JimM said:
And despite what at least one person here is saying, it is possible to live with a person and not know they're scamming you.
Only if you're blind to what's happening. That blindness, in many cases, is a result of willful ignorance. It can also come from not being a very good judge of character. But if a person wants to TRULY get to know a person, there are always ways, and it would be next-to-impossible to successfully scam somebody with a year of living together. There are always clues. There are always warning signs. There are always questions to ask which must result in appropriate answers. The problem is most people today don't bother to ever get to know a person beyond a superficial layer before making commitments, before jumping into bed together, before going down a path which can have life-altering repercussions. And then, these very same people, will look all wide-eyed and flabbergasted when everything blows up in their face, when the whole thing could've been prevented if they had just slowed down and really connected with each other on a deep level first and foremost.
JimM said:
A friend of my wife married a man in Canada on a work permit, they lived together about a year, got married and she sponsored him. To everyone he seemed a loving husband to her, so we were all shocked when barely three months after he got PR he packed up and left her. Some people are that good at being deceptive, that's why we have con men, scam artists, used car salesmen and politicians...
Everything I said above applies all the more when you're getting involved in a relationship with someone where there's the potential that you're being used as a way of getting into the country. I don't know why most people completely overlook this fact. Canada is a huge magnet for people wanting to get here, so those of us who are contemplating relationships leading to marriage should be a thousand times more alert than two people in normal non-immigration relationships.
