Spousal Sponsorship: Worried about our age and length of courtship (Canadian PR/Egyptian).

[piscarius]

Hello,

I am a Canadian permanent resident (originally American, living in Montreal QC) and my husband is from Egypt. I travelled to meet him in his country of origin and after just 3 weeks (and 6 months total of courtship), we got married. In his culture/religion, unmarried people of opposite sex cannot even share a living space so in order to be able to spend more time together, we figured it was our best solution.

Obviously I want us to live together. However we’re worried that our short relationship might be an issue. Also, we do not have much proof other than this (current) trip where we’re together, past conversations which go from friendly conversations to “private stuff adults talk about amongst each other and don’t want anyone else reading” so we don’t particularly feel comfortable showing that. We’re not sure we can provide any more proof to be honest. Anyone has some advice? What should we do to prove that our relationship is genuine despite our (young) age and how fast it all happened? We were thinking of waiting more years and visit each other as much as our wallet will allow us. Hopefully he will come live with me within the next few years, but if that’s truly not an option, I am willing to move to Egypt, but that’s truly if Canada is not an option.

Thank you.

 

[scylla]

Did you get married during your first trip to see him?

 

[piscarius]

Did you get married during your first trip to see him?

Yes it is our first time meeting in real life.

 

[scylla]

Yes it is our first time meeting in real life.

That's unfortunate. That tends to be a huge red flag for CIC for marriages of convenience. We always recommend people visit each other once or twice at least before getting married.

Normally I would say go ahead and sponsor him. But in your case I would not recommend that - I think you'll be heading for a refusal. Visit each other a couple of more times before applying to sponsor him.

 

[piscarius]

That's unfortunate. That tends to be a huge red flag for CIC for marriages of convenience. We always recommend people visit each other once or twice at least before getting married.

Normally I would say go ahead and sponsor him. But in your case I would not recommend that - I think you'll be heading for a refusal. Visit each other a couple of more times before applying to sponsor him.

Thank you. It is a great idea. Anyway we were thinking of waiting a couple of more years. We did impulsively get married on the first meeting because of the judgement and possible legal issues that might come with us living together. Hopefully it won't hurt us when we apply in a couple of years.

 

[faithey]

Build up more evidence to show the genuineness of the marriage, travel, conversations, phone records support letters from family/friends, pictures, etc. If you have Facebook, other social media, be open with the marriage on there, etc.

 

[immigrant7]

I know many culture like these. And people successfully getting PR.
But to avoid unnecessary delays and processes, it is better for him to come to you/canada on a visit first. You can apply for visitor visa. Once he's here, you can extend his stay accordingly. (but yes, it comes with the price of him not having the rights to work ).
And then you can apply for sponsorship. The other option is again, to wait for an year or so, have two visits (one by either parties) and then apply.

The cases i know is of Husband being here and bringing the wife. Yours different.