low income husband,is it a problem?

[sunflowerhk]

My boyfriend and I met in Canada last year when I went there for holiday,I'm a journalist from Hong Kong and he is a general labour,we've been keeping our LDR for a year; After my long visiting this summer,we decided to get married when he comes to HK this fall,here are my questions:

-I heard it is not easy for a chinese woman to immigrate to canada due to a lot of false marriages,is it true?
-My boyfriend is on disability due to his injury,surgery will be performed next Feb,so bacisally in the last 4 months he has no income,but he will definitely get a job after recovery,should we start the sponsorship process until he is employed?
-The fact is,even he can find a job,he probably wont make enough to support me for 3 years(but I'm sure I can find a job in Vancouver as I speak 3 languages and there is a huge chinese community),so is it a problem?
-Is there anyone from Hong Kong has a Canadian spouse?
-He has a criminal record for the thieving 12 yrs ago(when he was 19),is he qualified to be my sponsor?

I'm kind of depressed and worried after reading some posts online,we are truly in love and he is a very good guy though he made some mistakes in the past,I really dont mind he is poor and willing to work if I have a chance to live with him in canada,but it seems the CIC doesn't believe in true love especially LDR between Asian and white guy,what can we do?Never get married?are we hopeless?

We probably cant afford to hire a lawyer or consultant to submit those forms for us,so we will do it ourselves,is it possible to do that on our own?We've been through a lot to be together,I just think it's unfair if the CIC not letting him be my sponsor becos he is not rich enough.

 

[bobshynoswife]

No, you aren't hopeless! It is quite common in Canada for white men to marry asian women. I'll try to answer your questions:

- Hong Kong is not an easy office. As long as your relationship is true and solid and you have evidence, you will be fine. you will need phone logs, emails, text message logs, skype logs, letters/postcards, etc. you will also need as many photographs as you can of the 2 of you together, and photos of you with his family and friends, if you've done that.
- being on disability is okay to sponsor!
- it's not a problem. you will work, he'll find a job, it'll be alright!
- re: criminal record. i am not 100% sure on this, but i think as long as the charge was not domestic abuse or sexual violence he is okay to sponsor.

Don't worry - your case is not really complicated, everyone has some issues. just make sure you spend some time now before your marriage looking through the application and guides and gathering evidence.

congratulations!

 

[sunflowerhk]

Hi bobshynoswife,

Thanks for reply.
Do I actually need to print all those emails out and show them?I thought they have some kind of technology to 'hack' in our accounts.
We are planning to get married in Hong Kong this fall,we dont prefer a big wedding ceremony or fancy wedding pictures(it costs a lot in HK),probably just simply get married at the city hall then dinner with my family,but then some ppl said it's a MUST to show those fancy wedding pics or hold a luxury wedding banquet to convince CIC our relationship is genuine,it sounds ironic to me,do we really need to do that kind of stuff to prove our realationship?ugh.

 

[bobshynoswife]

what we did was print a 'screen capture' of our inboxes showing all the incoming emails from our spouse, and then printed out one email for every week of our relationship. some were meaningful, some were love letters, most were boring to anyone but us. just everyday stuff.

we also had a small civil wedding. here's the important thing though...a small wedding is not customary in his culture, so we explained exactly WHY we chose to have a small wedding. his family was there, which is very important (at least some family should be there!) and then i send copies of cards and letters from my family and friends wishing us well on our wedding day, and also wishing they could be there.

so what you need to do is look at your relationship with a critical eye and think of all the possible 'red flags'. in my situation, i am divorced with children, we are different races, he has never visited canada, etc. then you must do your best to explain these red flags and have evidence to back up why it doesn't matter.

it's not too hard, just cover your bases. put in an awesome application and you'll be fine!

 

[sbwv09]

Hi sunflower! Stop stressing You will be fine!

Many of us have have city hall weddings. That is no big problem! The main thing is to prove that the relationship is true (the emails, letters, trips, photos, etc). As bob'swife said, some family should be a part of the wedding and/or the celebrations, but don't feel like you have to cough up 10,000 dollars for a big elaborate wedding. Just explain that you don't have the money for a big wedding but you love each other and wanted to be married, etc.

When they talk about supporting you for three years, they basically mean that you can't go on welfare. Welfare is not the same as disability, EI, etc.

 

[steaky]

Just to give you an example that one of the posters is Canadian with a Hong Kong spouse (read this older discussion for more info):

http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/-t46880.0.html

I don't think the criminal record 12 years ago would be a problem. From what I saw in this forum, it had been said that criminal records within 5 years will pose a problem for sponsorship.

 

[BeShoo]

-I heard it is not easy for a chinese woman to immigrate to canada due to a lot of false marriages,is it true?

It is true that there are a lot of false marriages from China, but this should not be a problem for you if your marriage is genuine. In most of the false marriages I've read about, the spouses know very little about each other. They don't know what kind of work each other do, names and ages of sisters and brothers, whether they've been married before, why a previous marriage ended, etc. Most of these false marriages are rather obvious. Make sure that you are involved in the details of each other's lives, as much as you can be at a distance. Make sure you have some evidence of frequent communication and try to find a way that's trackable (people have a lot of trouble with phone cards because there is often no way to show who was called using the card). Definitely get some pictures of the wedding, as much as you can. Also try to get some non-posed pictures of the two of you doing activities together during visits, and if you have pictures of each other interacting with friends and/or family, that's even better.

Don't worry about the income. As long as you have plans about how you will support yourselves once you get to Vancouver, you should be fine. His long-ago criminal record shouldn't be a problem unless it was a sex crime.

You don't need a lawyer to fill out paperwork for you, unless you have very poor English skills. Your English seems quite good, so I wouldn't even consider hiring someone. Getting someone to fill out forms for you sometimes results in inaccurate information. At least, that's what the people with fraudulent marriages often claim.

Don't be depressed and worried. You'll be fine.

 

[sunflowerhk]

Thanks you all,I feel a bit better,hope everything fine when it actually happens,I will keep you guys post when application is applied.Wish me luck~

 

[canadianwoman]

We are planning to get married in Hong Kong this fall,we dont prefer a big wedding ceremony or fancy wedding pictures(it costs a lot in HK),probably just simply get married at the city hall then dinner with my family,but then some ppl said it's a MUST to show those fancy wedding pics or hold a luxury wedding banquet to convince CIC our relationship is genuine,it sounds ironic to me,do we really need to do that kind of stuff to prove our realationship?ugh.

A small wedding is fine. But definitely get lots of photos of the occasion! Even if it is just at city hall, make it look special by getting dressed up and going to a good restaurant for the dinner. I was questioned why I was wearing casual clothes at my city hall wedding. I was asked, "Since it was your first wedding, why didn't you want to make it special?"

 

[BeShoo]

And whatever you do, don't invent guests who weren't really there or tell them you had more guests that you actually did. Yes, I've heard of people who actually did that. Try to get a picture or more than one picture that shows all of the guests who did attend, even if that is only a few.

 

[humtum143]

NO PRoblem as long as hes not on Welfare eating my Tax money and avoiding Unemployement hes fine..

 

[HoneyBird]

wth!^^^

 

[sbwv09]

What's with all the haters today?!

 

[angelbrat]

This is when I love the karma button......

Going back to the OP....gather everything and anything you have about your life together. Low income or disability will not cause a problem.

Just be honest in your application and all will be good.