You and your ex CL should go to a lawyer now and get a statutory declaration drawn up that states what you have just told all of us (division of bills & property, why you are still residing at the same address, etc.) including the date your relationship stopped being a conjugal one as well as the terms of your separations (that all issues have been resolved by consent). File that with your sponsorship papers. CIC won't care that you weren't married in this case. A 19 year relationship is as good as married.Nathan3 said:______________________________________________
Hello,
I have a question for you with my present situation please.
I am a Canadian citizen who will be going to the Philippines to get married to my girlfriend next year. My stay in the Philippines will be about 2 weeks only. My question is ; I was in a common law relationship with another person in Canada for the last 19 years and separated last year. We were never married and no children as well. Our separation was mutual and no problems what so ever.
We both bought and own a house together and all items and bills are always divided equally. We are not able to sell the house and move out independently. We are not also financially stable for one of us to move out now and rent an apartment while paying a mortgage.
Although technically we are under one roof , we both lead separate lives (separate rooms) as we are separated. That is the agreement that we have between us. We are cohabiting purely for financial reasons only. I have postponed my wedding in the Philippines for now until next year because of this situation.
I understand that I need to prove that I am separated from my current common law before marrying my girlfriend in the Philippines and sponsoring her. My girlfriend and I are still corresponding on a very regular basis . As soon as the house is sold , my current common law (separated) and I will have the financial means to actually get individual accommodation . We expect this to happen by spring next year and plan my wedding in the fall next year in the Philippines with my girlfriend.
Given my circumstances , I expect my complete physical separation from my previuous common law and the wedding in the Philippines to be within a 6 month time frame only.
Will this short time frame between the separation and my wedding in the Philippines pose a problem in regards to sponsorship of my Filipina wife please.
Any other advice from you relating to my situation will greatly be appreciated. As I indicated before my common law and I were never married and no kids.
Thank you so much .
Hi HCsquared,HCsquared said:Hello everyone,
First of all this is a great place, and I've learned a lot from here. I have 4 questions about my spousal immigration. I know it's kind of long, so please bear with me. I would really appreciate any kind of help (I'm a Canadian citizen, she is a Chinese citizen)
1. I didn't send my application yet, as I am still in China. I will send it right away when I go back to Canada on mid-November (outland sponsorship). The thing is I don't have a job yet in Canada, as I've just graduated from University on August 2010. (Although I do have 2 years of co-op work experience). If I don't have a job, will this affect the application process? Will it be slower, or even rejected?
2. She still has a job in China (she currently works in Bank of China). I read that it is always good to show intention of residing in Canada in the future, so should she quit her job right now? Or should she quit her job after the application process has completed? Which one will be better for us in terms of the application process speed? Will the immigration office prefer it if she has already quit her job, or if she is still working until February-March?
3. Our relationship started on March 2010 (well I actually met her in elementary school, she's my childhood sweetheart). From March to August, we sent email letters to each other every day. I then came to China on September to meet her, and we got married on October 20. A total of 6 months. Will the immigration office think this marriage is too fast? thus not genuine? Is it safe to send the application on November, or should I stay in China with her until the new year, and then send the application?
4. Does the immigration office tell you that your application is approved beforehand? For example, if the application is approved on April 30, do they let you know a month before that your application is almost approved, or do they just not say anything and tell you it's approved on April 30?
Again, I would greatly appreciate any kind of help. Even if you can answer 1 question, I'll be really really happy.
Thank you very much!
rjessome, thank you so much for the reply.rjessome said:Hi HCsquared,
1. No, you not having a job at the moment will not affect your sponsorship application as long as you are not receiving social assistance benefits or have an undischarged bankruptcy. So assuming that is not the case, you will be approved as a sponsor. During the assessment of the PR application, the only reason your application could be refused for financial reasons is if CIC believes that you will be unable to support yourselves when your wife comes to Canada and you will have to rely on social assistance. So get a job when you get back to Canada.
2. NO! She does not need to quit her job and shouldn't until PR has been approved. CIC doesn't expect you to stop your life and work while waiting for PR to be decided. You don't know how long it will take for assessment of the application to be completed and a decision made. It would not be smart for her to quit her job until she knows what the decision is regarding PR.
3. Both of you should write statements about your relationship and tell CIC about how you knew each other in elementary school and re-kindled the relationship in early 2010. It will also depend upon why type of proof you are submitting, i.e. pictures, emails, proof of time physically spent together, etc. You don't mention which part of China she is from or which visa office will be processing (there are two for China). You might want to look at some of the other threads about processing in China and get some advice from others using the same visa office. I've heard China can be tough.
4. There are "signs" you look for in the process. Near the end of the processing, you are waiting for interviews, passport requests, requests for further documents/proof, etc. A passport request is a good sign because it normally means they want to stamp the PR visa counterfoil in the passport. When that happens, you can sometimes judge how much longer it will take. Each application is treated individually but you can look for common practices at the visa office where your wife's application will be processed. While not 100% guaranteed that each application will follow the same process, it will give you an excellent idea about what is likely to take place.
I can't really answer that. Again, I recommend you look at and discuss this with others who are also being processed through the same visa post. I don't have experience with posts in China so I couldn't say for sure. I can tell you that they will look at two things: 1 - that the marriage is genuine, and 2 - that the marriage was not entered into for the purposes of gaining status under the immigration act (IRPA).HCsquared said:rjessome, thank you so much for the reply.
I just have another question if you don't mind. We didn't have our wedding yet, but we are officially married (marriage certificate). Would the visa office prefer us to have a wedding first and then send the application? Or will it be ok to send the application without the wedding (photos, videos, etc.). Kind of a weird question, and only the immigration office knows for sure. But any suggestions would be great, thanks!
Sorry but some of your advice is incorrect. The police clearances must be submitted WITH the application when it goes to CPC-Missauga. The same is true for the medical. Further police clearances and medicals may be requested if the processing is not finished within a specific time frame but the poster needs to follow the checklists(Regions Specific Guide for Mexico and Sponsor's Checklist) in order to ensure his application is complete. He risks having it returned to him from CPC-M if he sends it without the above documents.tinker said:Hi shero
1) Its a good idea to submit the application with the police clearance but you can submit it when the file moves from canada to the local visa office(most likely they will request this as additional documents)
2) There are a lot of options to pay the fees. If you are in Canada, you can pay at a financial institution (banks etc.). If you are outside Canada, you can pay at the local visa office or office of the consulate. Refer to CIC's site cic.gc.ca/english/information/fees/index.asp for more details
3) Again, with medical, i would suggest you attach it when you submit the application, even though you can wait for them to request it and then send it in.
Sending all the documents in together initially will just ensure that the process moves smoothly and hopefully faster.
I hope that helps!