Last Minute Jitters (US citizen married to Canadian Citizen)

[ovasquez1]

It seems like every time we are about to mail our application, we review it (thoroughly) and find something wrong with it. Then we go back and re-edit it. :'( I hope we send it today.. or tomorrow ;D ...but we have some last minute concerns...

- Some forms grey out the areas that don't apply to you....should I write in pen NA? ...just so they know for certain it does not apply to us...

- There are some forms (like IMM5409 and IMM5470) that do ..not apply to us...should we print them out and write a big NA?...we didn't print them..instead we just wrote NA on the checklist...

-We validated the forms, last week, should we re-validate them????

-re-thinking some of my answers
- when they ask about gifts, well my husband and I have given a lot of gifts to each other from shoes to jogging pants, shirts, flowers, candy..ect...but we have no receipts or proof..so we didn't mention all of them, only the ones we had proof for...
- we are not financially supporting one another, but we do have joint bank accounts where we save money together for when we are together...I didn't explain this in the application but I provided it in the evidence...should i explain it?

 

[QuebecOkie]

The grayed out areas are fine as they are. Not *sure* about the forms that don't apply to you. If it were me, I'd probably include each form on the checklist and just write "n/a". (Unless the language on the checklist has an "if," like "form IMMblahblah if you have any dependants." I can't remember the checklist or language very well.)

Validation should be fine, as long as you haven't changed anything on the forms.

The proof of relationship stuff kind of depends on your relationship. Are you in a relatively young relationship (1 or 2 years)? Did you spend a lot of time together before getting married? Was the relationship long-distance for much of it's duration? Do you have any kids together?

The younger your relationship is, the more time you've spent apart, the fewer obvious ties you have together (ties of all kinds: children, financial entanglements, being shown as the beneficiary on each other's insurance plans, shared bills, photos and records of travel together, families well aware of/involved in your lives, etc.), the more room you leave for doubt in the mind of the CIC officer handling your file.

We didn't include anything about gifts (really, I think long-distance couples are more likely to send gifts like that...I mean, we have gifted each other things, but who keeps receipts or can list a bunch of specifics?), and we were pretty "normal" (American and Canadian, met because he lived in my state for years for work, dated for about a year and a half before getting married, lived together before getting married, we had met each others' families, had travel itineraries for trips we'd taken together, etc.).

As long as you provided adequate evidence (would you expect someone to read over what you've included and envision a real and committed couple? or is there room for doubt?), you should be fine.

 

[ovasquez1]

The grayed out areas are fine as they are. Not *sure* about the forms that don't apply to you. If it were me, I'd probably include each form on the checklist and just write "n/a". (Unless the language on the checklist has an "if," like "form IMMblahblah if you have any dependants." I can't remember the checklist or language very well.)

Validation should be fine, as long as you haven't changed anything on the forms.

The proof of relationship stuff kind of depends on your relationship. Are you in a relatively young relationship (1 or 2 years)? Did you spend a lot of time together before getting married? Was the relationship long-distance for much of it's duration? Do you have any kids together?

The younger your relationship is, the more time you've spent apart, the fewer obvious ties you have together (ties of all kinds: children, financial entanglements, being shown as the beneficiary on each other's insurance plans, shared bills, photos and records of travel together, families well aware of/involved in your lives, etc.), the more room you leave for doubt in the mind of the CIC officer handling your file.

We didn't include anything about gifts (really, I think long-distance couples are more likely to send gifts like that...I mean, we have gifted each other things, but who keeps receipts or can list a bunch of specifics?), and we were pretty "normal" (American and Canadian, met because he lived in my state for years for work, dated for about a year and a half before getting married, lived together before getting married, we had met each others' families, had travel itineraries for trips we'd taken together, etc.).

As long as you provided adequate evidence (would you expect someone to read over what you've included and envision a real and committed couple? or is there room for doubt?), you should be fine.

Thanks for replying...I'll take all that into consideration...I think I'm just a bit nervous...

 

[Rob_TO]

- Some forms grey out the areas that don't apply to you....should I write in pen NA? ...just so they know for certain it does not apply to us...

If the form has already greyed out an area, then no need to also write N/A. Just leave as greyed out.

- There are some forms (like IMM5409 and IMM5470) that do ..not apply to us...should we print them out and write a big NA?...we didn't print them..instead we just wrote NA on the checklist...

Writing N/A on checklist is fine. No need to print out blank forms and include them.

-We validated the forms, last week, should we re-validate them????

Only if you change any info, then you should re-validate.

-re-thinking some of my answers
- when they ask about gifts, well my husband and I have given a lot of gifts to each other from shoes to jogging pants, shirts, flowers, candy..ect...but we have no receipts or proof..so we didn't mention all of them, only the ones we had proof for...
- we are not financially supporting one another, but we do have joint bank accounts where we save money together for when we are together...I didn't explain this in the application but I provided it in the evidence...should i explain it?

If you included it in the proofs section, that is probably good enough. You don't need to indicate EVERY single present you gave/received.

 

[ovasquez1]

If the form has already greyed out an area, then no need to also write N/A. Just leave as greyed out.

Writing N/A on checklist is fine. No need to print out blank forms and include them.

Only if you change any info, then you should re-validate.

If you included it in the proofs section, that is probably good enough. You don't need to indicate EVERY single present you gave/received.

Thanks sooo much for the info...i don't think we changed anything but I will re-validate for my own peace of mind...yeah..we only talked about the gifts that we could prove..I never keep receipts unless I think they are important...it never occurred to me to keep receipts of those you know...

 

[Gumper]

We didn't include anything about gifts (really, I think long-distance couples are more likely to send gifts like that...I mean, we have gifted each other things, but who keeps receipts or can list a bunch of specifics?), and we were pretty "normal" (American and Canadian, met because he lived in my state for years for work, dated for about a year and a half before getting married, lived together before getting married, we had met each others' families, had travel itineraries for trips we'd taken together, etc.).

Indeed, the 'gifts' question is more of a cultural nuance query/verification by CIC, as it was explained to me by the very helpful woman at a Rexdale women's centre who has helped 100's of people over the years with their applications. This mostly concerns people from southeast Asian countries, so yeah not relevant to a CAN-US scenario.

 

[keesio]

Indeed, the 'gifts' question is more of a cultural nuance query/verification by CIC, as it was explained to me by the very helpful woman at a Rexdale women's centre who has helped 100's of people over the years with their applications. This mostly concerns people from southeast Asian countries, so yeah not relevant to a CAN-US scenario.

exactly. In some cultures, gifts are exchanged as that is the cultural norm and not doing it will raise suspicion. But this does not apply to someone from the US.