Spouse sponsorship

[voodoodan]

Hello,
First of all, many thanks to the great advice I know I will receive from here!

In my situation, I seem to be a bit confused with all the immigration classes and I dont quite know what the best road for me is.

Heres the story; I have known my current girlfriend for about 7 years. Just over a year and a half ago we started dating and have had an amazing relationship together. The only problem? She lives in Caracas, Venezuela! We have seen each other in Caracas many times during our year and a half together and we recently went on a two week trip to Europe. Things are getting REALLY serious. She has applied for her Canadian Visa and was denied twice (let's just say the Canadian embassy in Caracas isn't that great, also considering the international position of Venezuela isn't the best)

So, i've been doing a lot of reading and asking around, many people have done the sponsorship process without any problems and if we need to get married in order for her to come and live in Canada, then we are ready for that and actually want to get married. I am 21 years old and have a college degree, I have been working at a web development company for over 7 months now and have a stable income for us both.

What is the best route for me? I was thinking of paying a professional lawyer that may advice me on the best route to take, but I thought i'd give this a try first.

I appreciate any help!
Thanks

 

[theholderof4]

Assuming you are a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident living in Canada, you can apply for her as a spouse if you get married, or a common-law partner if you have lived together for 12 months.

I think many people here completed their applications on their own, and there are experts you can advise you.

 

[voodoodan]

Hi and thank you for your reply!

Yes I am a Canadian citizen.

From the reading I have done here it seems better to do this process outside of Canada as it faster.

Would it be weird to the Immigration officers that we get married and right away we start the sponsorship process? Can this be done right after getting married?

Thank you for your help!

 

[canadianwoman]

I'd suggest you get married and sponsor her outland. The visa officer will not think it is weird if you marry and then apply right away. This is normal. They are far more likely to be suspicious if you are living apart and you don't apply to sponsor her right away. I've seen plenty of appeal cases where a long delay before sponsoring (when one spouse was in Canada and the other was not) was seen as a sign that the marriage was not genuine.

 

[voodoodan]

Thanks for your replies!

Lastly is there any hints/tips/tricks that can help out with our process? I found a good post on here on how someone organized there documents, seemed really well done!

Is there anything that will tick the immigration officer into thinking its not legit? Are they very hard towards approving a legit marriage?

thanks again!

 

[canadianwoman]

They are more suspicious about some types of marriages/relationships than others. Generally, if the couple does not have much in common, they will be suspicious. If the relationship did not develop in a 'normal' way they will be suspicious. They will be more suspicious if the applicant comes from certain regions or countries.
There are certain 'red flags' that will cause a visa officer to scrutinize the application closely.
For example: two white people, one Canadian and one from New Zealand, the man slightly older, same religion, same or similar educational and social background, neither party has been married before or has children, no criminal problems, they met at a party two years ago, dated, fell in love, moved in together, got married with family and friends present, now there is a baby on the way, blah blah blah - there will be no problem.
White Canadian woman aged 65 marries 35-year-old man from Kenya, they met online, they get married the first time they meet, language/religion/education/social backgrounds vastly different, the woman has been divorced and has kids, the man wants kids, blah blah blah. Big problems getting the visa. But I have seen cases where someone in this type of scenario actually ended up with a PR visa.

 

[voodoodan]

Once again, thank you for your great advice! I will definitely be coming back here to post how our process went!

Considering her past visitor visas have been denied, can we apply for a visa during the spousal sponsorship process? This way we can start getting settled here in Canada together while the process is going on?

Also, does anyone know how long it is taking the Caracas embassy to process the sponsorships?


Thanks again!

 

[canadianwoman]

Considering her past visitor visas have been denied, can we apply for a visa during the spousal sponsorship process?

She can try applying for another TRV. Usually they are denied. However, some forum members have succeeded after sending in the PR visa application and getting the sponsor approved. She will still need to prove she will visit Canada only temporarily for the TRV. People use the sponsorship approval as evidence they want everything to go well with the PR and so would not jeopardize that application by overstaying. So she should not say or imply she will be moving up to Canada to get settled when applying for the TRV. She has to say she just wants to visit you while waiting for the PR visa application to be finalized.

Her having been denied for a TRV twice will be a red flag on her PR application. The best way to get around it: supply proof that she applied for the TRVs in order to visit you, her boyfriend; and supply more evidence your relationship is genuine than the average applicant from Venezuela. (Hard to judge, I know.)
The sponsorship part of the application is currently taking 65 days; the Venezuela part is taking 22 months. This is to process 80% of the applicants, so yours might be a lot faster, especially if the application includes a lot of evidence the relationship is genuine and you don't have many red flags. Here is a link to the CIC website where they show the wait times.
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/times/perm/fc-spouses.asp

 

[voodoodan]

Hi, I can't thank you enough for the info!

So if I understand correctly, my sponsorship approval will take around the 65 days, once it gets approved it will be sent to Caracas where the current wait time is 22 months? That's a lot of time, we are willing to wait but wow!

You mentioned her being denied for a TRV being a red flag. Most of the Venezuelans applying now a days get denied for any reason, I have been there and heard horror stories from many people. How can that be a red flag for the sponsorship process (PR?) ?

I think the best option is to go through with the sponsorship process and not apply for a TRV.

The only proof we can supply is I guess social network statuses proving that the day she was denied we wrote on our pages? E-mails from family members telling us to calm down that it will all work out? If this is a big red flag what other information can we supply as proof?

 

[roysingh]

Hello Everyone, my application was received on 10/27/2011 but status still shows as following in e-cas.

We received your application for permanent residence on October 27, 2011.

Medical results have been received.

Should I be concerned that it's going to be almost a year and still does not show status as "in process" even though cases from Jan - May of 2012 have been approved and processed. I am a Naturalized U.S. Citizen living in California and I was born in India and my wife is a Canadian citizen. CIC has stated on numerous emails that they don't need anything from us but that they have a large number of files that they are working thru. Any advice or suggestions, would be very much appreciated.

 

[canadianwoman]

That's a lot of time, we are willing to wait but wow!

Some cases are done much faster. Try to submit a lot of evidence the relationship is genuine - that is about all you can do to speed up the process.

You mentioned her being denied for a TRV being a red flag. Most of the Venezuelans applying now a days get denied for any reason, I have been there and heard horror stories from many people. How can that be a red flag for the sponsorship process (PR?) ?

It is a red flag, but only 2 denials should be OK, especially since she applied for a TRV to visit you. It is a red flag because when someone has a lot of attempts to enter another country, it begins to look like they just want to leave their own country, and will use any means possible to do so. So if someone has applied for study permits to the UK, the USA, and Australia, visit visas for Canada and the USA, and all have been denied, then this person gets married to a foreigner and applies for PR, it can look suspicious. The more refused visa applications, the worse it looks. To make a history of failed visa applications look OK, you have to provide an explanation of them. In your girlfriend's case, she should explain that she only applied for the TRVs to visit you, and supply proof - maybe the letters of invitation you gave her, if any. Don't assume that the visa officer will know that she applied for the TRVs to visit you - this information is probably on file, but the visa officer probably won't check. He/she will just see the denied TRVs, and make a bad inference from that. So it is better to directly state the reason she applied for the TRVs in the PR application.

Once the PR application has been sent and you have received sponsorship approval, it would be safe to apply for a TRV again. She still probably won't get one, but a few forum members have managed to after getting the spopnsorship approval.

The only proof we can supply is I guess social network statuses proving that the day she was denied we wrote on our pages? E-mails from family members telling us to calm down that it will all work out? If this is a big red flag what other information can we supply as proof?

That is good proof. If you have a copy of the TRV form, and it asked who she wanted to visit, and it was you, you can submit that again, or a copy of any letter of invitation you sent her.
You don't have to focus too much on the failed TRV attempts: there were only two, so that is not a big problem (but the visa officer will notice it). Just show enough proof so that the visa officer will see it was you she wanted to see; not that she was just trying to get into Canada for no good reason.

 

[voodoodan]

Hello once again!

We are getting all our papers ready! I do however have a small question which might seem kind of dumb but I wanted to double check.

I will be seeing my girlfriend very soon as we are going on a trip together, we see each other around every 3 months so I wanted to take the occasion and sign any papers that we needed to sign together.

Here comes the question :

For my sponsorship approval process; do I just send my sponsorship forms or do I have to send everything? (Sponsorship forms, sponsored forms, proof of relationship)

Thanks again!