Divorce or Legal Separation?

[Genych]

Hello All,

I am in the process of ending my existing marriage at this moment and I am in a relationship with a girl from another country for about 2 years by now. We already went through a religious marriage with her in her home country, though officially I am still married here in Canada. I meet her several times per year for a duration of at least a couple of weeks. We talk to each other on a daily basis on the phone or messenger. We exchange sms' and we have a joint bank account in her country and a joint credit card account here in Canada. I consider her as my wife and I want to bring her here as soon as possible. My separation with the current spouse goes rather difficult pass but we recently signed a separation agreement and heading down to an official divorce.

My question is, if I have to get divorced in the first place for filling an application for my foreign wife or I can start a visa application based on the legal separation grounds? I can legalize my second marriage with the civil authorities in her country based on a religious marriage at any time and start a permanent visa application process here in Canada. What would you all suggest me to do in this situation?

Thank you in advance,

Garry

[thaiguy]

You can't marry the second woman without first divorcing the first.  Your separation doesn't carry legal weight.

Likewise, you cannot claim something that isn't true in your application.  Well .. you can .. but then you'll get in a lot of trouble for misrepresentation.  And I guarantee you that they'll find out about it.

[Genych]

That's the main point of my problem, thaiguy. I want everything done in a right way. What about applying as partners or I still have to be divorced for doing this?

[thaiguy]

You can't qualify as common-law partners if you're still married.

If you want, you can try to get your fiance a TRV so that she might live with you in Canada.  Until you're divorced, though, you can't sponsor her.

[Genych]

Thank you so much for a straight and clear response!
I got it. Frankly speaking, I was expecting something like that in my case.