Hello to everyone reading this post.
I would like to ask for your opinion with regards to my situation. I will share some details of my story first so that you can have an idea of what's going on. I know that it might take some time for you to read this, but I will appreciate it so much.
When I was 14 years old (currently 20), I was forced to move to Canada because of my parents. My stepfather went there as a visitor in order to look for a job and apply for a work permit, then my mother joined him a few months after. I was not able to control anything - my parents were simply the ones to make decisions for me. They found an agency that helps people with looking for jobs and applying for work permits. Their lawyer was in the process of getting one for my stepfather, which was supposed to take a few months. That never happened though - he was told that the laws are changing and he needs to wait more. My parents then applied for a visitor visa extension through that lawyer, which was refused because he forgot to include copies of their passports... They stopped trusting that man and looked for someone else to solve the problem. They found an immigration consultant who advised them that I should come to Canada, and then we could apply on Humanitarian & Compassionate grounds (we had many reasons to do that, but typing them all out here would take a lot of space). She told them that our previous lawyer was known to do that kind of stuff to others. There was a court case filed against him many years before that, because he stole a big amount of money from one of his clients. That client won and he was not able to practice his job for a long time, 10 years from what I remember.
We were in the process of applying for H&C through that immigration consultant, but after many months, she was still not done with the application. She told my parents that they should work on it as well because of her lack of time - literally. They did not want to trust her anymore and stopped spending money on her. Now, this is where they were confused and desperate for a solution at the same time. They decided to fill the application completely by themselves, even though they were not able to write in English. As you are probably thinking, the application was terrible, they had no idea of what should be expected. Only a few years later I found out that it was incomplete in many areas. There was almost no information about me. We received a refusal after a few months. At that time, I was in Grade 11. We were preparing to leave the country, even though after so many years, we had no idea what to do with our lives. My parents went to a different lawyer (Green & Spiegel in Toronto), which advised us that we should ask CIC to allow me to finish my High School year/graduate, without which my education would be in ruins if I was to return to my country. Now, this is where it gets crazy. We waited 2 years before we got a letter saying that we should go to an interview. We got an Exclusion Order for 1 year for staying in Canada without status. We were told by a Minister's Delegate that CIC has misplaced our files, which is why it took them so long to contact us. We were living from day to day not knowing what was going on, and it was painful for me because I was already extremely attached to Canada.
At that point, I had been in Canada for 5 years already and I graduated from High School. We were given the option to apply for a Pre Removal Risk Assessment or claim refugee status (which would be a ridiculous thing to do). My parents, still unaware of how everything works, decided to apply for PRA. They found another immigration consultant who only wasted their money, but she made them believe that we have chances to stay in Canada. It's ridiculous how much they have spent on lawyers and consultants because of their lack of knowledge and the fact that they were desperate to stay. It took me a lot of research on this wonderful website to find out the truth about our situation. My parents have been moving in and out of places their whole life and they were afraid of what to do if they were forced to go back to their country. There are no words to describe how I felt, how much sleep I lost throughout all of these years because of my fear of going back. I hated my life before coming to Canada, which became the only place where I could imagine my future, especially after graduating from High School, but also for many other reasons. The biggest and most important one - my Canadian girlfriend.
What's ridiculous is that our immigration consultant has focused mostly on Humanitarian & Compassionate reasons as to why we should stay in Canada, not on why we would be afraid of going back to our country. Maybe that was her way of giving us hope, because we were forced to get so much evidence. Letters from my teachers, my marks, certificates that I got in school for doing well, awards, letters from my friends, information about my attachment to Canada, a psychologist's report which stated that it would be devastating for my mental health to change my surroundings and abandon my life in Canada, letters from the friends of my parents, information about their past and how they struggled to stay in their country before for financial reasons and many, many more that all have to do with H&C reasons... If my parents didn't have me, they wouldn't have understood from the report after the PRA was refused, that all of this evidence was not taken into consideration in any way because of the nature of the case. If only we had all of this information when we were applying for H&C... We were forced to leave Canada in December of 2015, and that was when I had been there for 5 and a half years.
Now, this is the most important part. I am in a serious relationship with my Canadian girlfriend that I met in High School. It will be our 2 years in a month, and 1 year after which we got engaged. We always thought that I would be allowed to stay in Canada, which unfortunately was not possible in any way. We were planning to get married months before I was forced to leave the country, but didn't do it because we kept waiting. This is the most difficult situation that we have been through in our life, knowing that we can't see each other and continue with our plans. We used to do everything together. We decided that I should come back to Canada as a visitor in order for us to get married. This is when I applied for an Authorization to Return, asking for a permission to go back for a short period of time only to get married, after which I would go back to my country in order to continue my education, and then - whenever possible - I would go to Canada once in a while just to visit my wife. They got my application on April 15th. It's been over 5 months and we have not received any response. We specifically applied before summer thinking that we would be able to get married when we have our breaks from school, which would give us a lot of time and freedom. I e-mailed the embassy and asked how long does it take to process an application like this, to which they replied that it takes a few weeks, but there are exceptions based on the case. My Exclusion Order expires in 2 and a half months, although even after that, I would still not try to come back because I would be afraid of being refused at the airport.
This is where I would like to ask you for your help. Do you think I have chances of coming back to Canada just to get married? Our ARC application has all the necessary evidence. Because of what I was forced to go through as a teenager, I was left in a situation with no control over my life. I had no one to live with in my country and I was forced to follow my parents. I did not even know about our immigration problems, thinking that everything is fine, so I thought that I was authorized to be there. Only when I got a bit older, I started questioning what was going on. I was just focusing on doing my best in school. If only I was able to make any decisions for myself, it would have been possible for me to prevent a situation like this. It was not my choice to go through all of that, it was just not something that I was able to control. As an adult, that would have been different. I have devoted everything to my relationship, it's the most important part of my life. We talk with each other like crazy every single day and can't imagine a future without being close together. I could keep talking about it. My girlfriend came to visit me in Europe a few weeks ago, and I will see her again in two weeks because she will have a reading week at her university. It would be possible for us to get married in Europe and we could have already done it, but it wouldn't be the same as doing it in Canada. It is a significant thing to us, we don't want to just "get it over with" in some random place in the world.
Guys, do you think I will be able to come to Canada so that we can get married there? Is it normal that the ARC process is taking so long? Wouldn't I be already refused if I didn't have any chances? What about coming back after the Exclusion Order expires? Or should I accept the fact that we won't be able to continue with our life without getting married somewhere else and being accepted through sponsorship first? I am a Polish citizen, so the ARC is being processed in Warsaw.
I tried to describe my situation as best as I can. No words can show how thankful I am if you read this and if you provide me with your opinion. This is extremely important to me. THANK YOU SO MUCH.
I would like to ask for your opinion with regards to my situation. I will share some details of my story first so that you can have an idea of what's going on. I know that it might take some time for you to read this, but I will appreciate it so much.
When I was 14 years old (currently 20), I was forced to move to Canada because of my parents. My stepfather went there as a visitor in order to look for a job and apply for a work permit, then my mother joined him a few months after. I was not able to control anything - my parents were simply the ones to make decisions for me. They found an agency that helps people with looking for jobs and applying for work permits. Their lawyer was in the process of getting one for my stepfather, which was supposed to take a few months. That never happened though - he was told that the laws are changing and he needs to wait more. My parents then applied for a visitor visa extension through that lawyer, which was refused because he forgot to include copies of their passports... They stopped trusting that man and looked for someone else to solve the problem. They found an immigration consultant who advised them that I should come to Canada, and then we could apply on Humanitarian & Compassionate grounds (we had many reasons to do that, but typing them all out here would take a lot of space). She told them that our previous lawyer was known to do that kind of stuff to others. There was a court case filed against him many years before that, because he stole a big amount of money from one of his clients. That client won and he was not able to practice his job for a long time, 10 years from what I remember.
We were in the process of applying for H&C through that immigration consultant, but after many months, she was still not done with the application. She told my parents that they should work on it as well because of her lack of time - literally. They did not want to trust her anymore and stopped spending money on her. Now, this is where they were confused and desperate for a solution at the same time. They decided to fill the application completely by themselves, even though they were not able to write in English. As you are probably thinking, the application was terrible, they had no idea of what should be expected. Only a few years later I found out that it was incomplete in many areas. There was almost no information about me. We received a refusal after a few months. At that time, I was in Grade 11. We were preparing to leave the country, even though after so many years, we had no idea what to do with our lives. My parents went to a different lawyer (Green & Spiegel in Toronto), which advised us that we should ask CIC to allow me to finish my High School year/graduate, without which my education would be in ruins if I was to return to my country. Now, this is where it gets crazy. We waited 2 years before we got a letter saying that we should go to an interview. We got an Exclusion Order for 1 year for staying in Canada without status. We were told by a Minister's Delegate that CIC has misplaced our files, which is why it took them so long to contact us. We were living from day to day not knowing what was going on, and it was painful for me because I was already extremely attached to Canada.
At that point, I had been in Canada for 5 years already and I graduated from High School. We were given the option to apply for a Pre Removal Risk Assessment or claim refugee status (which would be a ridiculous thing to do). My parents, still unaware of how everything works, decided to apply for PRA. They found another immigration consultant who only wasted their money, but she made them believe that we have chances to stay in Canada. It's ridiculous how much they have spent on lawyers and consultants because of their lack of knowledge and the fact that they were desperate to stay. It took me a lot of research on this wonderful website to find out the truth about our situation. My parents have been moving in and out of places their whole life and they were afraid of what to do if they were forced to go back to their country. There are no words to describe how I felt, how much sleep I lost throughout all of these years because of my fear of going back. I hated my life before coming to Canada, which became the only place where I could imagine my future, especially after graduating from High School, but also for many other reasons. The biggest and most important one - my Canadian girlfriend.
What's ridiculous is that our immigration consultant has focused mostly on Humanitarian & Compassionate reasons as to why we should stay in Canada, not on why we would be afraid of going back to our country. Maybe that was her way of giving us hope, because we were forced to get so much evidence. Letters from my teachers, my marks, certificates that I got in school for doing well, awards, letters from my friends, information about my attachment to Canada, a psychologist's report which stated that it would be devastating for my mental health to change my surroundings and abandon my life in Canada, letters from the friends of my parents, information about their past and how they struggled to stay in their country before for financial reasons and many, many more that all have to do with H&C reasons... If my parents didn't have me, they wouldn't have understood from the report after the PRA was refused, that all of this evidence was not taken into consideration in any way because of the nature of the case. If only we had all of this information when we were applying for H&C... We were forced to leave Canada in December of 2015, and that was when I had been there for 5 and a half years.
Now, this is the most important part. I am in a serious relationship with my Canadian girlfriend that I met in High School. It will be our 2 years in a month, and 1 year after which we got engaged. We always thought that I would be allowed to stay in Canada, which unfortunately was not possible in any way. We were planning to get married months before I was forced to leave the country, but didn't do it because we kept waiting. This is the most difficult situation that we have been through in our life, knowing that we can't see each other and continue with our plans. We used to do everything together. We decided that I should come back to Canada as a visitor in order for us to get married. This is when I applied for an Authorization to Return, asking for a permission to go back for a short period of time only to get married, after which I would go back to my country in order to continue my education, and then - whenever possible - I would go to Canada once in a while just to visit my wife. They got my application on April 15th. It's been over 5 months and we have not received any response. We specifically applied before summer thinking that we would be able to get married when we have our breaks from school, which would give us a lot of time and freedom. I e-mailed the embassy and asked how long does it take to process an application like this, to which they replied that it takes a few weeks, but there are exceptions based on the case. My Exclusion Order expires in 2 and a half months, although even after that, I would still not try to come back because I would be afraid of being refused at the airport.
This is where I would like to ask you for your help. Do you think I have chances of coming back to Canada just to get married? Our ARC application has all the necessary evidence. Because of what I was forced to go through as a teenager, I was left in a situation with no control over my life. I had no one to live with in my country and I was forced to follow my parents. I did not even know about our immigration problems, thinking that everything is fine, so I thought that I was authorized to be there. Only when I got a bit older, I started questioning what was going on. I was just focusing on doing my best in school. If only I was able to make any decisions for myself, it would have been possible for me to prevent a situation like this. It was not my choice to go through all of that, it was just not something that I was able to control. As an adult, that would have been different. I have devoted everything to my relationship, it's the most important part of my life. We talk with each other like crazy every single day and can't imagine a future without being close together. I could keep talking about it. My girlfriend came to visit me in Europe a few weeks ago, and I will see her again in two weeks because she will have a reading week at her university. It would be possible for us to get married in Europe and we could have already done it, but it wouldn't be the same as doing it in Canada. It is a significant thing to us, we don't want to just "get it over with" in some random place in the world.
Guys, do you think I will be able to come to Canada so that we can get married there? Is it normal that the ARC process is taking so long? Wouldn't I be already refused if I didn't have any chances? What about coming back after the Exclusion Order expires? Or should I accept the fact that we won't be able to continue with our life without getting married somewhere else and being accepted through sponsorship first? I am a Polish citizen, so the ARC is being processed in Warsaw.
I tried to describe my situation as best as I can. No words can show how thankful I am if you read this and if you provide me with your opinion. This is extremely important to me. THANK YOU SO MUCH.
