Future wife sponsorship

[philmerritt]

Good day,

so I am looking to get married in the Philippines and then bring my wife to Canada. She has to finish work first for a couple months in a different country. What is the best application process to go through to bring her to Canada. I have been reading that an Outland visa is better, then after that apply for a visitor visa? Which can be expedited, or I read about dual intent when it comes to Visas or they might be able to issue a TRV (temporary residency visa) while the spousal visa is being processed. I would love for her to come here to Canada while this visa is being processed just for financial reason. Me being able to continue working but also I not not opposed to moving to the Philippines for a while while this is all happening. Anyone have any experience or advice about what visas to apply for? Where she is now will take 114 days to apply for a visitors visa. But we are going to be getting married in the Philippines. Thank you!!

 

[Kaibigan]

Good day,

so I am looking to get married in the Philippines and then bring my wife to Canada. She has to finish work first for a couple months in a different country. What is the best application process to go through to bring her to Canada. I have been reading that an Outland visa is better, then after that apply for a visitor visa? Which can be expedited, or I read about dual intent when it comes to Visas or they might be able to issue a TRV (temporary residency visa) while the spousal visa is being processed. I would love for her to come here to Canada while this visa is being processed just for financial reason. Me being able to continue working but also I not not opposed to moving to the Philippines for a while while this is all happening. Anyone have any experience or advice about what visas to apply for? Where she is now will take 114 days to apply for a visitors visa. But we are going to be getting married in the Philippines. Thank you!!

I am not sure that outland is "better". The inland route allows you to be together in Canada while the application is processed. But the majority do not have that ability, simply because the spouse being sponsored has no way of getting to Canada without a visa and they do not qualify for any category of visa. A fortunate few are able to come in under TRVs, but most TRV applications are denied. We tried 3 times for TRV for my Filipino wife (2 applications before marriage and one after) and were denied every time.

If you apply as outland, yes, you can apply for TRV and some time ago, under a previous Minister of Immigration, there was much hoo-ha about a wonderful new era of TRVs for all who were applying for PR status as spouses. The debate continues to this day on this forum as to whether there is, or ever was, much substance to the so-called "new policy". Some who have received TRVs in recent times, attribute their good fortune to the new policy. I suspect that, for the most part, things have not changed a lot. Those who would have received TRVs before will get them now. Those, like my wife, who would not qualify before, won't qualify today.

So, if your wife has all the attributes the IRCC looks for in the model TRV candidate, she'll get a TRV. Read here under the TRV section of the forum about what will be looked for. A few things include a ton of money in the bank (not artificially boosted by you in the 11th hour), owning a home, leaving kids behind, having a great job to which to return, having a strong history of travel to countries like U.S., U.K., Australia, N. Zealand, etc. The IRCC wants her to prove that she has absolutely no reason to overstay. They want to hear her say, and mean it: "Why on earth would I want to remain for any longer than I have to in a crappy country like Canada, when I have paradise waiting back home?"

When you say your wife "has to finish work first for a couple months in a different country", that leads me to suspect that she is an OFW. She perhaps works abroad as a high-paid executive for a major international company, but I am guessing something more along the lines of working as a domestic in the Middle East or Hong Kong. When she finishes her contract and comes home, she'll be unemployed. That won't help in getting a TRV. My wife worked in the Middle East and HK for about 10 years before we were married in 2022. Once we were married, I did not want her signing up for another 2 or 3 years abroad. And work abroad as a domestic (or much else) is not seen as a tie to home country. Rather, it shows mobility.

When do you plan to get married in the Phils? I trust you are familiar with the process.

Final thought: Forget saying anything to IRCC about "dual intent. Member @armoured recently commented on that matter, and with some wisdom I would say. Leave it, if at all, to immigration lawyers.

 

[Xilikon]

As Kaibigan said very well, basically forget about TRV when it comes to the Philippines. I didn't try with my wife because with the circumstances (very similar to yours, with my wife being a former OFW, having a daughter she refused to leave behind after she was left behind during her OFW times and being unemployed) and we went with the outland path. I married her as soon as the Philippines reopened after almost 2.5 years of no possibility to meet her.

The best plan is to first do the necessary to get married to her, then collect all the paperwork especially that marriage certificate from the PSA then start an outland process. You need to be patient and make sacrifices but you will get rewarded in the end.

Kaibigan's application reached PPR last October and ours just received a PPR letter last week (ours is longer because we stayed in Quebec where there is a political battle about immigration caps and arm wrestling about immigration powers).

 

[Kaibigan]

... not opposed to moving to the Philippines for a while while this is all happening.

If you have that ability - to spend time there - it also helps to ease the pain of waiting for outland processing.

Like @Xilikon, due to Covid, I too was locked out of the Phils for 2+ years after leaving my wife (then gf) in the Phils at the end of 2019. Same as him, got married soon after returning on Feb. 18/2022 (8 days after the country reopened). I was there for 4 months that time and returned for about another 4 months starting in November 2022. My wife got her visa in October 2023 and I went back on about Nov. 18 and brought her to Canada one month later. I was fortunate to be able to take some long stays there during the process. Some people who are working and get only 2-3 weeks vacation annually do not have the luxury of being able to take extended stays in the Phils during the whole marriage/PR application process.