Spousal sponsorship

[starbury]

Leon, just had a chance to read what you have to say. I am considering applying for conjugal partner, and my girlfriend is from abroad. How long does the process take? I was born here and we have been together for 2years and her visa runs out in October..
I would appreciate any information or advice. I have planned to see a consultant over the next few days...

 

[Leon]

Leon, just had a chance to read what you have to say. I am considering applying for conjugal partner, and my girlfriend is from abroad. How long does the process take? I was born here and we have been together for 2years and her visa runs out in October..
I would appreciate any information or advice. I have planned to see a consultant over the next few days...

Conjugal applications are a big problem because you must prove that you have a marriage like relationship for at least a year but you are unable to either get married or live together for 12 months in order to qualify as common law. If you are lucky with the visa officer, you could get approved but if you are unlucky, they will say you could have lived together, you could live with her in her country if she can't live in Canada or you could have gotten married etc.

The processing time depends on inland vs. outland and then through which country. Read the first post of this thread and you will get an idea.

 

[heavyheartman]

Singapore averages 21 months, sadly you are right in the middle so even your MP is going to get the "it's normal, just be patient and wait" line.

Thank you for your input. I agree about what the response from MP will be.....but I'm hoping he'll get more. It's just I see and hear about so many other couples getting their Visa approved much earlier than 21 months....I'm hoping that my wife's application will also be one of these considering all that we sent and did. God i hope so.....looks like visit#4 is going to be in my near future........this whole ordeal has cost us dearly......both emotionally & financially......

Thanks again.

 

[Azsereth]

Conjugal applications are a big problem because you must prove that you have a marriage like relationship for at least a year but you are unable to either get married or live together for 12 months in order to qualify as common law. If you are lucky with the visa officer, you could get approved but if you are unlucky, they will say you could have lived together, you could live with her in her country if she can't live in Canada or you could have gotten married etc.

The processing time depends on inland vs. outland and then through which country. Read the first post of this thread and you will get an idea.

I wish we had received this input before trying to apply as conjugal partners. My now-husband tried to sponsor me back in 2009 and my application was turned down. We had been dating for about 2 and a half years at the time of our application, and had strong feelings about not rushing into marriage. That is still a big regret of mine, and now 3 years later I am still waiting on a final decision for my inland sponsorship app (got AIP only a couple weeks ago). The border/immigration agents we've encountered to date have been very sympathetic and nice about it, but man, it's been a very difficult process emotionally and mentally.

 

[Leon]

I wish we had received this input before trying to apply as conjugal partners. My now-husband tried to sponsor me back in 2009 and my application was turned down. We had been dating for about 2 and a half years at the time of our application, and had strong feelings about not rushing into marriage. That is still a big regret of mine, and now 3 years later I am still waiting on a final decision for my inland sponsorship app (got AIP only a couple weeks ago). The border/immigration agents we've encountered to date have been very sympathetic and nice about it, but man, it's been a very difficult process emotionally and mentally.

It says on the CIC website who should not try to apply under conjugal partners and for example it says if you could have lived together (to qualify as common law) but chose not to because you did not want to give up a job etc. that application is not for you. In some cases, this means that if you could have lived together in any country, even with one of your as a visitor not able to work, you will be refused. In other cases, people have been approved, even though the sponsor may have had dual citizenship in the partners homeland and could have gone back there and lived with them there. Now, it doesn't actually say that you will be refused if you could have gotten married but still this is something that visa officers often ask about. Gay couples are more often accepted as conjugal because in many countries, they are not allowed to get married.

 

[mehdiR]

hello everyone

I 've applied back in december 2011 to sponsor my wife. We live together in Iran for the past 4 years and we got a daughter who is 2 now . well as u know she is a citizen automatically.
1-Is she considered a dependent child ?
2-Do we need to get medical for her as well.?
3-Does anyone of you have the IMM 1017(05-2010) , the medical report : section A
all I could find was the IMM 1017 ( 05- 2004 ) from the cic website.
the form I 'm looking for has a box for UCI # and appl . #on top right side .
I rather take the first form to the dr. . It is the form that embassy sends out to applicants recently.



my wife's application is in process since march. and her first medical expired just a week ago.

thanks

Any input experts?

 

[Leon]

I 've applied back in december 2011 to sponsor my wife. We live together in Iran for the past 4 years and we got a daughter who is 2 now . well as u know she is a citizen automatically.
1-Is she considered a dependent child ?
2-Do we need to get medical for her as well.?
3-Does anyone of you have the IMM 1017(05-2010) , the medical report : section A
all I could find was the IMM 1017 ( 05- 2004 ) from the cic website.
the form I 'm looking for has a box for UCI # and appl . #on top right side .
I rather take the first form to the dr. . It is the form that embassy sends out to applicants recently.

my wife's application is in process since march. and her first medical expired just a week ago.

thanks

If your daughter is born in Canada, she is a citizen automatically. Otherwise, if you are a citizen and are passing it on to her, you must apply for her citizenship cerficate at the Canadian embassy.

1. Your daughter is a dependent child but because she is already a citizen she would not have been listed on the IMM0008, only on the additional family information form.

2. Because she is a citizen, you do not need a medical for her.

3. If the old form is the only one you can find on the CIC website, I am sure it is fine but maybe the doctor has the new one when you go for the medicals.

 

[VPS]

I moved to Canada as I had a PR and my spouse does not have one. So, we applied for his temporary visit visa and it got rejected. Don't know why?? Wonder we can apply for any other visas so that my suppose can join me. We thought of applying for spouse PR, but is waiting to hear for internal transfer from his company as once PR is getting processed, spouse cannot get a work permit or visit visa???

Advice pl. as to the best option we have?? Thanks

 

[Leon]

I moved to Canada as I had a PR and my spouse does not have one. So, we applied for his temporary visit visa and it got rejected. Don't know why?? Wonder we can apply for any other visas so that my suppose can join me. We thought of applying for spouse PR, but is waiting to hear for internal transfer from his company as once PR is getting processed, spouse cannot get a work permit or visit visa???

Advice pl. as to the best option we have?? Thanks

It is very common for spouses to get refused for visit visas as immigration tends to think they are not coming for a temporary stay. Your only option is to sponsor your spouse for PR. Your spouse can try for a work permit like intra company transfer in the meantime but if his TRV was refused, why do you think he would be able to get a work permit? In any case, a pending PR application has no effect on visit visas and work permits. Does not make it harder or easier. In all cases, if applying for a temporary permit, they must believe that he will not overstay his visa.

 

[computergeek]

I moved to Canada as I had a PR and my spouse does not have one. So, we applied for his temporary visit visa and it got rejected. Don't know why?? Wonder we can apply for any other visas so that my suppose can join me. We thought of applying for spouse PR, but is waiting to hear for internal transfer from his company as once PR is getting processed, spouse cannot get a work permit or visit visa???

They should have told you why in the rejection letter. In addition, you can always request the GCMS notes (see http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/department/atip/form-imm5563.asp for the forms, but you must use someone in Canada to order them. If you don't know anyone there, you can use a commercial service to order them for you.) However, it seems likely that they believed your spouse was likely not to leave the country at the end of the TRV.

If you have a PR application submitted and a TRV is rejected because they don't believe your spouse is going to leave, you can also request a Temporary Resident Permit (TRP) under the "early admission" category (see OP 20 "Temporary Resident Permits"). There is a $200 fee for a TRP application and their grant is entirely discretionary. But pending spousal sponsorship applications in which everything looks good are exactly the category that should be granted.

It is absolutely not true that you cannot obtain a work permit or TRV with an in-process application. Search for "dual intent" on the CIC website. I obtained my first work permit while my FSW application was pending and had no problems doing so. However, you have to be able to convince CIC that you will leave at the end of the process. As I noted before, if their only grounds for rejecting a TRV application is a fear of overstay, you can apply for a TRP with a pending family PR application. However, with a intra-company transfer, I would be rather surprised for them to reject a work permit application - it's possible, but not likely.

Good luck!

 

[VPS]

They should have told you why in the rejection letter. In addition, you can always request the GCMS notes (see http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/department/atip/form-imm5563.asp for the forms, but you must use someone in Canada to order them. If you don't know anyone there, you can use a commercial service to order them for you.) However, it seems likely that they believed your spouse was likely not to leave the country at the end of the TRV.

If you have a PR application submitted and a TRV is rejected because they don't believe your spouse is going to leave, you can also request a Temporary Resident Permit (TRP) under the "early admission" category (see OP 20 "Temporary Resident Permits"). There is a $200 fee for a TRP application and their grant is entirely discretionary. But pending spousal sponsorship applications in which everything looks good are exactly the category that should be granted.

It is absolutely not true that you cannot obtain a work permit or TRV with an in-process application. Search for "dual intent" on the CIC website. I obtained my first work permit while my FSW application was pending and had no problems doing so. However, you have to be able to convince CIC that you will leave at the end of the process. As I noted before, if their only grounds for rejecting a TRV application is a fear of overstay, you can apply for a TRP with a pending family PR application. However, with a intra-company transfer, I would be rather surprised for them to reject a work permit application - it's possible, but not likely.

Good luck!

Thanks for your reply. Just few questions on your advice. The scenario is that I hold a PR and I am in Canada, but my souse is not a canadian PR and is based out of Singapore. Spouse applied for TRV which got rejected due to reasons of purpose of stay and length of stay not convincing although we had issued the to and fro airline tickets, letter from employer stating his duration of stay.

We haven't yet applied for a spousal sponsorship PR as we thought the outland would take an year and inland would take more than an year. We are trying to sort the issue and be together ASAP.

1) If TRP is an alternative, can spouse immediately apply for a TRP or need to wait a while as the TRV was rejected 7 days back?

2) If TRP gets accepted, spouse comes Canada and post it we apply for spousal sponsorship PR, would it delay the process?

3) Under TRP, is outland or inland the best option to apply??

Thanks a lot

 

[scylla]

Thanks for your reply. Just few questions on your advice. The scenario is that I hold a PR and I am in Canada, but my souse is not a canadian PR and is based out of Singapore. Spouse applied for TRV which got rejected due to reasons of purpose of stay and length of stay not convincing although we had issued the to and fro airline tickets, letter from employer stating his duration of stay.

We haven't yet applied for a spousal sponsorship PR as we thought the outland would take an year and inland would take more than an year. We are trying to sort the issue and be together ASAP.

1) If TRP is an alternative, can spouse immediately apply for a TRP or need to wait a while as the TRV was rejected 7 days back?

2) If TRP gets accepted, spouse comes Canada and post it we apply for spousal sponsorship PR, would it delay the process?

3) Under TRP, is outland or inland the best option to apply??

Thanks a lot

I would honestly forget about the TRP route and explore other options. TRPs very difficult to obtain and are only issued in exceptional circumstances (e.g. normally you would be inadmissible to Canada due to a DUI but your grandmother who lives in Canada is extremely ill and you want to see her one last time before she passes away).

You can certainly try applying for the TRV again and providing even stronger evidence that shows your partner's ties to the home country.

 

[VPS]

I would honestly forget about the TRP route and explore other options. TRPs very difficult to obtain and are only issued in exceptional circumstances (e.g. normally you would be inadmissible to Canada due to a DUI but your grandmother who lives in Canada is extremely ill and you want to see her one last time before she passes away).

You can certainly try applying for the TRV again and providing even stronger evidence that shows your partner's ties to the home country.

How else can I make TRV strong enough. The reason for rejection was inconvincing purpose of stay and length of stay inspite of providing

1)to and fro airline tickets

2) letter from employer stating the reason for travel as a tourist and the length of absence from work.

3) an invitation letter from a friend based in Canada with letter stating the free accommodation

How and what else is required to make TRV strong? pl. advice...

 

[scylla]

How else can I make TRV strong enough. The reason for rejection was inconvincing purpose of stay and length of stay inspite of providing

1)to and fro airline tickets

2) letter from employer stating the reason for travel as a tourist and the length of absence from work.

3) an invitation letter from a friend based in Canada with letter stating the free accommodation

How and what else is required to make TRV strong? pl. advice...

You want to focus on evidence that shows strong ties to the home country. #1 and #2 are good examples. #3 (the letter of invitation from a friend) really isn't. You can also include: proof of home / property ownership, proof of property rental, proof of business ownership, account statements, mortgage statements (if your partner has a mortgage in your home country that is being paid off), etc.

Good luck.

 

[confabulation]

Hi everyone,

First of all, thank you so much for this thread - it has already cleared up a couple things. I do still have some questions, however.

I'm the Canadian my boyfriend is American. We were originally planning on getting married late next summer, but we would like for him to stay up here sooner rather than later as I live on an island which makes travel expensive and it takes forever. Now, we're looking at sometime within the next few months if everything else is okay.

I'm 25 and a student, he's 32 and a cartoonist (meaning he is, essentially, self-employed). We've known each other since about 2004/2005, but we actually started our relationship in 2010. He's been up here for six months now (we lost track of time) maybe a week or two longer.

We were leaning toward inland application (primarily because the travel is so expensive).

My questions are:

• Does he need a passport before I can sponsor him? He has one of the passport ID cards that allows him to travel by land only.
• Can we apply if he has overstayed his six months? I have seen some folks say yes, others say no.
• There is no appeal for inland applications - is it likely we will have to be concerned about this if we have photos, emails (between us as well as him and my family), chat logs, illustrated gifts (he doodles for me a lot), no violent criminal background, no history of bankruptcy, etc? I, obviously, have a growing mound of student debt, and a bit of other debt (maybe a couple thousand), but that's it.

I'm sure there's more, but that's all we can think of for now. Thanks!