undeclared dependant

[hoop8up]

hello there, im from the philippines, my wife was sponsoring me for immigrant to canada, and were just recently married, january 5, 2008 to be exact, and she got her PR on march 10, 2008 after 2 years of waiting..when she procesed her PR she was still single then so i was not declared as dependent the when she got her PR card, i was not declared as dependent as well coz the time she got her PR she dont have on her position the marriage certificate from NSO..i was declared by my wife a month after, after she got on her position of our marriage certificate.now CIC manila let me explain why i was not declared by my wife, both on processing and on recieving her PR card..shes been my gf since high school and after 14 years we tie the knot..obviously were a geniune relationship, she really dont have any idea of paragraph 117(9)(d) which makes me excluded as a family member on family class...pls help us, my wife and i were devastated by this development, we've given up alot of sacrifices, for her to look for greener pasture in canada, only to know i was technically excluded as family member,,as of now we need to answer and explain to CIC-manila before they make a final desicion on my case..pls help us on this....pls give us some advice...

[Leon]

I think you need an immigration lawyer.  The only thing you can really tell them is that you and your wife did not realize the rules and didn't think you were doing anything wrong and see if they have pity on you.  It is even unlikely that you can get a work permit to immigrate on your own now since immigration will question that you will return at the end of your work permit since your wife is already living in Canada.

[RobsLuv]

Yep - you need a lawyer.  When your wife received her visa she was asked whether she had any changes to her marital status and she didn't inform them that she had a spouse.  That makes her spouse ineligible to be sponsored for Permanent status.  She was supposed to notify Immigration Canada as soon as you were married and they would have added you to her original application and assessed your eligibility so that you could have come to Canada with her when her visa was issued.  Even if she did not do this on purpose, there are plenty of people who don't declare family members that they think will affect their ability to come to Canada and then they try to bring them later on.  Doing so is a complete violation of Immigration law and CIC has no tolerance for it.

Did you have a permanent resident application that was refused on this basis?  Did your wife appeal the refusal?  If so, you might want to try to find some other appeal cases on this CanLII website by doing a search for "117(9)(d)".  It might give you an idea of how often these refusals are overturned and under what circumstances. 

[hoop8up]

as of now, its been 1 month since we sent our response or explanation to the embassy but then we still dont have recieve any response from them, the longer it takes, is it an indication that i possibly have a positive response from them? ive been experiencing mental torture this days, i humbly ask if how it takes or the time they response a letter like this/hope to hear from your guys..thanks alot...