Recieved PFL - Help!

[r88]

Hi, I received a PFL after 18 months for my PR application and multiple follow ups with the MP.

Story: We got married in a 3rd country as my TRV to Canada was rejected and my wife's current passport is from a country with very low, almost none, travel mobility and her multiple visas were rejected to my country of residence.

We applied for PR through a RCIS registered consultant and now we've received a PFL stating

The letter states

I have reviewed your application and all of the documents you submitted in support of it. It appears that you may not meet the requirements for immigration to Canada.

Specifically, I have the following concerns: Although your marriage may have been conducted according to the requirements of the <your faith>, it does not appear that your marriage has been legally registered with the civil authorities of <country we got married in>. I therefore have concerns that your marriage is not valid under the laws of <country we got married in>, and that you are not a member of the family class.

As I understand PFL is a serious matter, but what I don't know understand is.

1. Did the officer by chance miss our marriage certificate (They carry various stamps and Ministry of Foreign Affairs stamp too of the country which we got married) OR they RCIS agent failed to upload it?
2. Is the officer doubting the genuineness of the certificate?
3. Is this common?
4. Is this leading towards mispresentation territory? or just refusal?

All this is giving me serious anxiety.

I have been given 14 days to reply to this and right now I am speaking with multiple lawyers and in touch with the RCIS agent we applied through. Meanwhile any help or additional suggestions would be helpful.

 

[Naturgrl]

1. If you registered the marriage with the country you go married in then ask your agent if it was included or not.
2. No.
3. No.
4. Ban and refunsal.

You need to show that the marriage was registered with government.

 

[r88]

1. If you registered the marriage with the country you go married in then ask your agent if it was included or not.
2. No.
3. No.
4. Ban and refunsal.

You need to show that the marriage was registered with government.

And how can one do that? As there's a marriage certificate already.

 

[Naturgrl]

And how can one do that? As there's a marriage certificate already.

Where did you get married? So you got a marriage license and got married. After you that you registered the marriage with local authorities to prove you were married.

For example in Ontario, once you get a marriage license, get married and sign the license, you take the signed license into a Service Ontario office to register the marriage. Just having a signed license is not enough. Takes up to 8 weeks.

If you registered the marriage then ask your agent if it was included.

 

[armoured]

I have been given 14 days to reply to this and right now I am speaking with multiple lawyers and in touch with the RCIS agent we applied through. Meanwhile any help or additional suggestions would be helpful.

I don't have all that much different to add apart from the comments by @Naturgrl - since you've been and are dealing with a registered immigration consultant (this is what you mean by RCIS, yes?) and lawyers, they're your first line of help. Plus they know the details of your case, and no-one here can.

So some brief thoughts:
-it may be quite difficult for anyone here to offer more than generalities without knowing the countries involved (and possibly religion, since the reference to faith). Some countries have quite specific issues for marriage. If you don't wish to get into that here because of privacy reasons, that's ok - just keep in mind that limits what others can say.

-you should not be shy about re-submitting the same information - sometimes officers overlook things (or in more rare cases, think they know things that are incorrect - they are humans).

-it does seem that the concern raised is quite specifically about how and whether it was registered according to procedures: "it does not appear that your marriage has been legally registered with the civil authorities of <country we got married in>." [This is important in that it doesn't seem to be about marriage by proxy or other typical issues.]

-It will be hard (as I mentioned) for those without knowledge of the country etc to comment how best to counter this argument - in countries with a civil registry, an extract from the registry (which is basically what a marriage certificate is) would be the usual 'answer' to such a question.

-It would be - possibly - helpful for your Canadian counsel to respond with / add to your response a letter stating that the marriage is valid, as attested by (etc), with supporting materials about the legal framework, and - possibly - a short letter from [a lawyer or notary from the country?] that the documents meet the test of what is required for validity of a marriage.

 

[susharma]

Received a PFL on June 24 and submitted the LOE through webform on July 16 and received the acknowledgement.
Received another PFL (reminder) on Sep 5, stating that we have not received any documents from you and ask me to send the same on or before 05 Oct. and LOE submitted through webform and received the acknowledgement.received the acknowledgement.