Hello everyone,
I have been reading post after post, forum after forum, I have even consulted a lawyer firm to help clarify some questions my partner and I have about what steps need to be taken in order to reach our goal in the near future. Despite coming from reliable sources, my partner and I are still left with much confusion as to what would be the best way to proceed through these stressful times. If you can be so kind as to take the time and read our story/situation and give us some much-needed advice and guidance, it would be greatly appreciated, and would help me to be able to sleep a little at night.
I apologize for the length I must disclose as much information as possible so that readers understand exactly what our situation is, and hopefully together we can come to a solution; and even better, perhaps this situation may be similar to someone else and they may be able to read the replies and get some guidance from it as well.
I am a Canadian Citizen, born and raised in Ontario; both my father and my mother's parents were born in Canada. My great grandfather on my father's side was born and raised in Italy, and has given the family name I have today. My dad's side of the family despite being away from Italy for 2 generations still has a strong cultural connection to its roots and they are very proud to be of Italian descent.
This pride of heritage also resides in me, and I became interested in improving my ability to speak Italian.
I came across a website while searching for a tutor in the area where I live, in which you make a profile for yourself, write a couple of things about yourself, including your native language and the language you wish to learn. Your profile is then categorized in a pool, and the website then provides you with compatibilities who are the opposite of you in terms of language.
I received an e-mail from a girl 1 year younger than I, living in Italy, looking to improve her English skills in preparation to finish her Master's degree abroad in Australia. This occurred in the Fall of 2014.
We then continued to communicate back and forth using Skype, with the sole intention of learning each other’s native language. We were both very interested in improving our skills, so, it happened as often as possible, as long as possible. As a result of this, we learned a lot of things about each other’s lives, and we developed a special friendship. Our conversations had evolved from Skype, to instant messaging, and FaceTime. I don't have a social media account, but if I did at that point, we would have had some communication on there as well.
Our daily conversations continued, our friendship grew, we knew more and more about each other’s personal lives every day. She eventually took and passed an English test that qualified her to apply to the university in Australia, and got accepted to finish her final two semesters of study there; which commenced in July 2015. Prior to moving to Australia, it eventually became known that our relationship had become something greater than what we had anticipated, we then discussed meeting each other for the first time.
I was lucky enough that summer to be able to be granted two weeks holidays from my job in Ontario; however it was to take place at the beginning of August 2015. We both expressed feelings of anxiousness towards meeting each other for the first time, and we weren't sure whether we would like each other or not, (it is one thing to speak to someone for ten months and another to actually see them in person, and we both understood that) we both felt nervous of not meeting the other’s expectation (as we both had a strong desire for one another); and we both felt the need of wanting to know.
I met her in August 2015 in Australia for the first time, and we both immediately fell for each other. I spent 15 days with her before coming back to Canada. Prior to my departure, we had told each other we were in love, and that we were willing to be in a long distance relationship with each other while she was completing her studies. She would have to stay in Australia for one whole year, from July 2015 to July 2016, at which point she would return to Italy, and complete her thesis as well as 300 working hours for an intern/co-op placement-type thing to be eligible to graduate and be done from her studies.
In the meanwhile, we would do as much as we could to see each other as much as possible. She had summer break during our winter (southern hemisphere), and we planned a trip for her stay with me from Jan 12 2016 to Feb 18 2016. We celebrated the holidays together (even though it was a month late), we exchanged gifts (the most significant gift I gave happened to be a ‘promise ring’), she met my family and some of my friends during this time; and they all had nothing but good things to say about her, and they were all very excited to finally meet the girl who I flew halfway around the world to meet.
After our initial meet in Australia, we always spoke about one day being able to finally be together in the same country for good; and even though I was prepared to leave the life I had established for myself behind, and stay with her in Australia (and it was very tempting), we had decided it was more logical for me to return to my responsibilities back home. We discussed that her studies would be short-lived, and before we knew it, she would be finished her Master's degree and be able to live the life that she wants.
Spending the time we had together in Canada made it more evident that this was a beautiful relationship we had found ourselves in. We had spoken many times before this visit of our fantasy of being able to spend our lives together; and because I was well-established in Canada, owning a home, working a well-paying job with good benefits we had discussed that when the time came, she would be willing to leave Italy and pursue a life with me in Canada. Knowing that she would have a Master's degree in architecture and acquiring many skills in the process, I was confident that she could eventually work her way to a decent job and wouldn't be remotely considered as a possible dependent of social assistance (even during any processing periods, as I am more than capable of supporting her during any given time), and would be a great contribution to Canada's economy in the eyes of the government (upon being granted citizenship or working privileges here).
During her visit here, I had mentioned that I was becoming nervous of the procedures and processes needed to be completed in order for our dream to become reality because I was ignorant of any obstacles and our options we may have at our disposal for situations like this. Our original plan was for her to continue her studies, I would visit her again in Australia in May 2016 for two weeks, she would then complete her studies in Australia and return to Italy in July 2016 and resume work on her thesis and working hours. September 2016, she plans on returning to Canada for 2 weeks to visit my family and I; In December 2016 if all goes well with her thesis she will graduate in Italy which I will be present for, as well as spend the Holiday season with her family and friends. Upon my return flight to Canada, she would be coming with me and we would finally start our lives together.
So having a dream and a 'plan' is a good thing to have, but what I feared was whether we would have enough time to research what our options are, and once we had decided what were we going to do, would we be able to do it in a timely manner to avoid any hiccups so our plans would work out in time for when she is done in December 2016, and not have to spend any more time thousands of kilometers away, and having to say goodbye after seeing each other for only a short period of time and a long time apart; the final goal is to end the long-distance after all since it is extremely stressful and painful for the both of us.
Before her departure from Canada in February 2016, we took it upon ourselves to do a little bit of research, which led us to the option of marrying each other (which we had discussed in the past as a future goal). I read a few forums and came across a lawyer that seemed very confident in matters like this, so I decided to consult a lawyer from the same firm and had a phone call consultation for approximately 30 minutes at the cost of $250; from which I gained no additional knowledge I had already learnt other than the fact that they would be able to guide us through any application process that might be involved; the spousal sponsorship specifically at a cost of $5500 plus additional applicable fees.
After this consultation we were led to believe that she would have to apply for a visitor’s visa, get an official translation of her birth certificate, get a police background check in Italy (how long is this valid for?), and have that officially translated in English or French, upon arrival to Canada, we would have to (within the 6 month time limit): get a marriage license, plan a marriage, get a medical examination (how long is this valid for?), get married, apply for marriage certificate, apply for spousal sponsorship (along with open work permit), and have these documents arrive where they need to be prior to the expiration of her visa (so that her stay may be extended); and that marrying one another would be our only sure bet to be able to be together for when we wanted (End of Dec 2016, Jan 2017). However, I don’t think that all options were considered especially after doing more research on my own which explains the confusion we currently have (not saying that marriage is something we don’t want to do at all, because it is one of our future goals).
What is concerning is this: yes, we indeed want to be married to one another, and if doing that will allow us to finally live together without the possibility of having to be separated for months at a time, then of course! We are willing to do that, we love each other! However, after some more reading, we have realized that it isn’t all that easy.
Firstly, she wanted the wedding to be a traditional one where both families are together in one place, and unfortunately that is almost an impossibility due to the time, and money it would require to unite a Canadian family with an Italian family (within a year while she is completing her schooling) without complication; ex: the probability of both of our parents/relatives to be entitled to the sufficient time away from work for travel, and having the funds to do so within such a short period of time is an unreasonable expectation. (We understand this).
So we had settled on the idea that we would go through a civil wedding to get the ball rolling and allow us ample time to plan a traditional wedding and give us a break from our come-and-go relationship only to realize later that it may or may not be a good idea based on some findings on the internet, among other things.
The lawyer also led us to believe that if we want to accomplish our goal, sponsorship would be our safest bet (not disputing that), but in the event we wanted spousal sponsorship it wouldn’t be possible in our case to go the common-law route as visitor’s visas are only valid for 6 month periods and a common-law relationship is an undisturbed cohabitation of 12 consecutive months. The lawyer specifically implied that at the time of visa expiration, I would have to move to live with her in Italy for 6 months; which is ludicrous now that I think about it. Why couldn’t we just apply for a visitor extension for an additional 6 months? Is this way possible? What sort of obstacles would we be looking at if we took this route?
The reason why I am wondering is because there is concern for the perceived validity of our relationship if we go through a civil marriage without the parents of the BRIDE being present. We found on the internet a disturbing list of factors that immigration officers reference whilst determining a relationship’s validity.
The aforementioned ideal is in there as well as other factors that I know will be present in our application! For example: this list advises that pictures in the Toronto area may indicate a false relationship!? When she came to Canada, we spent a few days in Toronto where we took pictures, some of which would be used for our application because it was something we did together; other things that may apply to us that is mentioned within the ‘list’ are as follows:
• Reception was held at a restaurant (it’s quite possible that it might, we haven’t planned for that yet);
• Photos do not include family members (are they referring to the wedding? (because her parents won’t be present) Or just the photos provided in general?)
• Private marriage ceremony performed by either a minister or a justice of the peace (don’t see any way around this if doing a civil marriage)
• Sponsor is often uneducated (compared to her level of education, my education is not at a university level solely by choice, this has not affected my income due to the field of work I have chosen, hopefully this isn’t seen as too big of an education difference to be considered out of the ordinary!)
• Couples usually do not have a honeymoon, not even a few days away usually because of university and/or no money (So, I guess spending thousands of dollars travelling halfway around the world, spending money on long distance communication, spending money on gifts, hotels, food, and other expenses means nothing if a honeymoon is not included? And what is considered a honeymoon in the eyes of the government? Just spending time with each other is a blessing in itself!)
• There are usually no diamond rings (I realize I will have to go get one, but this all seems to be about $!)
Another thing I want to touch base on is the outland application’s known ability to have appeal rights. I’m unsure whether or not this is possible for inland applications; and if not, why not? What is the justification behind not being able to appeal an inland application upon refusal? Does this mean that hypothetically once an inland application has not gotten the primary approval, and has then went into an interview pool, and during the interview the application was refused that your marriage is now game over? Or is there still a solution to this problem?
I also read that it could even be possible to apply outland (to avoid such a long wait period compared to inland application) even though the applicant is residing in Canada. Would this still be possible for this situation where she is only staying on a visitor’s visa provided that she gets the extensions required? Should we expect some trouble upon applying for an extension with immigration knowing she has applied for a sponsorship and is awaiting approval? Will any documents be sent to her to Italy from Canada that she has to retrieve during this time or can/will it come to my mailing address? Or is there another option to this?
To avoid rushing during the initial visitor’s visa term (Marriage route), is it possible for her to get the Canadian medical examination during her stay in September 2016 and still be valid for the application in early 2017? How long is that examination valid for?
How long is the Police check valid for? How can I translate this document as well as her birth certificate officially and be accepted by the Canadian government?
Are there any other options or obstacles that I have missed?
We do have evidence of an on-going genuine relationship by means of SOME instant messages, SOME e-mails, SOME pictures, our parents will be willing to attest for us, as well as some family members and friends; we can also provide a narrative (much like this one) describing any picture or conversation and how our relationship has evolved. In my opinion it should be enough, but in the eyes of CIC, who knows… So I am seeking guidance from knowledge and experience and I’m hoping that I can finally get some clarity. I have many questions and concerns as you can see, any input would be appreciated. Thank you for your time.
;D But postal service in Panama is virtually nonexistent and we forgot to change the mailing address which is also her home address. How do we notify the change of the mailing address? Can we just send the updates and Changes with the passport as they ask to confirm the address she will be staying in Canada as well as her mailing address in panama. We did a visa visitor as well four months back and got approved we had the passport mailed to the visa centre in Panama City. Should we provide CIC with the address of VISA office in Panama City? Please help. Everything is going great so far just want to make sure it goes smoothly, we are so close. Smiley
