Spousal sponsorship

[Omegabyte]

Hi! When do I actually do an upfront medical? Can I have it done with CIC request? If I'm not wrong, I will forward my documents and medical result to my sponsor in Canada so he will submit his documents together with mine to Mississauga?

You should do the UPFRONT medical before you apply. You can wait, but it may delay your application by a month or more.

If you go to a panel physician that uses eMedical, they will give you a receipt with a barcode (UMI#). You need to include that in your application package.

 

[Omegabyte]

Family Outland (Manila)
Application filed: July 29, 2016
AOR1, SA - August 30,2016

The letter from CIC is saying the application is now being forwarded to Manila office and also mentioned that I should provide an Upfront Medical Report.
Should I do the medical exam now or wait for the advise/request from Manila Office?

Thanks.

Congrats on SA!

Yes, you should do the medical now. Preferably, it should be done before you submit your application. That's why it's called an UPFRONT medical. ;D

The panel physician will give you an eMedical report (or receipt) with your UMI# on it. You can submit that via Case Specific Enquiry email, preferably as soon as possible. Otherwise, your application will sit on a desk waiting while the email request goes out, you do the medical, and submit the info.

 

[skrm]

Hi dear i just change my last name on my pr card and i sent my spousal application in Mid of August. Do i need to send my updated PR card copy to CIC? if yes then how?

 

[Danish Girl]

Hi There.
I am appliying for a PR through the spousal sponsorship. I am from Denmark and getting married with my Canadian boyfriend in three weeks. I Got here on May 1th and have until the end of October to get the application sent. Right now I do not have any visitor visa but are only legal for the 6 month. My question is if I will need to extend my stay with a visitor visa ? Or am I fine sending in my application before my 6 month expire, and then stay here on nothing while I am waiting? Hope somebody can help me.
Thanks a lot ;D

 

[Ponga]

Hi There.
I am appliying for a PR through the spousal sponsorship. I am from Denmark and getting married with my Canadian boyfriend in three weeks. I Got here on May 1th and have until the end of October to get the application sent. Right now I do not have any visitor visa but are only legal for the 6 month. My question is if I will need to extend my stay with a visitor visa ? Or am I fine sending in my application before my 6 month expire, and then stay here on nothing while I am waiting? Hope somebody can help me.
Thanks a lot ;D

Submitting a sponsorship application [alone] does not extend your status to legally remain in Canada. You will need to apply to renew/extend your visitor status before it expires. Many people do this online the day before their status expires.

If you were to submit an Inland sponsorship application, along with an Open Work Permit (OWP), you would be covered under what is called Implied Status, and would not need to extend your status, but...Inland applications take >2 years to process and the applicant is advised not to leave Canada for any reason!

Convince yourself that submitting the Outland package (which you can do from within Canada) and extending your status, is the best option.

Good luck!

 

[Danish Girl]

Hi Ponga.
First of all thanks a lot for your help.
So you Think it can take 2 years to get my open work permit when I am applying from within Canada, woooouw, that My fiance and I can not afford to not be working for so long.

So you say If I apply from outside Canada, I could still stay in Canada on for example a visitor visa extension?

Haha, I get more and more confused the more I use time on this.

Thanks again

 

[Misu111]

I am compiling a bunch of additional proof of relationship to send to VO. After we sent our application, we had lots of events that I believe are very important in normal relationship - going on honeymoon, sponsor meeting PA family and friends, etc.
Is it a good idea to do this in order to strengthen our application and hopefully increase the chance of getting the application processed faster? If so, should I include a note explaining why we're sending additional proof?

Hi,

You should definitely update information for EVERY visit you make to be with your spouse. Based on my application for my wife (so far looks like interview waived) there are few things I can add that may help you and others in the application process:

If you have ANY out of the ordinary marriage ( arranged marriage, one spouse previously divorced, etc ) , you should spend at least a month reviewing these forums to understand all the problems that may happen in a spousal application.

If you can provide them all the information they need upfront then may save the waiting time for the interview.

1. To show proof of relationship you must provide comprehensive information as follows:
(a) Go out to eat frequently ( could be ice cream)
(i) Keep EVERY receipt. SCAN and put into a folder
(ii) Take photo of BOTH of you together

(b) Invite her family and your family or go to family gatherings
(i) Take photo of YOU with YOUR SPOUSE family members ( Mother, Father, siblings, cousins, etc)
(ii) Take photo of YOUR SPOUSE with YOUR family member
(iii) Take several photos of YOU, SPOUSE and BOTH sets of parents together. ( Could be any setting)

(c) Go shopping. Keep EVERY receipt.

2. It is best you go for a Honeymoon. Even something as 1 day at a local hotel
(a) Take lots of photo of BOTH of you together around the hotel


3. Include relationship essays DETAILING every step of your relationship. You should think of every possible question the visa officer may ask you in an interview and address every scenario.

4. Although unofficially the spousal sponsorship does not have an income criteria, I believe one should address the following in your application (Visa officer wants to make sure as soon as spouse hits Canadian soil, the welfare office is not visited) :
(i) Address how your spouse plans to adjust into a tax paying Canadian once he/she comes to Canada
(ii) If English is a secondary language, spouse should take the IELTS to show proof of minimum English proficiency
(iii) Show a decent amount of money in your savings account to show you have set aside funds to assist your spouse to adjust into Canadian job market.

5. If either of you are divorced, make sure you understand the strict criteria under which visa office will recognize a foreign divorce ( All the criteria and should be addressed in relationship essay)





My spouse and I spent several months reviewing and writing the essays. Every question in the application that allowed for additional paper to be used we provided elaborate detailed answers in separate sheets.

We provided over 500 photos. I created a photo template in MS Word and then we copy and pasted the photos into the template. That way we could fit in many photos into 1 sheet of paper. Under each photo there was the following information: OCCASION on which photo was taken, The LOCATION of the photo, the individuals in the photo, the date when photo was taken and Who took the photo.

For every purchase I scanned the receipt and used the same template to copy and paste the photo of the scanned receipt. We provided around 100 receipts. Each receipt was described with occasion for the expense and dated.

For each Form, we provided addendum sheets wherever it was allowed. Every sheet had a consistent formatted header with SPONSORS NAME,DOB, APPLICANTS NAME, SPOUSE DOB, Form Number being answered and specific Question being answered

Example for applicants IMM 5490, questions 9, 14,15,18,19 we provided COMPLETE addendums with descriptive receipts, photos and detailed explanations for EACH question.

Many photos and receipts were repeated across several questions. We felt OK being repetitive as we wanted to make the application review process as painless as possible for the visa officer.

Each question in every form was answered fully and there was no answer provided that requested the visa officer to refer to any other pages of the application.

We submitted a very large application file. What we submitted must have assisted the visa officer to make his/her decision relatively quickly as my wife got her interview waived ( so far no requests yet) and she got her passport request only 8 months after sponsor was approved for a visa office that normally takes in excess of 20 months.

 

[Omegabyte]

The only thing I would add to the above post is that every region has a different level of proof required. Although the application you submitted would be great for VO's in countries with a visa requirement, visa-exempt countries have a significantly lower standard of proof, and the US is probably the lowest of all. Your "proof of genuine relationship" should be sized accordingly. The above level of proof for a standard, no "red flag" US Outland app would probably be overkill.

 

[sarah johns]

PLEASE ANSWER ME URGENTLY
my husband is sponsoring me and my daughter and they sent us mail want proof of his stay in canada
Please note that in order to complete the processing of your application, the following documents will be required to be sent by email :

- Evidence of your sponsor’s residency in Canada (e.g. Evidence of his employment, T4 and Notice of Assessment for the last 2 years, etc

this is what they asked for , my husband is a freelance self employ so what if i just sent them the taxes and his car lisence , is this going to be enough for them or they will not be satisfied like this ?????

 

[just a square]

@Misu111, thank you for your detailed answer. Our marriage is more on the ordinary side, however I see a few things that might be marked as red flags, therefore I'm concerned about sending additional proof.
Unfortunately, neither of us kept any receipts from our relationship up until we filed the application. I do have IELTS taken, however I never heard of providing it within spousal application and what effect it would have.
We had our honeymoon recently, my sponsor met my parents and siblings for the first time and I have proofs of all that, as you mentioned.
So, I have decided to wait a couple of weeks until my new passport is made (changed last name) and then send the photocopy together with additional relationship proof.

 

[Ponga]

Hi Ponga.
First of all thanks a lot for your help.
So you Think it can take 2 years to get my open work permit when I am applying from within Canada, woooouw, that My fiance and I can not afford to not be working for so long.

So you say If I apply from outside Canada, I could still stay in Canada on for example a visitor visa extension?

Haha, I get more and more confused the more I use time on this.

Thanks again

No. The OWP would take ~ 4 months to receive. The PR application would take ~ 2 years to process.

If you apply with an Outland application (from within Canada) you just need to renew your status before it expires to legally remain in Canada while the PR application is being processed.

 

[canuck_in_uk]

Unfortunately, neither of us kept any receipts from our relationship up until we filed the application. I do have IELTS taken, however I never heard of providing it within spousal application and what effect it would have.

Reciepts aren't needed and IELTS will have ZERO effect on a spousal app.

 

[BonManush]

PLEASE ANSWER ME URGENTLY
my husband is sponsoring me and my daughter and they sent us mail want proof of his stay in canada
Please note that in order to complete the processing of your application, the following documents will be required to be sent by email :

- Evidence of your sponsor’s residency in Canada (e.g. Evidence of his employment, T4 and Notice of Assessment for the last 2 years, etc

this is what they asked for , my husband is a freelance self employ so what if i just sent them the taxes and his car lisence , is this going to be enough for them or they will not be satisfied like this ?????

Notice of assessment is good. Also, annual financial statement prepared either by yourself or an account works. Try having the accountant stamp the statement whether you prepared it or he did.

 

[kiwiblair]

Well , here goes , i would like to see what the more experienced and knowledgeable forum members here think , it appears our application is taking forever , ... heres our story
my canadian born wife , came to live with me in New Zealand in 2008 and got permenent residency , we got married in 2011 , had twin girls in 2015 (dual citizenship) fast forward to this year , we have decided to immigrate to Canada so as to be closer to my wives family , so we went through the process of collecting all the items we need to apply , we have so much proof of everything theres no problem there .
i am a New Zealand born citizen , so i got an up front medical done , all paperwork sent off monies paid , and everything seems to be ticking along .... slowly , ... our status has sat at medical results received now for over a month , so my wife applied for the Gcms (?) notes , 21 days later she gets an email stating i didnt sign an authorisation form for her to apply for the notes on my app ... so we sign them and send them back to the same email address , .... and here we still wait ....ours must be one of the easiest applications on this forum ... (after reading some of your horror stories) all the dates of the apps etc are under my user name on the left , does this seem usual or similer , i read on here that out land apps for NZ and AUS is a lot quicker than most ..... anyone else have any thoughts other than , just be patient , ... we are not in any rush , but geeze this is a very slow process .
cheers for any help , or advice .

 

[chilkootcee]

Well , here goes , i would like to see what the more experienced and knowledgeable forum members here think , it appears our application is taking forever , ... heres our story
my canadian born wife , came to live with me in New Zealand in 2008 and got permenent residency , we got married in 2011 , had twin girls in 2015 (dual citizenship) fast forward to this year , we have decided to immigrate to Canada so as to be closer to my wives family , so we went through the process of collecting all the items we need to apply , we have so much proof of everything theres no problem there .
i am a New Zealand born citizen , so i got an up front medical done , all paperwork sent off monies paid , and everything seems to be ticking along .... slowly , ... our status has sat at medical results received now for over a month , so my wife applied for the Gcms (?) notes , 21 days later she gets an email stating i didnt sign an authorisation form for her to apply for the notes on my app ... so we sign them and send them back to the same email address , .... and here we still wait ....ours must be one of the easiest applications on this forum ... (after reading some of your horror stories) all the dates of the apps etc are under my user name on the left , does this seem usual or similer , i read on here that out land apps for NZ and AUS is a lot quicker than most ..... anyone else have any thoughts other than , just be patient , ... we are not in any rush , but geeze this is a very slow process .
cheers for any help , or advice .

Some people on this forum (outland applicants) have been waiting for 2 years or more. You just applied at the end of June. It takes approx 6 weeks for sponsorship approval and transfer to visa office overseas...and according to http://www.cic.gc.ca/ENGLISH/information/times/index.asp the processing time for New Zealand is approx 10 months. If you want to see the actual processing times, you can review spreadsheets that have been shared - 2015 and 2016 outland sheets.

C.