Hello everyone from Seoul South Korea. I have a big interesting topic to present and questions to ask. Currently I am a Canadian living in Seoul, South Korea. I have been here for going on 4 years. Currently I have a common law spouse who I have been living with here since September 2009. She is American, not Korean. She has been here for about 3 years. We are both on Korean E2 Visas, which are for teachers of children and adults. She teaches at an elementary school , and I teach University classes.
Nevertheless, I would like to sponsor her to come to Canada and live with me in the Autumn of this year (Sept-Nov 2011). Our relationship is genuine, and we have all the paper work for sponsorship eligibility lined up and ready to mail off to the office in Ontario.
However, this is where is gets complicated, she has 2 DUI's on her record. One occurred almost 10 years ago when she was 19, and just made a stupid mistake, there was no dangerous driving, no bodily harm ,and no property damage. The second occurred in the spring 2009, much to her humiliation. She was coming home from dinner with family, and an officer pulled her over for a random check (which is legal in her state of Maine), and gave her a DUI because she had drinks with her dinner (which she had absently mind-idly forgot about). Once again there was no speeding/dangerous driving, no bodily harm, and no property damage. She always cooperated, and paid the fines promptly. Her licence is gone and she doesn't intend to get it back anytime soon (She is eligible to get it back this year with restrictions, and get it back with no restrictions next year). Also, she is originally from a border town in Maine, and she can literally see Canada from her house. In the summer of 2009 we visited her hometown, and went to the border to visit my family in Nova Scotia (we didn't know about the inadmissibility rules). They scanned her passport and her DUI from 10 years ago popped up. They took her to an isolation room, and questioned her ( I was not allowed to go with her). She obviously told them the truth and was very forthcoming and told them of the second DUI that didn't show up on their scan. However, she was denied entry and we were told to turn around (Thank god she lives 5 minutes from the border). They offered us no information on how she could enter Canada. Lastly, her second DUI does no appear on her criminal record, we don't really know why (it's been over 2 years), but the State of Maine said they don't always appear on your criminal record if there were no aggravating circumstances, it would just appear on you driving record.
Anyway, we later learned we should have went to one of the major border crossings to get a Temporary resident permit (TRP) from a trained immigration official (the smaller crossing we went across was not equipped with immigration officers), and that with proper paper work she can get this TRP issued for up to 3 years in length (and it will allow her to get a student and open work visa if it is issued for longer than 6 months).
Nevertheless, I was wondering if anyone has any experience with these TRPs, and how difficult they are to get? My spouse has lived in Korea for 3 years, and the Korean government doesn't care about these types of infractions, and they certainly trust her with children. She has also traveled to Brazil, China ,and Europe with no problems, in fact they almost laugh when she brings it up (like we are wasting their time with this, they are looking for violent criminals or smugglers). The immigration website is extremely vague on this matter, and I have no idea what they mean when they say TRP's are issued on compassionate grounds (does that include us?). Also, some websites say they issue these rarely, but I have spoken to numerous lawyers who say they issue these things daily, with few being rejected. Also, I used Stats Canada and discovered they issue thousands of these TRP's a years for much worse crimes, including armed robbery, manslaughter, sexual assault, and 'terrorist acts'!? I also called immigration in Canada, and they sent me an e-mail, stating that they had to change the rules for TRP's because too many people were getting rejected from the USA. They actually created a clause that celebrities and musicians coming to Canada can get TRP's more easily!? (I still have this e-mail, and I will try and post it).
Thanks to anyone who has any experience with this, we are going to apply for it either way, and we would rather not use lawyers since they charge way too much, and don't seem to offer any real advantage (in fact some lawyers told us to just try it by ourselves first).
Thanks in advance.
Nevertheless, I would like to sponsor her to come to Canada and live with me in the Autumn of this year (Sept-Nov 2011). Our relationship is genuine, and we have all the paper work for sponsorship eligibility lined up and ready to mail off to the office in Ontario.
However, this is where is gets complicated, she has 2 DUI's on her record. One occurred almost 10 years ago when she was 19, and just made a stupid mistake, there was no dangerous driving, no bodily harm ,and no property damage. The second occurred in the spring 2009, much to her humiliation. She was coming home from dinner with family, and an officer pulled her over for a random check (which is legal in her state of Maine), and gave her a DUI because she had drinks with her dinner (which she had absently mind-idly forgot about). Once again there was no speeding/dangerous driving, no bodily harm, and no property damage. She always cooperated, and paid the fines promptly. Her licence is gone and she doesn't intend to get it back anytime soon (She is eligible to get it back this year with restrictions, and get it back with no restrictions next year). Also, she is originally from a border town in Maine, and she can literally see Canada from her house. In the summer of 2009 we visited her hometown, and went to the border to visit my family in Nova Scotia (we didn't know about the inadmissibility rules). They scanned her passport and her DUI from 10 years ago popped up. They took her to an isolation room, and questioned her ( I was not allowed to go with her). She obviously told them the truth and was very forthcoming and told them of the second DUI that didn't show up on their scan. However, she was denied entry and we were told to turn around (Thank god she lives 5 minutes from the border). They offered us no information on how she could enter Canada. Lastly, her second DUI does no appear on her criminal record, we don't really know why (it's been over 2 years), but the State of Maine said they don't always appear on your criminal record if there were no aggravating circumstances, it would just appear on you driving record.
Anyway, we later learned we should have went to one of the major border crossings to get a Temporary resident permit (TRP) from a trained immigration official (the smaller crossing we went across was not equipped with immigration officers), and that with proper paper work she can get this TRP issued for up to 3 years in length (and it will allow her to get a student and open work visa if it is issued for longer than 6 months).
Nevertheless, I was wondering if anyone has any experience with these TRPs, and how difficult they are to get? My spouse has lived in Korea for 3 years, and the Korean government doesn't care about these types of infractions, and they certainly trust her with children. She has also traveled to Brazil, China ,and Europe with no problems, in fact they almost laugh when she brings it up (like we are wasting their time with this, they are looking for violent criminals or smugglers). The immigration website is extremely vague on this matter, and I have no idea what they mean when they say TRP's are issued on compassionate grounds (does that include us?). Also, some websites say they issue these rarely, but I have spoken to numerous lawyers who say they issue these things daily, with few being rejected. Also, I used Stats Canada and discovered they issue thousands of these TRP's a years for much worse crimes, including armed robbery, manslaughter, sexual assault, and 'terrorist acts'!? I also called immigration in Canada, and they sent me an e-mail, stating that they had to change the rules for TRP's because too many people were getting rejected from the USA. They actually created a clause that celebrities and musicians coming to Canada can get TRP's more easily!? (I still have this e-mail, and I will try and post it).
Thanks to anyone who has any experience with this, we are going to apply for it either way, and we would rather not use lawyers since they charge way too much, and don't seem to offer any real advantage (in fact some lawyers told us to just try it by ourselves first).
Thanks in advance.
