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Further insight into a Visa Officer's way of thinking

toby

Champion Member
Sep 29, 2009
1,671
104
Category........
Visa Office......
Hong Kong
Job Offer........
Pre-Assessed..
App. Filed.......
November 2009
Med's Done....
October 2009 and 15 April 2011
Interview........
4 April 2011
Passport Req..
4 April 2011
VISA ISSUED...
7 July 2011
LANDED..........
15 July 2011
Recently my wife was denied a TRV to visit my family in Canada -- for the most common reason: insufficient ties to her home country to convince the VO that she would return by the end of the visa period.

I got the CAIPS notes to get a better understanding of the VO's reasoning. Here are the factors the VO stated in his rationale:

She is unemployed.
(I had asked her to quit her job to allow us to travel; clearly we could not travel for 3 months if she were employed. I guess standard 3-week TRVs are safer to give out; anything different is worrisome for a VO to award).

There was no other evidence of our marriage relationship besides the marriage certificate.
(This is a ridiculous argument! The guide to the TRV application asks for a marriage certificate and nothing more. And what better proof of marriage can there be but a certified marriage certificate? To later suggest that she might have given more evidence (which the VO did not trouble himself to specify) is unreasonable, and indicates a prior intent to refuse the application, and then hunt around for any pretext to justify the refusal.)

The VO says he considered Dual Intent, then dismisses it without further ado, saying he doesn't think my wife would exit Canada if her permanent residency visa were denied. In other words, he ends up back at his starting point, a suspicion that she would not return to her home country. This is circular (faulty) logic, and it makes a mockery of the concept of Dual Intent. This circular logic even dismisses the very evidence the TRV Guide ask for -- a certified certificate of marriage. It shows a VO determined to refuse an application by fair means of foul.

This is one of the least attractive aspects of Canada: the unrestricted power these bureaucrats have over our lives.
 

steaky

VIP Member
Nov 11, 2008
14,366
1,647
Job Offer........
Pre-Assessed..
toby said:
She is unemployed.
(I had asked her to quit her job to allow us to travel; clearly we could not travel for 3 months if she were employed. I guess standard 3-week TRVs are safer to give out; anything different is worrisome for a VO to award).
i don't agree. i know a lady who works in shanghai and kept her job while she went to canada for about six months. she's on maternity leave.
 

tthordarson

Newbie
Jun 23, 2010
6
1
I'm very sorry about your experience. I know how this feels, having a wife rejected visa in the UK before by the immigration officer who clearly just wants to reject the application when all the proofs are already provided.

Which visa office did you have this experience at?
 

toby

Champion Member
Sep 29, 2009
1,671
104
Category........
Visa Office......
Hong Kong
Job Offer........
Pre-Assessed..
App. Filed.......
November 2009
Med's Done....
October 2009 and 15 April 2011
Interview........
4 April 2011
Passport Req..
4 April 2011
VISA ISSUED...
7 July 2011
LANDED..........
15 July 2011
Beijing.

I had an email conversation with the head of the consular section once, who owed me a favour to help compensate me for an error of his that cost me a lot of money (long story for another day). He passed a question of mine to his colleagues in the Visa Section about about a TRV. They knew nothing about my wife's circumstances at the time, yet commented to the effect that she would have difficulty getting a TRV. It seems they take pride in rejecting applications.
 

slam324

Member
Jul 2, 2010
11
0
steaky said:
i don't agree. i know a lady who works in shanghai and kept her job while she went to canada for about six months. she's on maternity leave.
so interesting, how come her company allow a six months away from her job? never heard any company allowed six months holiday. Usually 1 month is the maximum.
 

lynw

Hero Member
Jul 1, 2010
280
18
Vancouver
Category........
Visa Office......
Sydney, Australia
Job Offer........
Pre-Assessed..
App. Filed.......
23-06-2010
AOR Received.
29-07-2010
File Transfer...
29-07-2010
Med's Done....
17-05-2010
Passport Req..
25-08-2010
VISA ISSUED...
20-09-2010
LANDED..........
23-09-2010
It's not that unusual to be able to take a sabbatical from work - plenty of people do, sometimes for a year. A very healthy system IMO :)