ADVICE NEEDED

[JRPW]

Hello.
My name is Jeff.

I have lived in Japan for about a decade. I am married to a Japanese national. My wife and I were planning on returning to Canada in 2014. However, an unforeseen event has occurred which has made us decide to come back to Canada a year sooner. This is not the first time I have posted here, but I keep running into parts of my wife's application, and my part of her application, where I do not know what to write or what items I need.

Question 1:
What can I show that I have sufficient funds? I am not going to be sending a 'C-Option' as I have been living out of the country for so long. I will have my current company write me a letter, but I just started working for them. I am also going to get my former company to write a letter, too. Before I got my current job I worked for about four months as a freelance translator. I was an in-house translator for my former company, but the contracts for all the in-house translators ended on May 31st. I still do periodic work for this company, but being a freelancer did not really pay the bills, hence the need to take my current job.

Question 2:
If we do decided to return in April/May 2013 and we still do not have my wife's PR, can we still enter Canada and wait for it there? If we do do this, what should we say when we enter the country? I plan to tell the truth as I think honesty is the best policy.

Once again, any and all advice is great appreciated.

Thank you,

J

 

[computergeek]

Question 1:
What can I show that I have sufficient funds? I am not going to be sending a 'C-Option' as I have been living out of the country for so long. I will have my current company write me a letter, but I just started working for them. I am also going to get my former company to write a letter, too. Before I got my current job I worked for about four months as a freelance translator. I was an in-house translator for my former company, but the contracts for all the in-house translators ended on May 31st. I still do periodic work for this company, but being a freelancer did not really pay the bills, hence the need to take my current job.

I'm assuming you have filed tax returns in Japan showing your employment information. If so, I would use the Bank of Canada exchange rate information for the years you filed (they publish an "average rate" for each calendar year) and include it with those forms, highlighting the income numbers and converting them to Canadian dollars.

For a spousal application the financial requirement is "soft" while the form you are completing is a generic form and applies to sponsorship categories that have hard numeric limits. For your case, all you need to do is show that you have skills and reasonable employment options and that you are unlikely to require social assistance. It's a rather low bar to cross, and I've not heard of anyone in your situation having a problem obtaining sponsorship approval.

Question 2:
If we do decided to return in April/May 2013 and we still do not have my wife's PR, can we still enter Canada and wait for it there? If we do do this, what should we say when we enter the country? I plan to tell the truth as I think honesty is the best policy.

Your wife is from a visa exempt country, so she shouldn't have any problems getting TO Canada. Once at the POE, you should be prepared to demonstrate that you have a PR application in process, that you have the financial means to support her (savings and/or employment) and that you are asking that she be granted visitor status long enough for her application processing to be completed. IDEALLY you should have your sponsorship approval letter (that takes 2.5 months to get usually at the present time) but you can also just show the receipt that you've paid the application fee. If she has an AOR from the visa office, that would be good as well.

You will likely be sent to secondary inspection, where they will review your documentation and then issue her a visitor record.

Good luck!