Hello,
My boyfriend and I are planning to get married sometime next year and then I will sponsor him for PR (I am a Canadian citizen - immigrated here when I was 7 from China originally). We are now in the planning stages of this marriage and I wanted some advice because the PR will require a lot of "proof", so I wanted to get ahead of it.
1. We met 1.5 years ago in Nepal when I went trekking there. He was a tour guide and I was trekking with another guide but with the same company. We became friends after the trek and messaged on Facebook a lot until it became a relationship about 6 months in.
2. I went to visit him this year in Nepal. Met his sister and brother. Some friends. Attended his friend's wedding. We have pictures of the wedding but not a lot. I don't have pictures of my meeting with his family and only a few pictures of the two of us together. We are not photo-obsessed people. Minimal photos from this trip.
3. His family knows about me and parents approve, despite some reservations. They are concerned about the cultural differences and some mistaken conceptions about "western societies". Most of his friends know about me. My mom knows about him and approves, with some reservations. She's concerned about if life will be hard for us when he gets here since there is a vast financial difference between us. My close friends know about him. Nobody has met him on my side since he's never been to Canada or anywhere outside of Nepal.
4. Boyfriend applied for a visitor visa this year and was rejected. Initially, our plan was for him to come here, decide if he likes Canada and would want to move here, and then see where the relationship goes. That didn't happen. We then looked into a study visa for him, but the financial burden of proving he has enough money to support himself will be really tough. His family put themselves into debt to put him and his siblings through university and they are just getting close to paying that off. He doesn't want to burden them again.
5. This leaves us with getting a PR through marriage to be together. It was really a last resort, but we're at the stage where we are secure enough in the relationship to feel comfortable getting married, and it would make many things easier for both of us once he gets here - domestic tuition, no more visa worries etc.
6. I don't want a marriage ceremony. The traditional Nepalese kind involves the boy going to the girl's house, having a big ceremony and then bringing her back to his home. Since I don't have family in Nepal and only my mom will most likely be able to attend the wedding, there's no point. He's agreed to just having a legal wedding, and then maybe doing a ceremony down the road. We plan to one day buy a house in Nepal (really cheap compared to Canada) for his parents and it could be our place of residence when we visit as well.
7. Also, he is worried about his friends looking down on him for getting to Canada through marriage and "using me". Even though we know it's not like that, he wants to return to Nepal one day for business and is worried it will ruin his reputation there. For that reason as well, we don't want to publicize the wedding.
My question is how badly will this be looked upon by the CIC? Our relationship is mostly online because of long distance so I have all of our Facebook conversations. I have proof of going to Nepal twice from my visa stamps. We'll be travelling to Singapore and Malaysia together in February of next year and I plan on taking lots and lots of pictures as evidence. We are also planning on getting married sometime next year with a small reception, his closest family and my mom.
Will this be enough or do I have to have this massive wedding ceremony that nobody really wants...
Thanks!
My boyfriend and I are planning to get married sometime next year and then I will sponsor him for PR (I am a Canadian citizen - immigrated here when I was 7 from China originally). We are now in the planning stages of this marriage and I wanted some advice because the PR will require a lot of "proof", so I wanted to get ahead of it.
1. We met 1.5 years ago in Nepal when I went trekking there. He was a tour guide and I was trekking with another guide but with the same company. We became friends after the trek and messaged on Facebook a lot until it became a relationship about 6 months in.
2. I went to visit him this year in Nepal. Met his sister and brother. Some friends. Attended his friend's wedding. We have pictures of the wedding but not a lot. I don't have pictures of my meeting with his family and only a few pictures of the two of us together. We are not photo-obsessed people. Minimal photos from this trip.
3. His family knows about me and parents approve, despite some reservations. They are concerned about the cultural differences and some mistaken conceptions about "western societies". Most of his friends know about me. My mom knows about him and approves, with some reservations. She's concerned about if life will be hard for us when he gets here since there is a vast financial difference between us. My close friends know about him. Nobody has met him on my side since he's never been to Canada or anywhere outside of Nepal.
4. Boyfriend applied for a visitor visa this year and was rejected. Initially, our plan was for him to come here, decide if he likes Canada and would want to move here, and then see where the relationship goes. That didn't happen. We then looked into a study visa for him, but the financial burden of proving he has enough money to support himself will be really tough. His family put themselves into debt to put him and his siblings through university and they are just getting close to paying that off. He doesn't want to burden them again.
5. This leaves us with getting a PR through marriage to be together. It was really a last resort, but we're at the stage where we are secure enough in the relationship to feel comfortable getting married, and it would make many things easier for both of us once he gets here - domestic tuition, no more visa worries etc.
6. I don't want a marriage ceremony. The traditional Nepalese kind involves the boy going to the girl's house, having a big ceremony and then bringing her back to his home. Since I don't have family in Nepal and only my mom will most likely be able to attend the wedding, there's no point. He's agreed to just having a legal wedding, and then maybe doing a ceremony down the road. We plan to one day buy a house in Nepal (really cheap compared to Canada) for his parents and it could be our place of residence when we visit as well.
7. Also, he is worried about his friends looking down on him for getting to Canada through marriage and "using me". Even though we know it's not like that, he wants to return to Nepal one day for business and is worried it will ruin his reputation there. For that reason as well, we don't want to publicize the wedding.
My question is how badly will this be looked upon by the CIC? Our relationship is mostly online because of long distance so I have all of our Facebook conversations. I have proof of going to Nepal twice from my visa stamps. We'll be travelling to Singapore and Malaysia together in February of next year and I plan on taking lots and lots of pictures as evidence. We are also planning on getting married sometime next year with a small reception, his closest family and my mom.
Will this be enough or do I have to have this massive wedding ceremony that nobody really wants...
Thanks!
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