Sponsorship Case Assessment

[stereognosis]

Hello everyone,

I wanted your opinion on possible red flags of my wife's and my spousal application.

Here is a short timeline with key periods of our relationship:

1. Met my future wife (a student as well) in medschool during infectious diseases rotation (romantic, I know ), after a few months we started dating in June 2011.
2. We dated for almost two years until my departure for Canada in end of April 2013 (my PR card would otherwise expire causing me to lose my status, I've been waiting to meet my residency obligations ever since).
3. She came to Canada on study permit in August 2013 and we married after two weeks. (Our wedding was only us and our witnesses in a church, this as far as I can tell is one of the possible red flags. We do have professional pictures of the ceremony as well as an engagement photo shoot. It was only us because we don't have any relatives in Canada except my parents, who are not Christian and are against my being one. They, therefore, did not attend the ceremony. This will be explained in our application)
4. We extended her study permit for a 1 year study program in April 2014 till October 2015.
We have lived together with my parents until October 2014, we have been living alone since November 2014. Both of our names are on the lease.
5. I will meet my residency obligations in May 2015 and we will apply for inland spousal immediately.

Important details about our relationship:

We are the same age, same level of education. Planning to live in Canada because of higher quality of life.

My wife has been Christian all her life and I being generally rather agnostic was baptized in January 2013. We now attend church regularly.

We have:

• A lot of pictures from around May 2012. We are close with her relatives and have significant number of pictures with them;
• Phone bills, with detailed list of phone calls and messages, WhatsApp logs, Hangouts logs from September 2012;
• Joint bank account since August 2013, authorized user on my credit card since around August 2014
• Instagram feed starting April 2014 with frequent updates.

I tried to consolidate information without making the post too bulky. Could you please assess our situation, so we could prepare for the possible issues?

Thank you.

 

[brucem]

Reading your description you appear to have a good grasp of all the requirements. Many people have small weddings so although you might see this as an issue as long as you explain to CIC why certain people did not attend then I can't see you having any issues. You have professional photos so thats good and no doubt you will have a lot of evidence to show your ongoing relationship.

On a sidenote I can see you want to apply inland. I'm not 100% sure maybe someone can clarify but you may be able to sponsor outland as a PR as you are residing in Canada. I know you cant sponsor outland if you are a PR and you are not residing in Canada. Its all dependent on your situation but generally it will take 2+ years to finalise an inland application, although the new pilot will supposedly allow a work permit within 4 months however, nobody will likely know if this will be the case for a few months until the first applications are processed. Depending on where your wife is originally from will likely determine where CIC would send an outland application so you could check that visa office thread on here and see how long applications are taking, some offices are as little as 6 months. If getting a work permit is a top priority then inland might be the way to go but given she is on a study permit until October 2015 you still have time to get an outland app through before having to change her status...if you can do this route.

 

[rhcohen2014]

Reading your description you appear to have a good grasp of all the requirements. Many people have small weddings so although you might see this as an issue as long as you explain to CIC why certain people did not attend then I can't see you having any issues. You have professional photos so thats good and no doubt you will have a lot of evidence to show your ongoing relationship.

On a sidenote I can see you want to apply inland. I'm not 100% sure maybe someone can clarify but you may be able to sponsor outland as a PR as you are residing in Canada. I know you cant sponsor outland if you are a PR and you are not residing in Canada.

yes, a PR can sponsor an outland application as long as the PR is living in canada. depending on where the applicant is from, it's still generally better to apply outland, not inland.

 

[brucem]

yes, a PR can sponsor an outland application as long as the PR is living in canada. depending on where the applicant is from, it's still generally better to apply outland, not inland.

Ah good to know thanks rhcohen!

 

[stereognosis]

Thank you for your replies brucem and rhcohen2014. I appreciate your help.

Applying inland or outland was another question of mine that I am still thinking about.

My wife is from Russia. Processing time for Moscow is currently 17 months. With 2 months for sponsor assessment it is 19 months coming close to inland. I understand that in reality it takes less time, but I do not know how much at the moment. May be someone here would be able to advise me?

I also heard that cases processed in Moscow can be transferred to Warsaw (8 months processing time). What are the conditions for that?

We were considering outland as an option if she could receive one year post grad work permit after her study permit and stay here with me, because as it was mentioned I cannot live outside of Canada while sponsoring. That would save us from living without each other, but the fear of her being rejected for PGWP and us being separated for a long time is painful to think about. I understand that people wait longer, but it doesn't really make it easier. Again, could anyone comment on her chances for PGWP approval during Spousal processing? I understand that this is somewhat a work permit forum question but it is a family sponsorship question just as much.

I understand that with inland we lose the possibility of appealing and that is one of the main reasons I am worried about inland.

Thank you.

 

[brucem]

Thank you for your replies brucem and rhcohen2014. I appreciate your help.

Applying inland or outland was another question of mine that I am still thinking about.

My wife is from Russia. Processing time for Moscow is currently 17 months. With 2 months for sponsor assessment it is 19 months coming close to inland. I understand that in reality it takes less time, but I do not know how much at the moment. May be someone here would be able to advise me?

I also heard that cases processed in Moscow can be transferred to Warsaw (8 months processing time). What are the conditions for that?

We were considering outland as an option if she could receive one year post grad work permit after her study permit and stay here with me, because as it was mentioned I cannot live outside of Canada while sponsoring. That would save us from living without each other, but the fear of her being rejected for PGWP and us being separated for a long time is painful to think about. I understand that people wait longer, but it doesn't really make it easier. Again, could anyone comment on her chances for PGWP approval during Spousal processing? I understand that this is somewhat a work permit forum question but it is a family sponsorship question just as much.

I understand that with inland we lose the possibility of appealing and that is one of the main reasons I am worried about inland.

Thank you.

Don't take quoted times from CIC website as they are often woefully inaccurate and based on worst case scenario. You are best to check the thread for the Moscow office on the forum to see the average time that applications are processed. If you were to apply in the next month or so you would still have nine months to get an outland application through so its worth checking the Moscow thread for more accurate processing times.

CIC have been sending some applications all over the place...for example I am in the UK and mine was sent to Ottawa rather than London. Sometimes its due to a backlog in that particular visa office or some have suggested that more straightforward applications will go to offices other than the sponsored persons native country. It's really up to CIC where they send an application.

Sorry I can't answer your question about PGWP maybe some of the senior members will be able to advise.

 

[MilesAway]

Thank you for your replies brucem and rhcohen2014. I appreciate your help.

Applying inland or outland was another question of mine that I am still thinking about.

My wife is from Russia. Processing time for Moscow is currently 17 months. With 2 months for sponsor assessment it is 19 months coming close to inland. I understand that in reality it takes less time, but I do not know how much at the moment. May be someone here would be able to advise me?

I also heard that cases processed in Moscow can be transferred to Warsaw (8 months processing time). What are the conditions for that?

We were considering outland as an option if she could receive one year post grad work permit after her study permit and stay here with me, because as it was mentioned I cannot live outside of Canada while sponsoring. That would save us from living without each other, but the fear of her being rejected for PGWP and us being separated for a long time is painful to think about. I understand that people wait longer, but it doesn't really make it easier. Again, could anyone comment on her chances for PGWP approval during Spousal processing? I understand that this is somewhat a work permit forum question but it is a family sponsorship question just as much.

I understand that with inland we lose the possibility of appealing and that is one of the main reasons I am worried about inland.

Thank you.

It's not a matter of "your case can be transfered", but your case will go to Warsaw. If you look at the CIC site, you will see that Russians are now processed through Warsaw. We applied in September and our case was forwarded there.

No one is quite sure how the processing times will be affected in Warsaw given the new influx of cases.

 

[stereognosis]

Thank you for your answers, brucem & MilesAway. Indeed outland for Russia seems relatively fast, closer to 6-8 months, especially with Warsaw playing its role now.

One of the main questions left at the moment is whether or not outland application hinders my wife's chances of getting PGWP. Could some one please give me information on that?

Thank you.