Spousal Visa Sponsorship - Marriage in Holland

[PoutineLover]

Hi all,

Had a weird query which I wanted to run by you guys.
I'm looking to marry a girl who's currently based in the Netherlands for over 3 years now.
However, she's not a PR or Citizen of the Netherlands and still holds her Indian Passport.

I, on the other hand, am a Canadian Citizen for over 2 years now.

https://www.international.gc.ca/country-pays/netherlands-pays_bas/the_hague-la_haye-info.aspx?lang=eng#MA

I looked at the above link that provides information for Canadian Citizens wanting to get married in the Netherlands and would like some clarifications.

1. The link mentions that one of the partners must be a citizen of the Netherlands or a Permanent Resident. My prospective spouse is unfortunately neither.
2. She has reached out to the Municipal Registrar and they did not raise any objections to have us married since she is living in the Netherlands for sometime now.
3. In view of this, I wanted to check if our marriage if performed in front of the Municipal Registrar would still be valid?

The reason I ask this is because I wish to sponsor her for a Permanent Residence in the future after our marriage & did not want any complications if the marriage is not recognized and would lead to complications in the PR sponsoring process.

 

[PoutineLover]

Also, what are the current timelines for Spousal Visa Sponsorship like?

 

[Kaibigan]

According to the link in your post:

A marriage in the Netherlands is only valid if it has been solemnized by the 'Ambtenaar van de burgerlijke stand' i.e. the municipal registrar.

You say the municipal registrar will perform the marriage and, presumably, issue a marriage certificate. In that case, I would see it as a valid marriage. I doubt the IRCC would reach behind the marriage certificate, declare the marriage invalid, and blow your application out of the water on that basis. But, can I guarantee that? No.

I suppose a cautious approach would be to get married in a country where there are no impediments to foreigners getting married.

 

[Kaibigan]

Also, what are the current timelines for Spousal Visa Sponsorship like?

I could go on the IRCC website and look up current processing times for you. Put me on the payroll as your secretary and I'll do so.

 

[Lili611]

Also, what are the current timelines for Spousal Visa Sponsorship like?

depends. Every case is different. If I were you, I'd go to IRCC website, take a look and do a lot of researches in this forum to see.

 

[Kaibigan]

depends. Every case is different. If I were you, I'd go to IRCC website, take a look and do a lot of researches in this forum to see.

True, every case is different. The IRCC website always provides a rather generic timeline. When my wife and I were in the process, we looked at the experience of others on the forum. They varied, a lot. The posted processing time on the IRCC website also varied a lot over the months. It did not remain static. I can't say that there ever emerged a formula based on what we saw of the experience of others that would allow us to predict with any accuracy how long our application would take.

In the end, the time it will take is the time it will take. Not worth spending a lot of energy trying to come up with an accurate prediction. There is no real way to do so and it helps a lot to simply adopt an attitude of patience and roll with it.

 

[armoured]

1. In view of this, I wanted to check if our marriage if performed in front of the Municipal Registrar would still be valid?

If the marriage is valid in the Netherlands, Canada will recognize it. The only issue is whether they'll perform the marriage for the student-resident and issue the marriage certificate, and I'm sure the local burgher is telling the truth.

My guess is that the Canadian website you referenced above is out of date or misinformed. It's a red herring whether Canada thinks they only do it for permanent residents/citizens, the thing that matters is what the Dutch say. Probably they will do it for anyone 'registered' locally and students register where they live, or they consider student status to be a type of quasi-permanent. Or that info is just out of date.

[editadd: I just did a bit of googling and the Dutch requirement seems to only be that one of the two be a Dutch resident, not 'permanent resident' (a Canadian term, for which I'm sure there's some local analogue, but misused on the Canadian govt's site). Repeat, of course the local dutch registrar or municipality will know who counts as a resident.]