Inviting my wife to visit canada

[Suin]

Interesting that you got a visitor's visa, BCKev. I was told by several imigration experts that the chances are close to NIL, and this pessimism is seconded by several posters here.

It seems to me that visa officers have a LOT of personal leeway when assessing an application. Rjessome (sp?) stated a few weeks ago that visa officers must apply the law in assessing applications. But I am not so optimistic. It seems to me that a lot depends on which visa officer you get on your file.

Before we were married, my then-girlfriend applied for a student visa to study English in Canada for 6 months. Her class and accomodation expenses were paid in advance, she had a letter of invitation from me, and a letter from an employer offering her a job when she returned to China. Her application was denied for lack of evidence she would return to China.

About the only other tie to China I can conceive of would be to own a house, and even there a few experts on this forum (PMM and Immigrationexpert) have said that this tie would not be critical. So, what more could my now-wife have offered? Nothing that I can think of.

actually having home and work in the home country doesn't guarantee visa at all. they are too picky with everything.

I was eventually granted visitor's visa to Canada, there was a strong personal reason in my husband's life that they couldn't refuse and that only thing helped me to obtain visa.

 

[toby]

So ... what's the conclusion to be drawn from all this conflicting experience? That it's a crap shoot to get a TRV while applying for permanent residence -- or you have a dire need. Why did one person get a TRV and Suin have so much trouble? Perhaps just the subjectiveness of the Visa Officer. There must be a better way.

 

[Suin]

as I have learnt it mostly depends on visa office and the country it's located in.

 

[toby]

Hi Suin:

Did you learn which visa offices are sticky by reading a lot of these posts, or is there a website I can consult?

What about Hong Kong and Beijing? What are their reputations?

 

[bongd]

Hi, my husband is a Canadian PR and we're in the midst of applying for my PR. I'm an Indonesian living in Australia on student visa and the visa office that handled the processing was the one in Sydney, Australia. I got my TRV on on the first try, even though I didn't really expect to.

Here's what I sent:
-a letter of invitation from my husband
-a copy of bank statement (6 months) with a balance of about AUD$5,000 (also shows regular rent payments)
-a copy of student ID valid until Dec 2012
-a copy of academic transcript
-a Sydney-Jakarta flight ticket that I will use right after coming back from Canada
-a letter to let them know I'm just visiting for Christmas and will come back to Sydney to catch my flight to Jakarta

I have no idea why they gave me a TRV when it seems almost impossible for many people to get one. It might have to do with the fact that Australians don't need TRV to get into Canada, so the officers here are not as jaded? LOL depends a lot on luck too I guess. I've read some people say that it's easier to get TRV if you've gotten the sponsorship approval, but I don't know if this is true, maybe the more senior members can confirm this.

voyager, your case might be a little difficult if you don't have any documents to show that she's going to go back to India. Can you think of anything at all you can show them? It might be an obstacle but it's not a bad idea. It's always better to try because who knows, you might get it. And if you're refused, it won't affect her PR application so give it a shot.

 

[Suin]

Hi Suin:

Did you learn which visa offices are sticky by reading a lot of these posts, or is there a website I can consult?

What about Hong Kong and Beijing? What are their reputations?

I learnt that it's mostly difficult to deal with Asian offices, African, Indian, former USSR... Sometimes they are just ridiculously strict.

 

[job_seeker]

I learnt that it's mostly difficult to deal with Asian offices, African, Indian, former USSR... Sometimes they are just ridiculously strict.

Note that these regions you mentioned are regions where life is difficult, jobs are scarce and human lives are not sacred. Citizens from these regions would always be in search of a "better, greener pasture" that is why some leave their countries and enter America or Canada or Europe and find ways to stay, sometimes illegally. The burden of proof always lies on the applicant, the burden that his/her request for a visit visa is just that, a visit, temporary and he/she will leave the country after the visit is over. And so could you now blame these officers why they sometimes turn down "honest" visitor visa applications because some had used the visitor visa to actually remain in Canada?

 

[toby]

Job Seeker:

I believe you are right, that visa officers are especially vigilant about Asian applicants. But the world is changing fast. I don't see extreme poverty except in the rural areas and mainly with older Chinese citizens. In the cities, I see a mobile, fairly affluent population with -- according to my wife and her frineds -- no burning desire to leave China.

But old reputations are slow to die.

 

[Suin]

I learnt that it's mostly difficult to deal with Asian offices, African, Indian, former USSR... Sometimes they are just ridiculously strict.

Note that these regions you mentioned are regions where life is difficult, jobs are scarce and human lives are not sacred. Citizens from these regions would always be in search of a "better, greener pasture" that is why some leave their countries and enter America or Canada or Europe and find ways to stay, sometimes illegally. The burden of proof always lies on the applicant, the burden that his/her request for a visit visa is just that, a visit, temporary and he/she will leave the country after the visit is over. And so could you now blame these officers why they sometimes turn down "honest" visitor visa applications because some had used the visitor visa to actually remain in Canada?

my opinion - the visa officer needs to consider and be able to differentiate a possible illegal person from the visitor who just wants to visit and has lots of proof and ties to his/her country.
why it's much easier to get visa to Europe and even to the US than to Canada?