Seeking Guidance on Outland Spousal Sponsorship Process

[JTMiller]

Here's a brief overview of our situation: My partner and I have decided to have a small engagement ceremony followed by the Anand Karaj ceremony at the Gurdwara. We have known each other for the past nine years, having met during our college days. However, due to my studies, I have been in Canada for the past four years, while my partner remained in India. Despite the distance, we have maintained a strong long-distance relationship through regular communication, video calls, and shared photos.

While we plan to have a large traditional wedding with all ceremonies later in the year, we've decided to proceed with the engagement and Anand Karaj only now due to some family constraints. It's important to note that we are not planning to hold ceremonies such as mehndi, ladies sangeet, chooda chadai, or receptions at this time.

In light of this, I would greatly appreciate any advice or insights from those who have experience with the outland spousal sponsorship process. Specifically, I am seeking guidance on:
1. How to effectively organize and present the documentation to make a compelling case for our relationship.
2. Any specific challenges or considerations we should be aware of when applying for outland spousal sponsorship.
3. Tips for ensuring a smooth and successful sponsorship process, given our geographical separation and the unique circumstances surrounding our ceremonies.

CC: @canuck78

 

[canuck78]

Here's a brief overview of our situation: My partner and I have decided to have a small engagement ceremony followed by the Anand Karaj ceremony at the Gurdwara. We have known each other for the past nine years, having met during our college days. However, due to my studies, I have been in Canada for the past four years, while my partner remained in India. Despite the distance, we have maintained a strong long-distance relationship through regular communication, video calls, and shared photos.

While we plan to have a large traditional wedding with all ceremonies later in the year, we've decided to proceed with the engagement and Anand Karaj only now due to some family constraints. It's important to note that we are not planning to hold ceremonies such as mehndi, ladies sangeet, chooda chadai, or receptions at this time.

In light of this, I would greatly appreciate any advice or insights from those who have experience with the outland spousal sponsorship process. Specifically, I am seeking guidance on:
1. How to effectively organize and present the documentation to make a compelling case for our relationship.
2. Any specific challenges or considerations we should be aware of when applying for outland spousal sponsorship.
3. Tips for ensuring a smooth and successful sponsorship process, given our geographical separation and the unique circumstances surrounding our ceremonies.

CC: @canuck78

The big issue is that you are planning on having a large traditional wedding but are trying to apply for sponsorship before this. It also doesn’t make sense to have an engagement ceremony but no wedding reception. It is highly unusual to have a bigger engagement ceremony than a wedding which is a red flag for IRCC that a couple is getting married on paper to start the sponsorship process but plans on having their true wedding at a later date. Will you be announcing your small wedding ceremony to all family and friend and all over social media? Will you be doing all the traditional wedding ceremonies at your larger traditional wedding or will it only be a reception/party later on recognizing that you have already been married for quite some time. Are you a PR? How long have you been a PR? How long have you been officially dating and has this been well known or is the somewhat arranged and will only be official after the engagement ceremony? Do you have pictures in person as a couple attending events for example or has this all been online? Are you planning on getting engaged, have a small wedding ceremony a d then return to Canada right away? How long will you be in India? Getting arranged, engages and married in one trip while not have a traditional wedding can be a red flag.

 

[JTMiller]

Thank you for your detailed response and for sharing your concerns.

- We have decided to invite only our closest family members to our small wedding ceremony. We acknowledge your concern about the timing and size of the engagement ceremony in relation to the wedding. Rest assured, our intention is to have the larger traditional wedding with all the ceremonies once my partner obtains her PR.

- We do plan to share our engagement pictures on our social media handles. We have kept our relationship public from the start, we have posted a bunch of photos together in the past too.

- Yes, I am currently a PR, having obtained it four months ago. Our relationship spans nine years, and during my time in India with her (four years), we have ample in-person pictures together. We have stayed in hotels multiple times together, got the payment recipts from that as well. We've attended common friends' parties and have been dance partners, shared the stage in college fests together, which we believe provides strong evidence of our genuine relationship. While our relationship has been primarily online for the last five years due to my studies in Canada, our history together is substantial.

- During my month-long stay in India, the first 15 days will be dedicated to completing our ceremonies. The remaining 15 days will be spent together.

In terms of your suggestion, we are open to any advice that can help strengthen our application. We aim to present our case in the best possible light and demonstrate the authenticity of our relationship. Fyi, I come from a Hindu Sikh background.

CC: @canuck78

 

[armoured]

Thank you for your detailed response and for sharing your concerns.

- We have decided to invite only our closest family members to our small wedding ceremony. We acknowledge your concern about the timing and size of the engagement ceremony in relation to the wedding. Rest assured, our intention is to have the larger traditional wedding with all the ceremonies once my partner obtains her PR.

You're writing this as if this forum is comprised of official IRCC agents. We're not - just people who know about the process, many of whom have been through it. You don't have to explain to us, you have to convince IRCC.

No-one here personally cares or has an opinion about whether you should do the larger traditional wedding - except in context of whether IRCC will care.

BUT: we can tell you, telling IRCC you plan to have a traditional wedding carries approximately zero weight in terms of convincing IRCC the marriage is genuine. Because you can cancel your plans later. My view is that telling them about your plans to 'do a proper wedding' in future has negative weight, because it implies that ... you do not consider what you've done to be a proper wedding.

You can and should of course include a letter of explanation that eg neither of you want the traditional wedding, that hyou consider what you've done to be sufficient, and you could say eg still in negotiations with parents about doing the traiditional parts later. Not very convincing really but at least coherent.

Our relationship spans nine years, and during my time in India with her (four years), we have ample in-person pictures together. We have stayed in hotels multiple times together ... [etc]

In terms of your suggestion, we are open to any advice that can help strengthen our application. We aim to present our case in the best possible light and demonstrate the authenticity of our relationship. Fyi, I come from a Hindu Sikh background.

Your other info about knowing each other for years etc is positive. In terms of strengthening your app, what woudl strengthen it is more evidence of actually residing together for some period of time (not just weekends), OR actually doing the large traditional ceremony. (You residing together while on vacations is a start, but not a lot).

It's up to you. People here can give opinions about whether that will be 'enough' but we do not know how IRCC will do.

- During my month-long stay in India, the first 15 days will be dedicated to completing our ceremonies. The remaining 15 days will be spent together.

If you want my personal opinion - I don't find your explanation or full story convincing. (Mind, you haven't explained what the 'family constraints' that you refer obliquely to actually are). You say you will be there for a month, and you're taking 15 days to do the ceremonies - but only a small part of the ceremonies? I am not an expert on Sikh wedding practices, but surely it is possible to do the full set of ceremonies in 15 days? If you must do smaller ones without some family members present opr with fewer guests overall or some other modification, that would be FAR preferable to what you're proposing. "My aunt / estranged father / mom's sister couldn't come" (plus maybe video calls with them or something else to compensate) is far more credible than 'we decided to skip these [number] ceremonies and do them at some undefined date in future.'

Ultimately to me it looks like you're doing a non or sort-of wedding in order to submit your PR sponsorship sooner. Just one opinion, up to you to decide how to proceed.

I'm repeating myself perhaps a bit here but:

Rest assured, our intention is to have the larger traditional wedding with all the ceremonies once my partner obtains her PR.

This statement will convince precisely zero people at IRCC (again, in my opinion). There's only so much that explanations, however well-written, can compensate. (They're going to ignore parts of the explanation that aren't purely factual, I think).

 

[canuck78]

Thank you for your detailed response and for sharing your concerns.

- We have decided to invite only our closest family members to our small wedding ceremony. We acknowledge your concern about the timing and size of the engagement ceremony in relation to the wedding. Rest assured, our intention is to have the larger traditional wedding with all the ceremonies once my partner obtains her PR.

- We do plan to share our engagement pictures on our social media handles. We have kept our relationship public from the start, we have posted a bunch of photos together in the past too.

- Yes, I am currently a PR, having obtained it four months ago. Our relationship spans nine years, and during my time in India with her (four years), we have ample in-person pictures together. We have stayed in hotels multiple times together, got the payment recipts from that as well. We've attended common friends' parties and have been dance partners, shared the stage in college fests together, which we believe provides strong evidence of our genuine relationship. While our relationship has been primarily online for the last five years due to my studies in Canada, our history together is substantial.

- During my month-long stay in India, the first 15 days will be dedicated to completing our ceremonies. The remaining 15 days will be spent together.

In terms of your suggestion, we are open to any advice that can help strengthen our application. We aim to present our case in the best possible light and demonstrate the authenticity of our relationship. Fyi, I come from a Hindu Sikh background.

CC: @canuck78

The fact that you plan on sharing your engagement pictures online is the issue. You need to be showing your small wedding ceremony as well as your engagement ceremony and pictures online. If only showing your engagement pictures online that reinforces the fact that your small wedding ceremony is essentially only for immigration purposes and your “true” wedding will be the larger ceremony later on.