Bringing wife as visitor

[zillcullen]

Hello all,

First post and I was unsure where to post so apologies in advance.

Anyway I've a situation which I need some guidance on. I'm Canadian and intend to marry a girl who's a citizen of another country. I understand that the immigration visa to Canada can take up to 6-8 months after marriage and that means the spouses are apart for that period of time.. which is undesirable.

So to mitigate this I thought:

1- Have her apply for Canadian visit visa now before she's married. In the form where it asks for marital status she can say single (truth) and not have to misrepresent that.
2- We perform the marriage ceremony in her country. I'm going to fly there later this year and return 2-3 weeks later.
3- Sometime after that, she will fly to Canada under the visit visa.
4- Once she's here we can do a civil ceremony for Canadian law and then apply for her immigration.

Can this work? Is it a viable alternative? What do you think? This is still legal right? I don't think we're breaking any laws.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Isometry]

What country is your fiancee from?

 

[zillcullen]

What country is your fiancee from?

She's an Indian citizen.

 

[lonely2011]

Getting visitor's visa is not that easy, most of us had a same idea and while it's not against the law not to tell them truth about your relationship it can potentially hunt you down the road
My husband (when he was a boyfriend)tried to obtain visitor visa and him not telling the truth about our relationship came up in my ADR conference
And if you tell the truth it will be very hard to get it

 

[mroliveland]

Visa denial before marriage MIGHT have BIGGER negative effect. Here what the officer might think:

This person wants to come to Canada. She applied for a visitor visa and got denied. The alternative is to get married from a Canadian citizen to bring her to Canada in Family Class sponsorship.

Visa denial after marriage has less negative effect. The reason for applying to the visa is justified. Its denial does not affect the sponsorship application but actually might indicate that the couple are trying to meet.

There are different opinions about this issue but this is what I concluded from reading many posts on this form and going over refusal reasons in the federal court hearings for sponsorship appeals.

 

[canadianwoman]

1- Have her apply for Canadian visit visa now before she's married. In the form where it asks for marital status she can say single (truth) and not have to misrepresent that.

Only do that if she has really good proof of ties to her country: bank account, vehicle ownership, property ownership or lease, a job, a letter from her boss giving her a short vacation, etc. Otherwise she will probably be refused, and having a refused TRV application in your past is a red flag for a spousal sponsorship. (Just one isn't too bad, but if you are not almost sure she will be accepted, why risk it?)
If it seems likely she will get a TRV, then the rest of your plan will work.

4- Once she's here we can do a civil ceremony for Canadian law and then apply for her immigration.

You don't need to marry in Canada too - your marriage in India should be valid in Canada as well.

 

[zillcullen]

...not telling the truth about our relationship came up in my ADR conference

I tried to PM you but I thinking newbies are not allowed that option yet?
Anyway what is an ADR conference?

Thanks.

 

[zillcullen]

Only do that if she has really good proof of ties to her country: bank account, vehicle ownership, property ownership or lease, a job, a letter from her boss giving her a short vacation, etc. Otherwise she will probably be refused, and having a refused TRV application in your past is a red flag for a spousal sponsorship. (Just one isn't too bad, but if you are not almost sure she will be accepted, why risk it?)

Ah okay.

You don't need to marry in Canada too - your marriage in India should be valid in Canada as well.

Most likely it will be in Singapore actually. Her family lives there.

Thanks.