immigration directly and were told that photos were not required if applicant was currently residing in Canada. About about two weeks after, the status changed to DECISION MADE this past Monday. We have yet to receive a COPR package and hope that the application was approved.

In summary, if anyone receives photo request e-mail from Manila, reach out to Manila immigration first to find out if they indeed require new photos. If not required, that will save you around $100 in courier fee and a couple of nights sleep.

By the way, has anyone been recently rejected for starightforward outland application?

 

[danby_ll]

I know this answer is buried somewhere in this thread but I can't seem to find it now.

My husband and I got copies of the Korean-specific documents (marriage certificate, family relation certificate, old (deleted) family census register, entry-exit certificate). They're dated the end of May 2016. However, we won't be submitting the application until the first week of August because that's the earliest my husband could get an appointment for the medical check. Do you think the documents are recent enough? Or should we get new ones sometime closer to the submission date? Luckily we haven't had them translated yet so if we do need more recent ones they're easy and cheap to get.

 

[floomy]

think it is good for 6 month or a year, so it should be fine.

 

[Kirkman85]

Hey everyone,

Just starting researching the process of sponsoring my wife and I am so glad that this thread is so extensive. We had considered applying outland while living in Korea but my wife works for an American company and we were worried about her having to quit and move whenever we got word of her approval for PR so we decided to wait until a transfer was an option and either go the PNP route or apply inland and get the open work permit so she can continue to work. I understand that we are taking a chance by expecting the work permit to come through in a timely manner but I am unaware of any better option giving our circumstances (would love to hear suggestions if anyone has any).

Anyway, I was wondering are the documents required for my wife for an inland application are still the same as the outland application?

What I have dug up so far is this list (can anyone comment on how up to date this list is?):

"1. Family Relation Certificate and one certified true translation into French or English of your Family
Relation Certificate. This document should have been recently issued.

2. Marriage Relation Certificate and one certified true translation into French or English

3. Old (deleted) Family Census Register and one certified true translation into French or English.

Along with a Korean criminal background check (translated), copy of her Korean ID card and Korean passport."

Thanks in advance.

 

[lauralee15]

Anyway, I was wondering are the documents required for my wife for an inland application are still the same as the outland application?

What I have dug up so far is this list (can anyone comment on how up to date this list is?):

"1. Family Relation Certificate and one certified true translation into French or English of your Family
Relation Certificate. This document should have been recently issued.

2. Marriage Relation Certificate and one certified true translation into French or English

3. Old (deleted) Family Census Register and one certified true translation into French or English.

Along with a Korean criminal background check (translated), copy of her Korean ID card and Korean passport."

Thanks in advance.

My husband and I applied Inland and we have our landing interview next week.

We also didn't know if the Korean specific documents applied to Inland or not, so we submitted them anyway (with the exception of the Marriage Relation Certificate, as we didn't have it at the time - we got it anyway later once we registered our marriage in Korea, but CIC never requested it). The nice thing is most Korean documents are relatively easy to get. We got our documents while we were in Korea in July 2015 and didn't submit our application until November 2015.

Also, you don't need to have the Korean criminal background check translated as it has both english and korean on it.

 

[Kirkman85]

Thanks for all the previous info, everyone.

I have a couple other questions I am hoping to get answered.

1) Other than the medical check and the police check, do any other documents have to be issued within a certain amount of time, i.e. 3 months.

2) In document IMM5669 - Schedule A - Background Declaration "List all the addresses where you have lived since your 18th birthday or the past 10 years." did you just list where you physically lived or where your wife actually was registered with the Korean government? I ask because for us they are different. We have "jeon sae"'d our officetels for the past 5 years and her landlord wouldn't let us register our address there to save money so we just kept her address as her parents place. If CIC requires any official document then we may have a complication, otherwise I will just fill out the table on the form for where we actually lived.

3) Is there any advantage to doing the medical first and sending it in with the original application or waiting for it to be requested. It seems that both are options.

Hoping to get the application sent in by the end of the month. Thanks for all your help!

 

[lauralee15]

Thanks for all the previous info, everyone.

I have a couple other questions I am hoping to get answered.

1) Other than the medical check and the police check, do any other documents have to be issued within a certain amount of time, i.e. 3 months.

2) In document IMM5669 - Schedule A - Background Declaration "List all the addresses where you have lived since your 18th birthday or the past 10 years." did you just list where you physically lived or where your wife actually was registered with the Korean government? I ask because for us they are different. We have "jeon sae"'d our officetels for the past 5 years and her landlord wouldn't let us register our address there to save money so we just kept her address as her parents place. If CIC requires any official document then we may have a complication, otherwise I will just fill out the table on the form for where we actually lived.

3) Is there any advantage to doing the medical first and sending it in with the original application or waiting for it to be requested. It seems that both are options.

Hoping to get the application sent in by the end of the month. Thanks for all your help!

1. No
2. We put all the addresses my husband stayed at (including when he visited in Canada for 3 months and studied outside of Korea), even though the only address registered with the Korean government is his parent's address. CIC didn't ask for any proof of addresses.
3. We did the medical upfront, just so that our application was complete and there would be no delay with time (as well there is only one panel physician close to us, so just wanted to get it done). However, this seems to be a personal choice. By reading others' experiences, it doesn't appear that doing it once CIC requests it slows the process down too much.

 

[Kirkman85]

Hey folks,

Looking to submit our application this week and really trying to make sure all our ducks are in a row.

Quick question: Is a household registry really required for Korea?
in the country specific section (IMM 3907) it says for
"Identity and Civil status documents

Provide - Birth certificates
- baptismal certs
- other official document confirming relationship (including all pages of household registries) for you and family members."

HOWEVER, in the section which is specific for Korea it only says to include

1)Family Relation Certificate and one certified true translation into French or English of your Family
Relation Certificate. This document should have been recently issued.

2)• Marriage Relation Certificate and one certified true translation into French or English

3)• Old (deleted) Family Census Register and one certified true translation into French or English


Again, the reason I ask is because throughout our application I use our current address and past addresses (all officetels that were not registered in our name) do not match the official registered address of my wife on the household registry. She is still registered as living with her parents but have not been living there since 2008.

I have the family register but I want to avoid any complications such as discrepancies in addresses if I can.

Thanks!

 

[lauralee15]

I believe for that section, you just need to include those specified under the section for Korean nationals - at least that is how it reads to me. Both the Family Relation Certificate and Family Census Registrar would contain the same information as a household registry.

My husband never registered any of his addresses other than when he lived with his parents. I don't think this will be an issue. However, if you are concerned about it, you can always just explain the discrepancy to CIC. I know for my husband he knew most of the addresses would only be temporary, so it would not have made much sense to keep switching them officially.

 

[Arianaanger]

Hello everyone! My husband (Korean) and I (Canadian) are finally starting the immigration process but when I try to open the Application to Sponsor, Sponsorship Agreement and Undertaking [IMM 1344] it will not open! I have re-installed and updated Adobe but nothing seems to be working. Any idea on how to get it to open up?

Thanks so much!

 

[profiler]

Hello everyone! My husband (Korean) and I (Canadian) are finally starting the immigration process but when I try to open the Application to Sponsor, Sponsorship Agreement and Undertaking [IMM 1344] it will not open! I have re-installed and updated Adobe but nothing seems to be working. Any idea on how to get it to open up?

Thanks so much!

I had this trouble some time ago. When I called the CIC and got technical support, they told me to open it in Internet Explorer. You may also be able to download the file, then open it outside of the browser.

 

[bartjones]

I had this trouble some time ago. When I called the CIC and got technical support, they told me to open it in Internet Explorer. You may also be able to download the file, then open it outside of the browser.

This works. Download, save and open.

 

[Arianaanger]

This works. Download, save and open.

Thank you so much everyone !! I was able to download it on my windows laptop but when I saved it and sent it to my macbook it did not open. So I guess I will just have to do those documents on the other computer. Thanks again

Also I would like to clarify another question of mine. I have not been working in Canada for 2.5 years and so I have not filed any tax returns as I now live in Korea. However, my husband is working. Do we need to prove our financial situation with his bank accounts? We do have some money in our joint bank account in Canada that I can send in for proof. We do not have any children so I read somewhere that we do not need to prove our finances but I just want to make sure. Thanks again !

 

[zergcraft]

Has anyone had to do a visitor visa extension while waiting for outland sponsorship app (we want to stay in canada during this)?

We are wondering what we should send to CIC as reason for extending, will saying the below be sufficient?:

"I wish to stay with (My common law partner) during the finalization of this application process before heading back to South Korea"

and also of course we will link the UCI/App No. as well. We are not sure wether or not this will raise red flags with immigration.

Thanks guys!

 

[bartjones]

Has anyone had to do a visitor visa extension while waiting for outland sponsorship app (we want to stay in canada during this)?

We are wondering what we should send to CIC as reason for extending, will saying the below be sufficient?:

"I wish to stay with (My common law partner) during the finalization of this application process before heading back to South Korea"

and also of course we will link the UCI/App No. as well. We are not sure wether or not this will raise red flags with immigration.

Thanks guys!

The words you want to use are "I wish to continue to visit my common law partner while my PR application is being processed."