The goal of denying visas to questionable people is laudable, but the practice leaves much to be desired.
Visa Officers (VOs) must try to guess an applicant’s intention from mere documents. Can’t be done conclusively, so the decisions tend to be subjective and inconsistent. A Canadian acquaintance I knew here in China got a TRV for his Chinese wife. Her circumstances were almost identical to my wife’s, yet my wife was denied a TRV for the usual reason: insufficient evidence that she would return to China on time.
I complained to the embassy, and debated the matter with the Director of Policy there. At the end of the discussion, she advised me to include my arguments in a cover letter the next time I applied – not realizing that I had already done so in the original cover letter to the original application!! The point here is that the Director of Policy found to be reasonable an application that a VO had arbitrarily denied.
And these Napoleans have no one to answer to for their decisions. The Director of Policy had no power to influence the VO’s decision.
So, to the member who advised against using strong language when referring to VOs, because ( he said) no one in this forum welcomes such language, I say emphatically that strong language against arbitrary VOs is very much welcomed by many in this forum.
I agree with the sentiment that a Canadian has a right to bring his/her spouse to Canada, and not have to beg a VO for permission, but this must be balanced by protections against fraudulent visas. The question is how can a VO distinguish the frauds from the legitimate people? Preliminary interviews? Lie detector tests? The trouble is, the VOs don’t have time to assess each application properly; they have less than a minute per application, according to report!!
The VO tries to decide whether the TRV applicant has ties to his/her home country. Giving a spouse money doesn’t do that. Mentioning that she has a third ownership in a house, but doesn’t live there (lives with her Canadian partner), doesn’t do so either. She still seems mobile, and that worries VOs.
Many Chinese women who had never left China, and so of course had ties to their country, nevertheless jumped ship once in Canada. So, the ties have to be strong, and the VO has to be in a good mood the day he/she assesses your TRV application.
I dealt with this issue in a post about a month ago. Search under my username, toby. In brief, I recommended re-applying, even if there is nothing new to add to the case, and I explained why.