Sponsoring my Korean wife for permanent residency

[seoulcanada]

Hey, i just got married in Korea also a few months ago. Congrats!

First you need to go to the Canada consulate with $50 CDN (or around 50,000 won) and your passport. There you basically sign an affidavit that you're single, and you'll get a copy of that in English. Make sure you go in the morning (I think until 11:30am or so but best to check for sure yourself), as in the afternoons they close for this kind of service. Whole process here takes only a few minutes if there's no wait.

The problem now is that you need to get that english form translated into Korean so the Korean government can use it for the marriage. The translation doesn't have to be professional. In our case my wife's father did it for us.

Then with the affidavit in Korean, you go to the local government office to register the marriage. Your wife will do all the taking, and all you need to do is sign at the end. Whole process here with no wait was around 10-15 minutes.

After that, the marriage is registered and technically you're married. Any wedding ceremony/reception for family and friends is just for show afterwards.

After a week or 2, the official marriage certificate will be available for download from the government website. Your wife will need to login with some kind of internet ID code (she should know how to do), and then you can just print out the certificate to include in your application. Or you can pick it up in person again from the government office.

Overall i think doing everything in several hours is easily doable, just start at the embassy as soon as it opens, and be prepared to have someone translate/print out a nice looking Korean version of the affidavit you're going to get.

Hope this helps!

Thanks, thats what I had read would be involved, but its good to have the timelines confirmed. I'm from Toronto, I'm guessing you're in Toronto as well from your username? Anyways, congrats to you as well. Hope your application for sponsorship is going well if you are doing that.

Cheers

 

[Rob_TO]

Thanks, thats what I had read would be involved, but its good to have the timelines confirmed. I'm from Toronto, I'm guessing you're in Toronto as well from your username? Anyways, congrats to you as well. Hope your application for sponsorship is going well if you are doing that.

We actually finished our PR sponsorship before we got married, as a common-law couple while we were both living in Toronto.

In your case, are you planning to have a full wedding ceremony/reception before you guys actually apply for spousal PR? If you try to apply with only the marriage certificate, it will look like a marriage of convenience done solely for PR purposes to CIC, so you can be almost assured of requiring an interview and seeing delayed processing times. Having at least a small intimate reception even if its with only a handful of close friends and family where you can take lots of pictures, should be done if at all possible.

 

[seoulcanada]

Hmmm....thanks.

We are planning a wedding but we are thinking of doing it in 2014 when family from Korea can travel to Canada.

Also, my wife currently is in Seoul and has a student visa expiring in December 2013. She has a ticket back to Canada in November 2013. I'm thinking they may look at this strange...why is she coming with one month left on her student visa and why did she spend the last two months in Korea....etc.

Can she just remove the student visa paper and come in on a visitor visa? She has lived in Canada for the last 2.5 years...not sure what kind of visa she has been on, some student visa, some working holiday...the last one was a student visa. We live together.

 

[Rob_TO]

Hmmm....thanks.

We are planning a wedding but we are thinking of doing it in 2014 when family from Korea can travel to Canada.

You probably shouldn't apply for PR until after you've had the reception, or as i said do a smaller reception before then. It really sounds like the only reason you are getting "married" on Monday, is in order for you to get the application in as a married couple. And CIC will think the same way.

You mention you live together. Have you ever lived for 12-continuous months together either in Canada or Korea? If so and you've kept proofs of it, you could apply for PR via common-law status.

Also, my wife currently is in Seoul and has a student visa expiring in December 2013. She has a ticket back to Canada in November 2013. I'm thinking they may look at this strange...why is she coming with one month left on her student visa and why did she spend the last two months in Korea....etc.

Can she just remove the student visa paper and come in on a visitor visa? She has lived in Canada for the last 2.5 years...not sure what kind of visa she has been on, some student visa, some working holiday...the last one was a student visa. We live together.

Hmm yes a student visa expiring in December could look strange. However if she says she needed to return to Korea for family reasons, and is now coming back to Canada to finish her studies, I don't think it will be a big issue. Keep in mind the immigration officer may demand to see her return ticket to Korea dated for when the student visa expires in December.
What does she intend to do after the student visa expires in December, return to Korea or try and stay here?

Usually working holiday visas are good for 1 year only (this is what my wife first came to Canada with). It's possible that after that working visa expires, she turned it into a student visa via either a language academy by enrolling in their english classes, or through a college/university.

I have no idea about coming in as a visitor, when you have a student visa already in force.

 

[seoulcanada]

I guess it does sound a bit suspicious, but thats just the way it happened. We live together in Canada, I proposed, and we went to Asia for a month to travel and meet her parents for Chusok and with the intention of her staying a couple extra months in Seoul since she hasn't been there for so long. We're at the end of our trip and I'm going back home and she'll be here 2 months.

The idea was just to get the certificate asap so I can start the application process asap. I was totally ready to sleep now I'm all stressed out about this!

 

[Rob_TO]

I guess it does sound a bit suspicious, but thats just the way it happened. We live together in Canada, I proposed, and we went to Asia for a month to travel and meet her parents for Chusok and with the intention of her staying a couple extra months in Seoul since she hasn't been there for so long. We're at the end of our trip and I'm going back home and she'll be here 2 months.

The idea was just to get the certificate asap so I can start the application process asap. I was totally ready to sleep now I'm all stressed out about this!

Have you lived together for 12-continuous months? If so then just apply as common-law. Much easier than applying as a married couple with only a certificate and no actual ceremony/reception.

Also how does she intend to stay in Canada after her study visa expires? Are you planning to do an Inland PR application?

 

[seoulcanada]

No we have only lived together Since Dec 2012 but she has only been on the lease since April 2012.

As for what she was planning to do after student visa expires:

a) visa extension while waiting for PR application. Cdn gov has a link to "Application to Change Conditions or Extend Your Stay in Canada as a Visitor" which sounds like the right one for this situation.
b) come in on 6 month visitor visas
c)I don't know yet!

 

[Rob_TO]

No we have only lived together Since Dec 2012 but she has only been on the lease since April 2012.

Well for common-law it's not mandatory you share a lease. In our case I already owned a home before I met by wife, and a mortgage is impossible to change midway through... so she was never on my mortgage or home ownership info. We relied on other proofs to show common-law.

Anyways in your case, once you leave Korea on the 23rd, and she remains in Korea for 2 more months... your cohabitation will have ended so you'll no longer apply for common-law. In order to maintain common-law status, she would need to return back to Canada to continuing living with you in a more reasonable time (like 2 weeks later). So applying as married looks to be the only way.

If it's possible I would really recommend to do a small reception in Canada even if it's just your side of the family and friends, just to show something more than only a translated piece of paper saying you're married. You can always include testimonials from her side of the family saying how they support you but were unable to fly over to Canada for the reception, and that you will do a 2nd one later on in Korea. Hopefully you also now have a lot of pictures with you and her family in Korea to show their support.

As for what she was planning to do after student visa expires:

a) visa extension while waiting for PR application. Cdn gov has a link to "Application to Change Conditions or Extend Your Stay in Canada as a Visitor" which sounds like the right one for this situation.
b) come in on 6 month visitor visas
c)I don't know yet!

I would post this as a new general question in the forum to get some responses from people who don't read this thread.

First i'm not sure about coming in as a general visitor, when you have a study visa already in force.

And second, if you guys get married then when you apply for the extension she will have lived in Canada for several years, and be married to a Canadian at the time. So it looks like she really wants to stay in Canada and has ties only to Canada, so not sure if its guaranteed a request for extension will be successful since they may think she will overstay. Definitely ask this to the general forum as I don't have lots of experience here.

 

[Sejong]

Hi everyone,

I've been reading this thread for over a month and have found it immensely informative. Currently, I am in the process of obtaining documents for my application.

I have a couple of questions that I hope someone would take the time to respond to. The first one is about the employment letter I have to submit. I started working at my current workplace in March and will ask for a letter from it. Before March I worked at a different place and the income I earned there would be included in my application. Should I include a letter from my previous employer as well?

My second question is related to my wife's National ID card. Do I need to include a photocopy and translation of my wife's National ID card? I read some people didn't translate it and some did. Not sure what is the best course of action.

Thank you in advance for your advice.

 

[CanNZ]

Sorry to hear about your situation Bartjones.

Sejong, do you have to prove your income?

 

[Sejong]

Sejong, do you have to prove your income?

No. We don't have any kids. I'm just sponsoring my wife.

 

[Korea2Canada]

Hi everyone,

I've been reading this thread for over a month and have found it immensely informative. Currently, I am in the process of obtaining documents for my application.

I have a couple of questions that I hope someone would take the time to respond to. The first one is about the employment letter I have to submit. I started working at my current workplace in March and will ask for a letter from it. Before March I worked at a different place and the income I earned there would be included in my application. Should I include a letter from my previous employer as well?

My second question is related to my wife's National ID card. Do I need to include a photocopy and translation of my wife's National ID card? I read some people didn't translate it and some did. Not sure what is the best course of action.

Thank you in advance for your advice.

1. If I remember correctly you need letters of employment for last 12 months. It should include: job title, duration, salary ( annual ), address/contact/signature of employer.

2. ID Card - we enclosed a photocopy of front and back side. There is nothing to translate. It just has an address. We put a notation on the copy like: The Korean on this card is our address and spelled out address in English. The ID number is what matters.

There maybe more on this in previous postings.

 

[bartjones]

I have a couple of questions that I hope someone would take the time to respond to. The first one is about the employment letter I have to submit. I started working at my current workplace in March and will ask for a letter from it. Before March I worked at a different place and the income I earned there would be included in my application. Should I include a letter from my previous employer as well?

Just include the letter from your current employer and an Option C printout. It's Doc. # 18 on the checklist and it only requests an "original letter from your current employer...". No need to worry about any previous employers.

My second question is related to my wife's National ID card. Do I need to include a photocopy and translation of my wife's National ID card? I read some people didn't translate it and some did. Not sure what is the best course of action.

I just included a photocopy because I couldn't see anywhere in the guide where it said it needed to be translated or notarized.

 

[Korea2Canada]

Just include the letter from your current employer and an Option C printout. It's Doc. # 18 on the checklist and it only requests an "original letter from your current employer...". No need to worry about any previous employers.

I just included a photocopy because I couldn't see anywhere in the guide where it said it needed to be translated or notarized.

A letter from current employer AND previous employer if current position is less than 12 months. Thats's what I did. I was just 2 mths. into a new job when I sent appl. So, I went to previous employer in person, gave a sample LOE, and they made one for me.

 

[bartjones]

A letter from current employer AND previous employer if current position is less than 12 months. Thats's what I did. I was just 2 mths. into a new job when I sent appl. So, I went to previous employer in person, gave a sample LOE, and they made one for me.

The Document checklist doesn't require this. It just says, "If you are employed, provide an original letter from your current employer stating your period of employment, salary and regular hours per week".

The 12 month thing only applies if your are self employed.