Sponsoring my wife from Iraq

[canadadubai]

I am Iraqi nationality living and working in Dubai, and I got my Canadian Immigrant visa under the skilled labor immigration category on October 2011.

I will get marry on August 2012 and I want to know which way is faster in process,

1-Do the landing first and apply form inland.
2-Or return back my application to the Canadian immigration authority and update my marriage status?

Knowing that my prospective wife living in Iraq and I want to take the advantage of "the process priority for Iraqis". Basically, I want my wife to be with me and I am not willing to leave her in Iraq and go to Canada and wait for a year or more to get her papers done!

I really appreciate any advices please?

Thank you

 

[canadadubai]

Re: Sponsoring my wife

I am Iraqi nationality living and working in Dubai, and I got my Canadian Immigrant visa under the skilled labor immigration category on October 2011.

I will get marry on August 2012 and I want to know which way is faster in process,

1-Do the landing first and apply form inland.
2-Or return back my application to the Canadian immigration authority and update my marriage status?

Knowing that my prospective wife living in Iraq and I want to take the advantage of "the process priority for Iraqis". Basically, I want my wife to be with me and I am not willing to leave her in Iraq and go to Canada and wait for a year or more to get her papers done!

I really appreciate any advices please?

Thank you

 

[Arezou]

I am Iraqi nationality living and working in Dubai, and I got my Canadian Immigrant visa under the skilled labor immigration category on October 2011.

I will get marry on August 2012 and I want to know which way is faster in process,

1-Do the landing first and apply form inland.
2-Or return back my application to the Canadian immigration authority and update my marriage status?

Knowing that my prospective wife living in Iraq and I want to take the advantage of "the process priority for Iraqis". Basically, I want my wife to be with me and I am not willing to leave her in Iraq and go to Canada and wait for a year or more to get her papers done!

I really appreciate any advices please?

Thank you

If you think you can update your marital status and add your wife to your visa and bring her to Canada, do it.
Otherwise if you landed in Canada and your wife stay in Iraq then you have to apply for out land program (spousal sponsorship) and as there is not any priority at the moment for Iraqi people therefore your wife has to wait maybe more than one year to get her visa.
So check as much as you can and apply then.
We have many Iraqi friends here who are waiting more than one year to get their visas.
After closing the embassy in Damascus the status is not so clear!

 

[canadadubai]

Thanx for the reply,

Ok ill check that, meanwhile in case i sponsored her from inland then I have to find a job first then I can apply for sponsoring my wife correct?? Means I will not be eligible to sponsor her till I prove to the Canadian government that I have a work with the required income??If this is correct, then how much salary minimum I need? Alternatively is it possible to show them a fixed amount of money in the bank?

Thanx

 

[Arezou]

Thanx for the reply,

Ok ill check that, meanwhile in case i sponsored her from inland then I have to find a job first then I can apply for sponsoring my wife correct?? Means I will not be eligible to sponsor her till I prove to the Canadian government that I have a work with the required income??If this is correct, then how much salary minimum I need? Alternatively is it possible to show them a fixed amount of money in the bank?

Thanx

I think you are eligible to apply for inland application if your wife is in Canada otherwise you have to use out land program.
But about minimum salary i think that you have to check the CIC website. But as i heard here there is not a minimum salary obligation.

 

[canadadubai]

How I wish to apply form outland, I am not interested to apply form inland Canada and wait for a year or more,it is nonsense, it is better for me if I can apply for outland, but I don’t think this is the case! I believe it is a MUST once i do the LANDING to apply from inland because I am NOT a citizen yet.

So I want to update my marriage status and wait for the new papers while I am working in Dubai, is that possible??

Any one has clear confirmed information, any one did this before and update his or her marriage status please?

Is it possible to return back the application and update my marriage status and wait together in Dubai till we get both the visa?

thanks

 

[OhCanadiana]

How I wish to apply form outland, I am not interested to apply form inland Canada and wait for a year or more,it is nonsense, it is better for me if I can apply for outland, but I don't think this is the case! I believe it is a MUST once i do the LANDING to apply from inland because I am NOT a citizen yet.

So I want to update my marriage status and wait for the new papers while I am working in Dubai, is that possible??

Any one has clear confirmed information, any one did this before and update his or her marriage status please?

Is it possible to return back the application and update my marriage status and wait together in Dubai till we get both the visa?

thanks

You didn't say when your visa expires, which is an essential component of this decision since you cannot get a visa extended and your wedding is scheduled for August.

If your family composition changes before you land (get married, have a baby) then you have to declare it to your visa office. They will ask you to return your visa on your passport and your COPR to cancel them. You will also need to submit documents for your wife (everything that you would have had to submit upfront including medical, education, etc) and they will evaluate her too. If she passes, then you will both get visas issued and COPRs and can land together.

If, however, your visa expires before your wedding, you may have to sponsor your spouse as a family member after you land (unless you pull the wedding up or write to the visa office and somehow convince them to cancel your visa now since you are planning to get married). To sponsor her after you land, you have two choices:
- inland application: requires her to be in Canada when you apply (so she'd presumably need a tourist visa), she should not leave Canada at all until completion of the process (stage 1 and 2) - if she does and cannot get back in the application is cancelled automatically, and she can work after stage 1 processing is complete (11 months). Cannot appeal.
- Outland: she can either be in Canada or outside, usually is faster than inland, and you retain the right to appeal. If an interview is required, however, because they question the legitimacy of your relationship or for random quality control purposes, she'd have to fly to the visa office that corresponds to her nationality. Does your wife have a visa to enter Canada? If so, she is temporarily in Canada, she can apply at the Buffalo visa office.
For the spousal application, you will need to prove the legitimacy of your relationship through photos, letters, e-mails, phone records, etc. and also show that you were not in a common law or conjugal relationship before getting married when you applied for FSW (ie, you haven't lived together for a year). Applying as a spouse makes you medical demand exempt so they want to make sure that you didn't wait because your wife wouldn't have been eligible as a dependent. The timing is available at http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/times/perm-fc.asp

 

[canadadubai]

Thanks a lot for these information and here are some of mine

1- My visa will expire on 10 August 2012
2- We have decided today that we will get married on June 2012,two months in advance before my visa gets expire.
3- Ill bring her to Dubai on July, because I need two weeks to arrange visa for her, as she is living currently in Iraq.
4- She doesn’t have Canadian visa and it is almost impossible to get her one!
5- I can manage all the documents they will request, but what do you mean if she passes??Which case she will not pass? I am the main applicant and she is my spouse, would you please tell me which case they may reject?
6- In case they reject her application as a spouse, then what will happen? Does that mean I will lose my visa as well?
7- We never lived together since I met her before 2 months only while I was in Iraq for earned leave vacation

In brief I will marry her in June and bring her to Dubai on July and want to return back my application and update my marriage status from single to married.

What are the complications that may occur?

many thanx

 

[scylla]

If you get married before you land, then you will have to submit paperwork for your wife to be added to the visa. This means she will have to go through the medical and security check as well (just like you did). If for any reason there is a big problem with her medical or security check and she is refused - your visa will be refused as well since you are now her husband.

 

[OhCanadiana]

Thanks a lot for these information and here are some of mine

1- My visa will expire on 10 August 2012
2- We have decided today that we will get married on June 2012,two months in advance before my visa gets expire.

in that case, unless you land before June you would need to return your visa and COPR to your visa office, alert them to the fact that your family composition has changed so that they cancel your visa and submit the documents and payments so that they process your wife's application. Depending on when your medical expires, they could ask you to undergo a new medical exam too (since it is only valid for one year). I would suggest you send your visa office a case specific enquiry detailing the fact that you are going to get married and asking them for guidance so you know their specific procedures and asking if they can start before the actual marriage (unlikely). Confirm the date of your wedding beforehand, though, so you don't change your mind later and land first as that would likely raise a lot of questions for any future spousal sponsorship.

3- Ill bring her to Dubai on July, because I need two weeks to arrange visa for her, as she is living currently in Iraq.
4- She doesn't have Canadian visa and it is almost impossible to get her one!

I understand. That is why you would likely have to apply Outland for her, if you were to land before getting married and apply for spousal sponsorship. Seems like you have decided not to proceed in that direction anyway so this is a mute point.

5- I can manage all the documents they will request, but what do you mean if she passes??Which case she will not pass? I am the main applicant and she is my spouse, would you please tell me which case they may reject?

They will evaluate her eligibility as a dependent. All your dependents need to be eligbible for immigration for your application to be approved (or you need to relinquish the right to ever sponsor them as a dependent for Canadian Permanent Resident). Therefore, should she have any medical or security issues that would make her not eligible for immigration crop up before her application gets evaluated - if a medical issue comes up in her exam, for example, that imply excessive demand - she would be uneligible for immigration. If your dependent is not eligible, your application would be rejected.

6- In case they reject her application as a spouse, then what will happen? Does that mean I will lose my visa as well?

Correct.
Technically, they wouldn't give you a new one anymore. The way it works is you have to turn in your visa and they cancel it. Then they reprocess the application at the visa office for your new family and everyone needs to be eligible. If they are, they issue new visas and COPRs.

7- We never lived together since I met her before 2 months only while I was in Iraq for earned leave vacation

That means that you could still land before getting married and not run into any problems if you were to try to sponsor her as a family member. If you had qualified as common-law and hadn't declared her on your FSW application then you would have had trouble if you ever tried to sponsor her as a member of the family class. Seems like you have decided not to proceed in that direction anyway so this is a mute point.

In brief I will marry her in June and bring her to Dubai on July and want to return back my application and update my marriage status from single to married.

What are the complications that may occur?

They may question the genuineness of your relationship and, if she has any medical or security issues, she (and you) could get denied visas.

many thanx

You're welcome!

 

[canadadubai]

Thank you for all for this valuable information,

Based on all your feedback, I will do the following;
1-I will send the visa office a case specific enquiry detailing that I am going to get married on June and will ask them for guidance and whether I can start the process of the application even before the actual marriage date.
2-Also I understand that if they found that she is not eligible due to medical or security requirement then my whole application will be refused.

I have decided not to apply from inland for one reason only, that is the TIME consuming, I don’t want to leave my wife in Iraq alone for a year or more and better for me just apply from outland and update my family composition status.


Meanwhile I have another question, how long it will take this process, updating the family composition status?

thank you

 

[OhCanadiana]

Thank you for all for this valuable information,

Based on all your feedback, I will do the following;
1-I will send the visa office a case specific enquiry detailing that I am going to get married on June and will ask them for guidance and whether I can start the process of the application even before the actual marriage date.
2-Also I understand that if they found that she is not eligible due to medical or security requirement then my whole application will be refused.

Sounds good. As I said, just make sure your wedding date is set in stone before you do this. If your wedding date slides back for some reason you want to be able to land and then sponsor her outland as your wife via the spousal sponsorship and you won't be able to do this once they cancel your visa due to family composition changes.

I have decided not to apply from inland for one reason only, that is the TIME consuming, I don't want to leave my wife in Iraq alone for a year or more and better for me just apply from outland and update my family composition status.

I understand that desire and it is very sweet of you to want to be with your wife (life is indeed much easier if you are close to your spouse). Just for clarity sake, re 'inland application,' if she doesn't have a visa to enter Canada (which you've said would be essentially impossible to get) you can't apply inland. If you end up going through the spousal sponsorship route then you'd have to apply outland (faster than inland) but you would end up living apart during the application process since as a PR you can only sponsor a spouse if you, the PR, are living in Canada. You can see the timing here: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/times/perm-fc.asp

Meanwhile I have another question, how long it will take this process, updating the family composition status?

thank you

I don't know. It depends on how quickly they evaluate your case again after you update the file. Changes in family composition are rare enough that there's no statistics. You could help accelerate the process if you start getting her police certificates, photographs, and even her medical exams (you can ask the visa office for the forms upfront and tell them you're willing to run the risk of paying for them twice if it ends up expiring), completing all the forms that a spouse needs to fill in, and updating all your forms to reflect that you are now married so that you can submit them as soon as you are married. Take a look at your application checklist to see what you need to fill in again, and which forms your wife will need to fill in. By submitting all the documents at the same time and by having the medical exams already conducted and processed by the time you send the documents in to the visa office, you maximize the probability that the visa officer sees it's all there and just processes it all at one go since it will seem straightforward to do. There's no guarantees though and it may go to the bottom of the pile. You know the drill - no real guarantees in this process when it comes to timing

 

[canadianwoman]

You seem to be confused about the meaning of an 'outland' and an 'inland' sponsorship. These terms do not refer to where you, the sponsor, are. They refer to where the application will be processed, and to some extent where the applicant - your soon-to-be wife - is.
An outland application means you are in Canada and your wife is not. However, she could come visit you in Canada while the application is being processed, if she can get a temporary visa, which is very difficult to obtain.
An inland application means you are in Canada and your wife must be in Canada too. So you cannot apply to sponsor her inland in your case, because she cannot come to Canada without a temporary visa.
When you land in Canada you will become a Canadian permanent resident. As a PR, you can sponsor your wife, but only if you stay in Canada during the whole time it takes to process her visa.

However, if you get married before you land, you must tell the visa office this, and they will cancel your visa and add your wife to your application. This is neither an outland nor an inland application. You will not really be sponsoring her in this case - she will be added to your application as your dependent.

 

[canadadubai]

Hi canadianwoman

Oh…. You are right, I understoodd the process from the feedback I received, but I was confused about the terminologies used!
Thanx

Ill go the Immigration office next week and I will keep you all posted to know the exact procedure followed.

Thank you