Costa-rican Fiance

[garytheoiler]

jus curious and have some questions for whoever wants to answer me... So I plan to get married to my girlfriend which lives in CostaRica in july or august, jus wondering if someone can give me some tips on this application... would it be smart to get a representative? or is it just a waste of money and i can do it on my own? Does it matter what my future wife's finance is like? or property owned? Is there anything I should do before I get married in CR regarding sponsorship? If anyone knows, approx. how long it would take to get her PR visa? Thats about it right now, i am so scared for the near future, I really hope everything goes well.

thanks!

Gary

 

[toby]

Save everything that shows you have a real relationship. Many of us realized only part-way through our relationship that we were going to apply for residence in Canada. By that time we had thrown out hotel receipts, boarding passes, had not taken photos of us together (with the date showing on the photo), and other useful evidence that we had been seeing eachother and communbicating frequently -- as lovers do. FInd out how to copy SKYPE conversations, MSN or Yahoo chats, and definitely save your emails in original form (i.e. with headers showing).

Your Costa Rican marriage certificate will have to be translated into English -- use an official government-approved translator in Costa Rica (cheaper than in Canada). You can find them on the Internet; Costa Rica publishes a list.

A final thing you can do to prepare: learn to chant "Ooooommm!!!" because you'll need lots of patience.

Good luck.









etc etc.

So, make a record of your relationship to show it is genuine, not something faked just to get a visa.

 

[Karlshammar]

Finances are completely irrelevant for spousal sponsorship. The only thing that matters is that you, the sponsor, is not on welfare or in the middle of bankruptcy.

 

[garytheoiler]

to toby: luckly i have lots of stuff saved like convos and emails since we met, have lots of pictures too from last summer... but there r no dates on it... :-X what about that medical clearance thing, can that be done before we get married or after? couse i would think that would take a bit of time?

 

[ohman4966]

Get the medicals done as close to the date you are applying because they are only good for a year, since you are waiting till summer to get married do it closer to that time.

 

[Karlshammar]

Ohman's advice for this is good. I would recommend that you make an appointment now (to make sure you don't have to wait in case the doctor gets busy later) for around the time when you are planning to apply after your marriage.

to toby: luckly i have lots of stuff saved like convos and emails since we met, have lots of pictures too from last summer... but there r no dates on it... :-X what about that medical clearance thing, can that be done before we get married or after? couse i would think that would take a bit of time?

 

[wasted_year]

and forget about getting a lawyer, waste of space and time. anything you need answering you can find on this forum. it does help to be organized and thorough with your application. take the extra time to make sure everything is correct because if you are missing anything in the application the back and forth with CIC takes a long time.

 

[ariell]

If you have a straightforward case and you're willing to put in the time, there's no reason why you can't do the application yourself instead of hiring a lawyer or consultant. Most of us did our own applications and were successful.

All the guidebooks and forms that you will need to complete can be found here: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/applications/fc.asp Make sure you read through the guidebooks very carefully to make sure you understand what is required and ask if you have any questions. You'll need to complete the sponsor forms, the applicant forms and follow the country specific instructions for Latin America.

Guatemala City is the visa office that handles PR applications from Costa Rica. Unfortunately, they have quite a lengthy wait time. I really hate to tell you this but....currently, the average processing time in Guatemala City is 8-21 months. You can try to make sure that your application isn't in process forever by making sure to submit everything that's requested, to sign everything and of course make sure to answer the questions thoroughly and submit lots of proof of your relationship. When they have questions about the genuineness of your relationship, they will call you in for an interview which will add to your processing time (I'm guessing some of those who took 21 months are cases where an interview was required). So you should provide as much evidence as you can so that the officer has no doubts about the genuineness of your relationship.

If you are a Canadian citizen, you can live outside of Canada while your application is in process. So you could live in Costa Rica with your soon to be wife while your application is in process if you're a citizen, but you would need to submit evidence of your intent to re-establish yourself in Canada once her PR is approved, such as details of where you'll live, evidence of a job search/job offer etc. They give some other examples in the guidebooks.

Good luck.

 

[garytheoiler]

man... 8-21 months... that is so depressing

 

[ariell]

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news!

But just remember that the ones that did take 21 months probably had documents missing or had an interview, so that could be why their cases took longer. So if you get in a smoking application (and of course you're not going to forget anything!) with lots of evidence then you could be done in 8 months which is really not so bad. That's pretty average for most visa offices.

You can view actual timelines of individual cases processed through G. City here: http://www.trackitt.com/canada-immigration-trackers/family-class I see a couple people were done in 8 months. Maybe you could try contacting them to see if they have any tips! Good luck. Don't worry, it will all work out.

 

[toby]

1) Dating digital photos where the date does not show on the face of the photo.

If you have them on computer, you open the photo, look in Properties, and there you can see the date taken. Has anyone experience printing this out on paper?

In my case, for those photos taken with others' cameras, I wrote the date taken on the photo print, and offered to send the digital photo to the Visa Officer so he could verify the date taken. Even if he or she does not take me up on the offer, I figure that simply offering back-up evidence wil giev credibility to my hand-written dates.

2) I agree with the others: get the medicals as you submit the application. Same with the police report. Both should be as recent as you can manage.

I agree with Wasted Year; don't hire a consultant unless you re4ally feel lost in the process. I lost at least a month in discussion with mine about what should be included in the application, how to express it, whether to put my address in English only or in Chinese too, etc etc -- until I caught him in several serious errors, and had to cut him loose.

This forum is an excellent source of information, and successful experience. ANd it's worth readig the full manual, not just the guide, available on the CIC website.

 

[garytheoiler]

have another question... since i gotta send as much info to prove that the relationship is genuine (boarding passes, pictures etc.) I was looking at my boarding passes form jul 09, and noticed that it doesn't show the year i left to go to costarica, it jus says JUL 11 no year....

 

[The Littlest Hobo]

it doesn't show the year i left to go to costarica, it jus says JUL 11 no year....

Copies of the page with the passport stamp, credit card records of the ticket purchase, email itineraries from the airline, receipts or credit card entries showing purchases in CR during that visit, etc... If you have some stuff like that which is hard proof of the date, plus photos together from different places and surroundings and with different people and in different clothes, hair, in different seasons, etc that shows you've known each other over time that should help. Also I read on this forum that some people get their friends or family to write a letter, can even write it as an affidavit and sign in front of a notary public (legally swearing it's true) stating that they know you've been in a genuine relationship with her since whatever date, and adding contact info and even a copy of the friend's ID, so that if CIC wanted, they could follow up with that person and verify. We didn't think to do that but it seems like a good idea to me!

I don't think that dated photos prove anything unless it's theold style film cameras, but even that you set yourself so... anyone can alter the date. I wouldn't worry about that.

If you write the whole timeline out with lots of detail, and it makes sense and you are consistent if asked about in an interview, and your friends/family confirm it, and there is lots of other data like email and skype records and receipts and passport stamps and things to support that, then they can probably tell you are not lying about the dates.

Cheers,
TLH

 

[garytheoiler]

thank you all for all this info really helpin me out, maybe im posting to early on these forums lol it is only december and i plan for marriage in jul or aug 2010. Also wanted to ask... I don't see anywhere that I (Canadian citizen, the sponsor) have to get medical clearance? or am I just being blind and lazy lol. Also wanted to know for those who have gone through the medicals, how long it took and do they give the examination results the same day? Thanks again!

Gary

 

[toby]

Only the applicant needs a medical. You -- the sponsor and Canadia citizen -- donl;t need permission to go to Canada.

My wife was in and out of the examining room in 15 minutes. The results are sent to a central data base somewhere, not given to you, but the doctor did tell her immediately that there was no problem.

Note that you must go to an approved doctor -- listed in the CIC website.