Changes to Immigration Regs affecting spousal/cl/cp applications expected soon.

[BostonGirl]

Correct me if i'm wrong, there are a ton of posts here.
Am I reading that it seems odd to apply for PR shortly after marriage?
Because it makes perfect sense to me, to want to live in the same country as your husband/wife.
Was it perhaps meant that it looks a bit fishy to meet, marry and then apply all
within a very short amount of time?

If you are married, and not allowed by the law of either nation (or by job constraints)
to wait around (living together) to apply for PR then it seems completely illogical not to.

I am just asking because I miss my Fiancee so much and want to get this all sorted
out asap. We will of course be applying directly after our wedding.
Because being apart is killing us.

 

[Yaya Marei]

Hi guys !!

Some people respond to my ad as I am against them, with their relationship common law but not married, it is a personal choice, I was just expressing my opinion, not more.

I totally understand the common law partner, I understand their life, and their chooses

so do not be upset from my opinion guys, we all here in this, different people have the different opinion based on their educational background, place, they live, and even sex.How ever, I believe everyone have the right to do what he likes to do whatever. he wants as long as it does not hurt me.

Thanks and best wishes for all

 

[britincanada]

The chatter in the legal community is that this is going to happen sometime this fall however this is NOT confirmed. The government posted the proposed changes in the Canadian Gazette in April of this year (a requirement before an Act of Parliament can be amended).

Here is the Gazette posting:

http://gazette.gc.ca/rp-pr/p1/2010/2010-04-03/html/reg1-eng.html

The Canadian Immigrant magazine does a good job of explaining in basic terms what this means:

http://www.canadianimmigrant.ca/newsandviews/news/article/6878

IMHO, this is going to mean more refusals which in turn will result in an even larger backlog at the IAD. Oy vay!

To anyone who is planning to apply under this class in the future, PREPARE WELL! Marriage has long been viewed as the "easiest" way to get into Canada and with all the press regarding fraudulent marriages in the last couple of years, this government is reacting by making the rules even more strict.

On the bright side, hopefully this means there will be fewer victims of fraud. On the dark side, applicants and sponsors need to get VERY SERIOUS about their applications (as if they weren't already!) and never assume anything when it comes to immigration. Refusals will be common and will have nothing to do with genuiness but rather, because the VO feels the marriage was entered into for the primary purpose of immigrating to Canada. In other words, a VO could believe your marriage is real but that the only reason your spouse met and married you in the first place was because they wanted to immigrate to Canada.

I'm not posting this to scare anyone. Those who are already in process need not worry about these changes (which have NOT been proclaimed yet) as applicants in process would be assessed under the former Regs. But I've been around here long enough to know there are many readers who are thinking about getting married and/or sponsoring their partner at a later date and want them to be aware that it's going to get tougher and they need to be very thoroughly prepared.

In all honesty, my greatest fear is for those sponsoring partners from 3rd world countries where the socio-econmic status differs greatly as well as those entering arranged marriages. This is where the greatest impact will be felt in my view.

Thank you for posting this information, although my visa has been issued and on its way back to me I do believe its good for future applicants to help them prepare for their application...perhaps this information should be on a sticky thread?? Especially if the changes are implemented??

 

[buddhadimple]

Correct me if i'm wrong, there are a ton of posts here.
Am I reading that it seems odd to apply for PR shortly after marriage?
Because it makes perfect sense to me, to want to live in the same country as your husband/wife.
Was it perhaps meant that it looks a bit fishy to meet, marry and then apply all
within a very short amount of time?

If you are married, and not allowed by the law of either nation (or by job constraints)
to wait around (living together) to apply for PR then it seems completely illogical not to.

I am just asking because I miss my Fiancee so much and want to get this all sorted
out asap. We will of course be applying directly after our wedding.
Because being apart is killing us.

It was only loosely mentioned, and it was in no way arguing that that is what the Immigration Officers believe. It was just someone's (a poster on this forum) observation when s/he looked at some peoples' timelines and meeting, marriage, and PR Application happened all in a very short time period - this was in relation to how does one "prove that the relationship is genuine" if there isn't very much time for supportive evidence to accumulate.

 

[canuck0469]

Good morning family. This was posted by a very knowledgable and respected senior member on a different forum and I thought I would pass this on to our new members that have yet to apply. New applications may require more precise information to meet the criteria. As they mentioned this has NOT gone through legislation yet but may come into effect late this fall. This will NOT apply to anyone with an application in process.

The chatter in the legal community is that this is going to happen sometime this fall however this is NOT confirmed. The government posted the proposed changes in the Canadian Gazette in April of this year (a requirement before an Act of Parliament can be amended).

Here is the Gazette posting:

http://gazette.gc.ca/rp-pr/p1/2010/2010-04-03/html/reg1-eng.html

The Canadian Immigrant magazine does a good job of explaining in basic terms what this means:

http://www.canadianimmigrant.ca/newsandviews/news/article/6878

IMHO, this is going to mean more refusals which in turn will result in an even larger backlog at the IAD. Oy vay!

To anyone who is planning to apply under this class in the future, PREPARE WELL! Marriage has long been viewed as the "easiest" way to get into Canada and with all the press regarding fraudulent marriages in the last couple of years, this government is reacting by making the rules even more strict.

On the bright side, hopefully this means there will be fewer victims of fraud. On the dark side, applicants and sponsors need to get VERY SERIOUS about their applications (as if they weren't already!) and never assume anything when it comes to immigration. Refusals will be common and will have nothing to do with genuiness but rather, because the VO feels the marriage was entered into for the primary purpose of immigrating to Canada. In other words, a VO could believe your marriage is real but that the only reason your spouse met and married you in the first place was because they wanted to immigrate to Canada.

I'm not posting this to scare anyone. Those who are already in process need not worry about these changes (which have NOT been proclaimed yet) as applicants in process would be assessed under the former Regs. But I've been around here long enough to know there are many readers who are thinking about getting married and/or sponsoring their partner at a later date and want them to be aware that it's going to get tougher and they need to be very thoroughly prepared.

In all honesty, my greatest fear is for those sponsoring partners from 3rd world countries where the socio-econmic status differs greatly as well as those entering arranged marriages. This is where the greatest impact will be felt in my view.

Report to moderator Logged

 

[canuck0469]

rjessome, I hope you don't mind, I borrowed your info to share with my co-applicants in a different forum.

Thanks again

 

[rjessome]

rjessome, I hope you don't mind, I borrowed your info to share with my co-applicants in a different forum.

Thanks again

No problem. Getting the message out there is important. That was the point of the posting so thanks for re-posting. The more people helped, the better.

 

[sasn]

Guys,

Is this change going to affect the application in process or not ?
Since when is the change effective ?

 

[BeShoo]

Is this change going to affect the application in process or not ?
Since when is the change effective ?

It came into effect a couple of weeks ago and it does appply to applications already in process. We don't know how it might affect them till we've had some experience with it.

 

[sasn]

It came into effect a couple of weeks ago and it does appply to applications already in process. We don't know how it might affect them till we've had some experience with it.

I tried finding this information on cic website, however could not validate if this has been in effect and also apply to applications in process.
Do you have a link for this ?

 

[boasorte]

Can a relationship be considered a non- bona fide one for the simple fact that both people in the relationship got married so that the foreign person could live together in Canada with his sponsor/spouse? ???

 

[rjessome]

I tried finding this information on cic website, however could not validate if this has been in effect and also apply to applications in process.
Do you have a link for this ?

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/manuals/bulletins/2010/ob238.asp

 

[rjessome]

Can a relationship be considered a non- bona fide one for the simple fact that both people in the relationship got married so that the foreign person could live together in Canada with his sponsor/spouse? ???

Technically, yes. If there is very little evidence of genuineness of the marriage this would be a problem. The changes haven't really been "tested" yet. It's hard to know how this is being interpretted by VOs at this point and what the IAD and Federal Court are going to do with it. The change is so new that we will have to wait a bit to see what the fallout (if any) will be.

 

[boasorte]

I sent the link to the lawyer who helped us with our application and according to him, the new Regulations are to prevent those people who enter in a relationship to attain Status in Canada(the targets are foreign people who use Canadians citizen as a bridge to PR status, and those who pay to get into a relationship so that they can acquire status in Canada..)

According to him those bona fide couples have nothing to worry about as long as they provide all the required documents to prove their relationship.

I also asked the same question that I did above and he said that, "as long as the relationship is indeed genuine, real and you can prove it the relationship can't be considered a non bona fide one."

And for my comfort he mentioned that lots of his clients don't believe in marriage, but did get married so that their partners could immigrate to Canada thereby be together.

 

[rjessome]

I sent the link to the lawyer who helped us with our application and according to him, the new Regulations are to prevent those people who enter in a relationship to attain Status in Canada(the targets are foreign people who use Canadians citizen as a bridge to PR status, and those who pay to get into a relationship so that they can acquire status in Canada..)

According to him those bona fide couples have nothing to worry about as long as they provide all the required documents to prove their relationship.

I also asked the same question that I did above and he said that, "as long as the relationship is indeed genuine, real and you can prove it the relationship can't be considered a non bona fide one."

And for my comfort he mentioned that lots of his clients don't believe in marriage, but did get married so that their partners could immigrate to Canada thereby be together.

I agree with him. That's exactly what I do as well. I'm a little worried about visa officers that may get over eager with this change to the Regs but seriously doubt it will have much impact on those in a genuine relationship. I "think" the biggest impact will be on arranged marriages but it remains to be seen what will happen. And it's not like a genuine couple will say "well we couldn't find another way to be together so we got married so that my spouse could gain status under the Immigration Act." More like, "we want to be together forever so we decided to get married and have chosen Canada as our home because it is MY country, etc."

It's important to remember the purpose of the change. It is to prevent fraud, not keep genuine couples apart. Instructions to Visa Officers about interpretation and application of this change have not yet been published in the Manuals but as soon as they are, I will post them here. That will give everyone more insight into how the change is to be applied. I'm sure Visa Officers are waiting for this too.