We ELOPED... Will our spouse visa application be approved?

[kuchikooo]

Hi forum-mates,

I would like to ask for advice about our situation.

My boyfriend and I eloped last November and now we are so stressed on how to answer the forms.

I married my boyfriend of three years last November. We had a civil wedding and had only two friends as witnesses. My husband stayed in the Philippines for only 3 weeks and left for Canada again to continue his studies.

We still plan to have a traditional church wedding with all our family and friends in April 2016. I've already booked a church and a couple of suppliers for our church wedding (i have contracts and receipts).

We decided to have a civil wedding last November so we could start the sponsorship early. We kept it a secret because we knew our parents would be disappointed that we did not wait to get married in the church. Both of our parents are very traditional and we know that they would not understand.

When we started to check the required immigration forms just last month, that's when we started to get worried because we saw the questions about the ceremony and whether our parents were present or not.

Here are my questions:

1. If we mention in the application that we kept our civil wedding a secret from our parents, will the visa officer see this as a red flag and reject our application? Our parents are aware of our relationship and I have photos of my husband with my family when he was still in the country. They're just not aware that we got married.

2. Do we still have a chance for approval of our sponsorship application? Should we push through with the application or are we doomed to fail?

3. Is there anyone here who's been in the same situation? (Eloped but was approved for spousal application)

4. My husband is still a student but he will graduate this April. Will he be approved to sponsor?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[bigredmoose]

Your situation is likely to raise red flags. You can overcome them by a)explaining why you chose to get married that way and b)demonstrating that your relationship is genuine. Include lots of pictures, tons of emails, texts, etc. Make sure you include some of the negative things, like arguments, fights etc. They get suspicious when it's all giggles and sunshine, best to show that you're like every other married couple.

 

[kuchikooo]

Thanks for the advice, bigredmoose. I will send over 200 photos of our dates and several facebook posts and messages.

 

[shesosilly]

I do agree that this can raise red flags. I think the reason why they ask for the presence of family and friends to your wedding is to prove that you're not just getting married to be sponsored right away-- which is kind of the reason why you did get married early, as you said. Is there any way that you guys can apply as common law?

 

[kuchikooo]

Do you guys think we should push through with our application?

Should we also tell the truth that we kept the wedding a secret from our family?

 

[veera-india]

Hey what happened with you file? Can you please update.

 

[PMM]

Hi

Hey what happened with you file? Can you please update.

1. S/he hasn't been here for nearly 5 years.