Sponsorship living outside Canada with my wife.. same visa officer???

[ProGuard]

So I am a Canadian Citizen and I have been living in my wife's home country with her for over 8 months now. My wife's PR App. was refused on ''not genuine'' and also some allegations regarding a cousin of mine who had come to Canada and left her husband because he was a drug addict. Our Refusal was in October 2012. Now we have been living together in Fiji since November 2012. Fiji has a Immigration rule that if you are married to a Citizen of Fiji you are automatically a resident. My wife and I took advantage of this and now I own a home and a car and the cost of living is cheap (exchange rate is great) since I have my money sent from Canada. I did not want to go through an appeal. The only thing I am worried about is when we re-apply its almost certain it will be the same Visa Officer and so I wanted to know was how should I go about making sure its approved for sure this time and how would that work with the same Officer all over again??? ( I am having a Lawyer second time around, no lawyer first time)

Thanks

 

[canadianwoman]

I`d live together for at least a year before applying again. I`d wait as long as you can - if your life is fine in Fiji, that is. The longer you live together, the more likely it is the visa officer will think the relationship is genuine. While you are there, continue gathering evidence you are a genuine couple, such as lots of photos; proof of joint cohabitation; letters or affidavits from friends there who can attest that you are a couple; any proof that you have joined your financial affairs; etc.

Your visa officer might not be the same one - many of them change embassies after 2 years.

 

[Nell1236]

They have to wait a year to reapply anyway, so that's already an extra year of their being together. Look over your original application and try to see where you left gaps (gaps or inconsistent dates), didn't send enough photos or didn't explain enough. Reread the officer's statement to understand what he or she was thinking. Hard to believe you could be "punished" because of some relative's poor actions. Try to distance yourself in all you send in from that person.

I went through an appeal and would not do so again if I had it to do over.

Just curious, what's it like to live in Fiji and why wouldn't you want to stay?

 

[ProGuard]

Thanks for your replies. No I do not have to wait a year for re-applying I am a Canadian Citizen and have found out already before I came here 8 months ago. However if you have a proof link please provide it because I may be wrong. The Visa officer's at the Australia visa office for Fiji are not even Canadians they are Australians and do not switch embassies, the Australian National visa officer who did our case was working in the consulate for over 9 years first as a administrator and now a visa officer. Many consultants told me this is strange to have a different National not of Canada issuing visa but say it does happen time to time.


If you have any links on this please post them

Thank you

 

[frege]

I think the advice about waiting a year was a matter of strategy, not one based on a legal requirement. The longer you live together in Fiji, the less likely it appears to a reasonable person that the marriage is just a ploy to get into Canada.

I think you should get a copy of your full sponsorship and immigration files from CIC. This will tell you what information they've retained from your previous application. You'll also see what concerns they had.

My advice would be to get an immigration lawyer. After the refusal, it will be more difficult for you to be successful. This is true even if it's not the same officer.

You'll probably want to put together your application on the assumption that you'll need to appeal this time. What this means is that you'll want to lay out evidence in a written form as much as possible, based on what would be persuasive to an appeals panel. Exactly what to include is best discussed with a lawyer, but what Canadianwoman said seems appropriate. The significance of the visa officer in this situation is that they will be conducting the interview and recording the notes from it. What they say happened in the interview is what will matter on appeal, in addition to the evidence you've submitted. If the visa officer is convinced they'd lose an appeal, they're less likely to reject you.

Hopefully someday Canada will allow these interviews to be recorded the way the U.S. does, so that we no longer have to just take the visa officer's word for it on what happened. It seems to me this is a source of unfairness if the visa officer has unspoken reasons to want to refuse somebody. As things stand, you're not allowed to record the interview.

 

[Nell1236]

As to recording the interview - that would be great. The notes from my husband's initial interview showed lots of gaps, some of the nasty things the woman said were omitted.

As to waiting a year - that is what we were told by the immigration person at the Mexican Embassy, i.e. after a refusal you have to wait a year to reapply. We made the mistake of appealing, which took a lot longer and also failed.

Rather than our doing your homework, you should either consult a lawyer in Canada or check out the CIC website. I can't speak to the legality of what we were told but it did come from the horse's mouth.