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mimi263

Star Member
Aug 13, 2012
90
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Hi I posted a question before re: fiancé denied refugee claim, we were originally planned to married Sept 22 now moved to end of next month we were advised to do a small ceremony before so we can get things started on his sponsorship. Now that we're married I've printed off the many pages and seeking assistance in sorting through them.

Should we seek legal counsel to fill out the form or is it possible to do it ourselves. Is there a greater advantage to having a lawyer? Our finances are tied up with the wedding so it's pretty tight to spend on a lawyer. Also any idea of cost of a lawyer?

Thanks so much!
 
In the end, regardless of whether you use a lawyer or do it yourself, you will be doing the bulk of the work. Thus, I would suggest you start off doing that work and decide as you go through it if you think you would rather use an attorney. What you might want to do to limit the costs involved is simply engage an attorney to REVIEW your work, but not to represent you. That will likely cost you quite a bit less.

So start working through the application. Here's my insight: you have a failed refugee claim. The VO is going to be VERY suspicious. You need to prove the relationship is genuine. You have to tell a story - a very compelling story. One that begins before your partner's failed refugee claim ideally. Everything you can - cards, letters, travel together, whatever you can find. Most people can get away with a modest amount of material - yours needs to be very compelling. When YOU look at it you have to say "wow, this really is a genuine relationship" because that's what it will take to convince the VO.

The rest of the application is just paperwork. For you, the relationship story has to be as compelling as you can make it.

Good luck!
 
Thank you :)... Yes I understand that, we were engaged in June and he received the results in August we already had a date set and planned before his results came back. My husband is the failed refugee, I'm the sponsor. My added concern also is that our relationship developed by societies standard as "fast" we met in March of this year, engaged in June and married in September. I know the VO may question how quickly things developed, we do have lots of texts, emails, phone logs and pictures to show the genuiness of our relationship. Is there anything else we should include to strenghten our application?
 
mimi263 said:
Thank you :)... Yes I understand that, we were engaged in June and he received the results in August we already had a date set and planned before his results came back. My husband is the failed refugee, I'm the sponsor. My added concern also is that our relationship developed by societies standard as "fast" we met in March of this year, engaged in June and married in September. I know the VO may question how quickly things developed, we do have lots of texts, emails, phone logs and pictures to show the genuiness of our relationship. Is there anything else we should include to strenghten our application?

- you could include testimonials from friends and family of both sides saying that your relationship is genuine.

- if u have traveled anywhere together and have receipts/ tickets in both of your names.

- any thank you cards or party invitations or anything with both your names is good.

Try and think of everything u possibly can add because, like Computergeek said, the visa officer will be suspicious with the fast marriage and marriage happening after the failed refugee, so u really have to prove a lot.
 
my husband was a failed refugee and we sent our application in january. we are on the final step now, if you want information on all the documents and evidence we sent. send me a personal message and i will let you know
:)
 
LeisaP said:
my husband was a failed refugee and we sent our application in january. we are on the final step now, if you want information on all the documents and evidence we sent. send me a personal message and i will let you know
:)


Hi,
its nice to hear you guys at the final stage! i'm also a failed refugee, my wife is sponsoring me. we applied our application in late Aug,2011 they asked additional info about work history and address around jan, around the same time got request for a set of fingerprints/police clearance,
in july, 21, 2012 got the AIP and in the same letter request for a photocopy of passport/travel document, unfortunately it took me some time to get the travel document from embassy (sent a copy on aug, 27) because originally I wanted to get a passport instead of a travel document from embassy but they said since they are developing "new type of passport" it take more than 3 months to get.

the weird thing is in my ecase it doesn't say they have received my photocopy. I even called the call center said basically what was on my ecase which isn't showing anything regarding receiving it. I just hope they don't delay the second stage way too long because of the refugee thing. the other thing I was wondering about was if a travel document is ok in the event of PR interview since the travel document is a one way and only 6 months valid.
have you guys got the stage 2?

thanks,