Hello everyone, sorry for the long hiatus from the group. We got a PFL on Dec 22. Since then life has been dark gloomy and well hopeless. Don't worry I will share the details of the PFL here and how we are tackling it.
The officer thinks our marriage is not genuine because it's a love marriage and that is culturally unusual (Yup you read it right!).
They also asked for:
1) (yet again) Urdu NN
2) Photo of rukhsati
3) More wedding photos showing more guests etc
4) Communication proof since wedding
5) statement of when we decided to get married and when we informed our families.
So now we are:
1) Getting an urdu NN made, will attach a letter from registrar that English is legal but because CIC is insisting we are getting an Urdu one made again.
2) We don't have a picture of me sitting inside the decorated car, or being walked out by my family for various reasons. However we do have lots of pictures of all the other more fun stuff from the wedding, like dance performances, photo booth, on stage with lots of people etc. We are explaining (with evidence) why pictures were not taken at the time of our exit, giving a rukhsati certificate, showing pictures of us inside the hotel room where we stayed for 3 nights after wedding, photos of me inside his house with his family, and then my visit in spring of this year flight detail, visa and stamps on passport, receipts of shopping etc we did, lots of photos we took with family and friends during my trip. CIC needs to update its checklist either internally or online to ensure couples pay close attention to these details. Anyone else have the same issue and how they got out of it would really appreciate your help in this regard specifically.
3) Lots of pics in total maybe 250 for 3 events
4) communication proof since marriage and we have given proof of communication from 2008 - wedding date as well.
5) statement with proof of when we told our mothers, when they talked, when we decided to get married etc.
6) we have included as supporting evidence:
a) receipts of gifts we sent each other on birthdays and at random
b) money we transferred on birthdays and Eid
c) letters from family members explaining our circumstances at wedding, missing rukhsati photo, vouching that our rukhsati has indeed taken place etc
d) My name on my husbands work health insurance, his name on my CRA profile
e) facebook posts of friends and family wishing us anniversary, us writing on each others wall, wishing birthdays, comments and likes of friends on our wedding pictures etc
f) communication between his family and myself, and my family and him. We are in each others family groups screen shots of that, screenshots of his conversations with my family or my chats with his siblings etc
g) other messages of friends on whatsapp where we are talking about my spouse, or he is talking about me with other people etc
We have also hired a lawyer in Canada who will argue that not everyone follows the same traditions, and if the marriage is legal and genuine then rejecting based on not following traditions is a form of discrimination. We have prepared a 550 page long document which the lawyer is going to review in the next few days until our Urdu NN is done. Wish us luck and any suggestions regarding the lack of photo at the time of rukhsati will be greatly appreciated.
We are hoping for a positive response, but that is all we can do.
Thanks.