Some advice regarding refugee spousal sponsorship

[rebadomine]

Hi everyone! I'm new to this board so I certainly hope I'm doing this right...

I'm a Canadian citizen from birth and my husband is from Mexico. We have been together for about 9 months and married for about 4. When I met my husband, he was a refugee claimaint and everything was fine. We dated and eventually became very serious shortly afterward.
In November, my husband's case was deemed abandoned because he failed to show up at his hearing. The thing is my husband never received the letter regarding anything about a hearing. It ends up the Canadian government made a mistake with his postal code (my husband never failed to receive mail from them before) but regardless, my husband was given the PRRA and told that it was his last option. I married him shortly afterwards because I wanted all the possibilities for him to stay here with me. My husband never had immigration problems prior to this and was always nothing but respectful and cooperative of the Canadian Immigration service.
He never forced me to do anything. I made sure I chose for myself always.
We filled out the PRRA but it was rejected on January 12th. He was issued a departure order. He bought his own plane ticket out and left before February 28th (which was the last day he was allowed to stay).

I have since gathered all the paperwork and filled out everything. I felt like I had enough proof although I admit we're not really people that like to take a lot of pictures of ourselves so there are probably less photos than we should have. However, I have emails, photos, Facebook messages/comments, text records and I'm planning a visit to Mexico in the summer for about 2 weeks.

The problem begins here...I have contacted several immigration consultants about the case and I have gotten nothing but mixed reviews. Two people I have spoken with told me my situation is extremely dire and that there's more of a chance of being denied than anything and I should just pray for a miracle. I've had other people tell me the case is not too difficult and it shouldn't be a problem to do since they're dealt with similar situations. I tried to reassure myself that some people are being a little bit conservative but I'm downright terrified now.

The thought of this is keeping me up at night. I can't stop crying from since he left and I cannot do anything to concentrate on my school work. I just really have no idea what to do. I just want him back with me as soon as possible and the idea that he won't is killing me.

My question is....do you think my situation really all that dire? Should I still hire an immigration consultant or are they telling me these things to get their service?

 

[canadianwoman]

I married him shortly afterwards because I wanted all the possibilities for him to stay here with me.

This is the problem. With his timeline, this is what the visa officer will suspect in any case. So don't admit this in any way. You will need a lot of evidence that your relationship is genuine, including from before the marriage. Go visit as often as you can and for as long as you can.
However, your case isn't hopeless. Are you two well-matched in other ways - age, religion, background, etc.?

 

[rebadomine]

Thank you for the reply!
That's the problem. We are not really people that take a lot of pictures of ourselves. We usually just spent time doing a lot of free fun activities and don't really feel the need to document everything about our day. I'm so afraid that's going to screw us over in the case.
I'm definitely going to keep visiting him as much as I can but I'm still afraid this won't be enough.

And to answer your question...Yes, absolutely. We are both Catholic and our ages are 20 and 23 (mine and his, respectively). Our background is a little bit different in the fact that I'm of Italian background and have travelled around the world my whole life. He has spent most of his life alternating between Spain and Mexico until finally settling in Mexico when he was 13. We have very similar interests and spent a LOT of time with one another.

 

[canadianwoman]

Do you have other evidence than photos of your time together? Memberships in the same gym or social group, for example? You can also get letters and affidavits from family and friends stating they believe your relationship is genuine because of ...
Because you two have similar backgrounds, I would expect fewer problems with the visa officer.
The evidence you have sounds good. Document your trips to see him (stamp in passport, e-ticket, boarding passes, hotel receipts if any, etc.) and take photos with his family and friends.