TRV to visit boyfriend in Canada

[melissa88]

Hi all,

Appreciate your comments on my situation. My story is kinda long. In short, I tried getting TRVs and study permit but all rejected because my bf who is an international student in Canada. We really do not have any intention of getting married over there and merely want to spend some time together.

Full details below:

When I was still doing my undergraduate program, I tried to get a TRV to visit my boyfriend in Canada but was refused twice.

When I applied for my first TRV, I was actually on study break and about two months away from my LAST 4 papers for the degree. I attached my examination entry form and the recipe of the payment for the exam, which shows that I need to come back for the final exam, if not I won't be able to graduate at all. The VO gave me three reasons for the refusal - insufficient fund, my personal assets and financial status and family ties in Canada and my country of residence. My dad was sponsoring me for the trip (but was reluctant to show his bank statement then, he only deposited about 5,000 CAD into my account for my two weeks stay) so I don't understand why he would even talk about personal assets. I was a full-time student yet to graduate then!

Anyhow, after the refusal, my dad transferred another 5,000 CAD to my account and provided his bank statement this time. I applied again and also wrote a letter to explain that I am only a student and can't possibly own any asset at this age. Also explained that, my dad and I really thought 5,000 CAD is sufficient. Other than the bank statement and letter, I submitted the exact same documents. But this time, the VO rejected with travel history and family ties in Canada and my country of residence. To clarify, I do not have any relative in Canada other than my boyfriend (strictly speaking he's not a family member yet) and my family are all in Malaysia. Travel history wise, I have never overstay or enter any country illegally. I have been to countries like Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong, Maldives and etc.

I gave up hope after the second refusal and after I read that so many people (even married couples) have difficulties getting the TRV. I also didn't have that kind of time to reapply again. Thus, I put that aside and focus on my exam. With all the hard work, I passed all the paper and am now a graduate. My boyfriend came back around August (for a month) to celebrate my graduation with me but had gone back to Canada already.

After my graduation, parents offered to sponsor me for Post-Grad program in Canada. They saw how unhappy I was when my bf was leaving again and how happy I was whenever he is around. Besides, they had been through distance relationship (UK-Malaysia) and knew how hard it is. With all those encouragements, I applied to a school and then applied for study permit but got rejected again.

Bf and I have been trying a lot of Immigration Consultants but we were told that my case cannot be rehabilitated. My only option is to wait for my boyfriend to get his PR and apply for me as a spouse, if we get married.

Is there any other option for us? We are still very young and marriage is definitely not in the picture yet. If we really wanted to get married, we would have done that when he was back in Malaysia! For now, we just want to spend some time together. What can we do?

 

[scylla]

What were your refusal reasons for the study permit?

 

[melissa88]

For my study permit, I was rejected with three reasons:

You have not satisfied me that you would leave Canada at the end of your stay. In reaching this decision, I considered several factors, including:
purpose of visit
your current employment situation
your personal assets and financial status

Further details can be found here:
http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/study-permit-rejected-urgent-advice-required-t247673.0.html

I just tried reapplying but was rejected in less than 2 days, and the 3 reasons now became 6 reasons (exactly what I was worried of since they did the same for my 2nd TRV application- changed the reason after I wrote in to clarify/explain). I submitted the same documents except for the cover letter and added some extra documents such as my life insurance policy in Malaysia, my own personal savings of only less than 10k ringgit and also my Examination timetable showing that I am not working now because I am a student (self study) preparing for exam!

You have not satisfied me that you would leave Canada at the end of your stay. In reaching this decision, I considered several factors, including:
travel history [I have been to a lot of countries including Australia, Hong Kong, Maldives, Singapore and etc but never overstay]
purpose of visit [to study of course]
your current employment situation [I explained that I am not working because I am preparing for the ICSA exam in December]
your family ties in Canada and your country of residence [my family members are all in Malaysia and no relative in Canada, except the bf]
limited employment prospect in your country of residence [I had had decent job with good income before I resigned to study full time]
your personal assets and financial status [again i am only 25 and a fresh graduate, salary from my previous job was used for all my exam fees during the years]

Right now, I don't know how else to prove my intention to only stay there to study. Marriage is not an option for us as I am only 25 and him, 23!

 

[melissa88]

Can someone pls help?

 

[mikeymyke]

It might be really hard to be approved for a TRV now, since you've already been refused twice a TRV, and refused a study permit once. CIC might think that you have a very strong desire to come to Canada because of your attempts to come to Canada, and that you will not leave when you arrive. Subsequent refusals just make it harder and harder to be approved in the future. I think your first mistake was when you were applying for a 2nd time TRV, you indicated that you still sent in the same documents when nothing significant has changed in your situation. You really shouldn't re-apply unless you've attempted to correct your refusal reasons significantly.

Travel history: They typically look for countries you've been to that are difficult to enter and require a visa to enter, such as USA, Europe, etc. I would've said Australia as well, however, I just checked and realized it's very easy for Malaysians to visit Australia. It doesn't look like you've visited any country that requires lots of documentation to enter, except Canada ironically.

Purpose of visit: You're applying for a program that's completely different from what you graduated from earlier. I think CIC might be right in refusing you for this, because they are wondering, why would someone who has a law degree, would suddenly want to take a program in a completely different field? You even mentioned that your parents wanted to put you into the post grad program because they saw how sad you were without your b/f, not because they wanted you to boost your career potential, improve your education,etc

Employment situation: It's simple, you're not working.

Family ties: What family members are living in Malaysia? Did you provide proof that your family lives there and are related to you?

Limited employment prospects: Likely if you haven't worked in a long time, or the job you took before was very short term or not a "secure" type of job, such as fast food, or general labour, etc.

Personal assets: Need to show enough $ to pay for accomodation and tuition. 10K ringgit (around $3300 CDN) is not enough to show for one semester of school.

If you want to be together, your boyfriend can go to Malaysia to live with you for a while. This will not only boost your relationship, but also when you guys are finally ready to marry/commonlaw, and want to send PR application, you will have plenty of relationship proof to show them. This is critical because your visa office will be Singapore, which is one of the most brutal and difficult offices in the world. My wife and I survived it because we had lots of proofs, and you should get lots of proofs as well should you live together.

 

[melissa88]

Hi,

Thanks for your comment. Here are further details:

My 2nd TRV refusal, I attached the same documents (forms) but I added my dad's bank statement and income tax return form since they were previously rejecting due to insufficient fund. I also added the examination entry form showing that I need to come back for my finals in May and that I have already paid about 4k for it. I also added my personal bank account with about S$4,000 (savings from my previous jobs). Funny enough, they did not refused my TRV because of the travel history in the first refusal but added that in the second refusal.

As for travel history, even Europe, we as Malaysians are visa-exempted as well. As such, I guess I would have to first visit US then. To eliminate my travel history from ever getting refused for that reason.

Purpose of visit: I did not write about my parents wanted me to go because of my boyfriend in my letter of explanation. I did however mention that the experience of studying abroad will boost my career and improve my profile/resume. As for the change of field, I am currently undertaking exams to become a Corporate Secretary and attached my examination and registration letter to prove that. I am no longer interested to pursue a career as a lawyer after having worked in a law firm for two years, I am however interested to go for the corporate /business line.

Employment situation: I'm not working because I am a student, preparing for the Corporate Secretary exam.

Family ties: All my grandparents, parents, siblings and relatives live in Malaysia. I wrote in my letter that I live with my siblings and parents in the house owned by my parents. But did not provide any proof as to that. I did however add proof of flight tickets and boarding passes to show that I have been coming to Malaysia to visit my family every two months even when I was working in Singapore.

Limited employment prospect: I have been working for the past two years in Singapore, in a law firm as a paralegal while studying part time. I was a permanent staff at the law firm until I resigned to prepare for my final exam. After completing the exam, I started working in Malaysia as a PA to the CEO in a local company. However, having made the decision to be a Corporate Secretary, my parents encouraged me to resign and focus on the exam.

Personal assets: I do not have any assets other than my own 10k savings and my insurance policy. However, my parents wrote a letter to confirm that they are sponsoring me. I submitted the receipt from the School in Canada stating that I have made full payment of my tuition fee. Also submitted the cheque image of a cheque amounting to 50k ringgit from my parents to me as the living expenses for one year. Lastly, also submitted the bank statement, share certificates of parents, which all added up to more than 400k ringgit.

My boyfriend is still schooling in Canada now and thus unable to come live with me. Furthermore, he is not a Malaysian and can only visit for 30 days as a tourist. We met in 2012 when he was studying in Malaysia. And yes, the VO in Singapore is simply brutal and difficult. I mean who will go to Canada as a tourist and give up 3 years of tertiary education for that (and to overstay illegally?) ! I was really convinced that the examination slip was sufficient proof that I am gonna come back for the final exam.

 

[Debrom24]

Is the visa office in Singapore really tough on issuing visas?

 

[melissa88]

Generally, I am not sure. But it sure is tough on me!

Think Canada embassies are just generally tough on anyone having a love interest in Canada.

 

[mikeymyke]

Singapore is generally tough for visitor visas, but they are especially brutal when it comes to permanent resident visas. 28% refusal rate, 24 month interview wait time, 31 month posted processing time. These are numbers that will shake anyone to their core. They even sent interview letters out to people even after asking for passport, which is like a kick in the balls when you're near the finish line.

It is a beast of a visa office indeed, but not all beasts are indestructible. It's weakness is a strong PR application with lots of evidence and proofs. Before I started to apply, I was expecting to wait at least 1 year for In Process, but my wife got In Process after just 5 months, and got her visa after just six months processing total, compared to posted 31 months.

melissa88, I've read all your explanations.

Family ties: Writing a letter that your family live in malaysia is not really proof that they live there. How does CIC know they live there? My wife and I proved family ties by providing a household registry showing all her family living in the same house for 30 years, and also showed her birth certificate, listing her parents names.

Employment situation: Unfortunately, if you can't even work part time, then you will just have to accept that CIC might refuse you because of this.

Purpose of visit: You're just going to have to provide a better explanation letter about you changing programs, because it's hard to convince a VO that someone who's changing programs, is a genuine student.

Personal assets: Again, most of the funds are from your parents, not yourself, CIC is looking for mostly YOUR assets.

On top of that, it will be hard to shake off your 3 total previous refusals. If he can't visit you and neither can you, then he will have to come visit you on his own time. Are you sure about the 30 days visa thing? Because the last time my wife and I went to Malaysia for our honeymoon, we were allowed to stay 90 days visa free.

 

[melissa88]

Hi Mikeymyke,

Thanks for your constructive comments! Really appreciate that. I will try to gather as much proof as I could if I were to reapply at all. Don't see much hope of the relationship and visa application working out anymore!

For the 30 days visa thing, YES I am very sure. FYI, my bf is an African and he needs to even apply for a visa to visit Malaysia. Even with a visa, the stay was suppose to be for only 14 days but we could extend it to a maximum of 30 days. He just came back to Malaysia to visit me in July (for one month) during his school break!

We spoke about him moving back to Malaysia, but Malaysian companies generally do not want to hire his people. Just say they do not have a good rep in my country. He tried but to no avail.

Purpose of study: If I am gonna complete my Corporate Secretary exam by December, guess it's gonna sound more convincing to them?

As for my personal assets, I do have a little bit of savings but it's close to an insignificant amount. I am only 25 and it's kinda ridiculous to expect me to own a house or land at this age. I personally think they are just trying to give me a hard time! Doubt that most international students in Canada do own a house or anything, most of them would be supported by their family as well!

I really don't see how we could move forward again!

 

[mikeymyke]

Ah I didn't realize your b/f was a student also. I thought he was a citizen. As a Canadian, I was able to stay 90 days visa free.

Have both of you considered moving to his home country to live for a while after he's done?

 

[melissa88]

Oh...he's a student in Canada.

No...do not intend to stay there.

Guess there's no other way forward?

 

[mikeymyke]

Any reason no intentions to stay there for a while if you guys want to be together?

Another option I see is for him to keep visiting you until you guys feel you want to marry. I don't think you can do common law, as you have to live together for 1 yr continuously.

 

[melissa88]

My parents are against me staying in Africa due to security and safety concerns.

 

[mikeymyke]

Well what country is he from? Some countries in Africa aren't too bad.