Congrats Ankris!
Honestly, I'm glad I stumbled upon your post.
I have been reading the same thing where people are saying it is extremely hard to land a TRV as a spouse of a Canadian.
If I had followed the advice of those who advised me against it, I wouldn't have applied online for a TRV yesterday. I'm glad you went ahead and got it done. I really decided to comment on this thread because you mentioned MikeyMyke and his advice and encouragement. I'm not going to lie either, MikeyMyke, you're one of the reason I was so confident when I applied despite all the odds.
My wife (Canadian) and I had pretty much finished most of our document preparation when I stumbled upon your post (MikeyMyke) on another thread. I read through everything and copied and paste most of what you posted regarding your TRV process and emailed the details to my wife. After going over the information you provided, we then decided that we would scrap most of what we had written (letters, purpose of travel and itinerary) and follow what you did. We copied the structure of your itinerary (which I believed surprisingly brought life to our application - it made our intentions seem genuine and tangible so to speak, which they are); we also wrote a very detailed Purpose of Travel like you did. My wife also wrote a compelling invitation letter. We never bought any travel insurance however, maybe later, but we went ahead and took a leap of faith and bought a non-refundable roundtrip ticket and attached it to our itinerary in our application. We were trying to find out how to do what you did, which is get the plane ticket booked or reserved without paying, but I couldn't figure it out, so we just got the ticket and decided we will believe for a miracle.
Having said all this MikeyMyke, thank you, you are a blessing to this forum.
Now, a little bit about my case. I am not the typical TRV applicant. So I understand that it's probably harder for me to land a TRV - but I am a firm believer in the reality that nothing is impossible - I've seen too many seemingly impossibilities made possible in my day. To cut a very long story short - I have previously overstayed in Canada (I had visited Canada numerous times and on my last visit I spent a few days shy of two years - the reason was complicated). I left Canada on a Exclusion order. I was engaged at the time I left. My wife and I got married almost a year after I left, in another country that neither of us are from. A couple months after that we applied for my PR under the Family Class Sponsorship category. This was a few months ago, so we have some waiting to do before the processing is completed. Shortly after we got married my wife became pregnant and this is when I decided that I need a TRV to be there for the birth of our first child. I knew it would potentially be difficult. I applied once already and that TRV application was refused - they cited about six reasons, from my previous contravention of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, my ties in Canada, my family ties in my country and finances. Those were the main reasons. This was about four months ago. We contemplated moving to another country temporarily so that I could be present when she delivers the baby, but after much research we found that that option would be too costly - so we decided that she should have the baby in her country (Canada).
So this is why we decided that I should once again try for that TRV. So I did, and I believe that though many would say I have no chance of landing this TRV, I am holding on to faith and I am believing that I will. I have read where others who had spouses in Canada tried twice and got through on the second attempt, while others tried thrice and got through on the third attempt. I don't know the specifics of their cases, but despite the odds it's possible. My wife is giving birth next month and I will be there.
I also have a US visa which is valid for a few more years, so I am able to travel to the US, I just got back from there a few weeks ago. Even though I had my US visa when I applied for my TRV four months ago and my application was refused, I'm hoping that since I have travelled some more on my US visa since then, that it'll look good to the Immigration Officer that will be processing my TRV application. In my country, TRV processing takes 41 days. However the last time I received a decision in 30 days, I'm hoping this time around it'll not only be a positive decision, but a fast one, given the fact that my ticket is for a date that's a lot less than 41 days away.
Sorry for this extra long post ... I tend to write a lot ...
Thanks again MikeyMyke and congratulations to you again AnKris, I wish you a long and prosperous marriage and all the best!
