proving authenticity of marital relationship (IMM 5490)

[hopefulpoet]

I am a Canadian citizen (by birth), but up until last October, I spent the past 15 years living in the USA (I have dual citizenship). I met an American and we got married more than 7 years ago. We also had a baby together almost 2 years ago. Since October, we have all been living in Canada--our goal is to settle down here and live close to my family. I already have a full-time job, but obviously my husband can't work.

We are in the midst of completing our application for PR for my husband. We're trying to work on the IMM 5490 form now, and my biggest question is how many supporting documents must we include? Our relationship is very genuine. We met while we were both living in a small town where we both also had a lot of family. We don't even remember the day we first met--it was such a gradual thing. We never went on big dates--we always kept things low-key and got to know each other just by hanging out at each other's houses and with our families. In other words, we don't have any receipts or proof that we just hung out while dating. Since we've been married, we've barely ever been apart from each other, so there has never been any need to have phone calls or travel to see each other. And regardless of that, I would not have kept receipts or records going back that many years.

We're applying outland, in case my husband ever needs to go back to the US for a family emergency or something. I don't know what else to include besides a lot of pictures of us together throughout our dating years, professional photos of our wedding, and maybe other documents from our wedding like the invitations and ceremony program? Beyond that, I'm at a loss as to what to include? I can include a photo of our daughter being born--she was born at home and we have photos of the three of us right after she was born--doesn't get much more "genuine" than that! :

 

[QuebecOkie]

All I sent was 8 photos of us together, including three that showed us during our travels together, and the three flight itineraries from those trips. I just pasted digital photos into a Word document, then typed up a short description of each photo. At the end of that document, I also typed a statement saying that if CIC wants to see evidence of the genuineness of our relationship, they need look no further than our current circumstance. I left a full and happy life, close to my family and many friends, to travel to a small, almost totally French region of Québec where I would have to struggle to learn the language. Love was the ONLY reason to come here, as it was certainly no improvement of my life. My husband (sponsor) didn't write anything at all, as I put together the whole package and just had him sign on the correct lines (he hates hates HATES administration and paperwork and all things related to it).

And that is IT. Nothing about our joint bank account, or him paying off my student loans, or our auto insurance policy, or me as the beneficiary on his life insurance, or any of the other things I could've/should've included. I stressed for a long time that I didn't send enough, reading on this forum about how very, very much many people included. However, it doesn't seem Americans are closely scrutinized unless they have a lot of red flags (super-short courtship, huge age difference, etc), which we didn't. I got my PR with no further questions asked.f

I share my experience to say, for a couple married 7 years, with a two-year-old child, do NOT stress about gathering 10 kilos of evidence. Include a selection of photos showing you at different points in the relationship (50 photos from the wedding are not needed, pick two or three that show you together and with some family, and that's enough, another 47 photos from the same day add nothing). Include some other documentation that shows your lives are combined (joint bank account, insurance, etc), but letters from your family and friends is really not necessary.

There are lot of visa offices out there that are MUCH more demanding than Ottawa is for US citizens, so there will be a lot of advice to gather tons and tons of evidence, but as long as you demonstrate the normal ties a married couple has, that's going to be sufficient in your case. 8 photos and three travel itineraries got me through, and we'd only been together about two years, married for 5 months at the time we submitted our application. DO send stronger evidence than I did, if only to avoid stressing out completely during the long wait (relatively short for US outland applicants, but still feels long while you're living it), but don't freak out and think you need to get everyone you know to write letters for you.

Good luck with the process!

 

[truesmile]

I share my experience to say, for a couple married 7 years, with a two-year-old child, do NOT stress about gathering 10 kilos of evidence.

Agree 100%. For that reason alone, I'm GLAD we didn't find this forum before we submitted our application. Ours was more like a "letter" rather than a "box", and even we were applying to a 'non-visa exempt' VO.