Sponsoring Cuban spouse; face-to-face time concern?

[ALazi]

Hello everyone, I am getting married to my Cuban fiance in the summer this year and then start the process for him to come here in Canada with me.
I know there are a lot of 'reasons' for which people can get denied but I was wondering if not enough face to face time could be one of them.. Long story short I met him while I was a student there for 2 months and I'm just going there 5 months later to get married. Of course I would love to go back meanwhile but the budget is tight. Would that be a major concern for the application?

Thanks

 

[Rob_TO]

Hello everyone, I am getting married to my Cuban fiance in the summer this year and then start the process for him to come here in Canada with me.
I know there are a lot of 'reasons' for which people can get denied but I was wondering if not enough face to face time could be one of them.. Long story short I met him while I was a student there for 2 months and I'm just going there 5 months later to get married. Of course I would love to go back meanwhile but the budget is tight. Would that be a major concern for the application?

Thanks

So you first met 7 months ago, were "in person" for only 2 months, have been apart the past 5 months, and are already getting married?

If so, then this is a HUGE red flag, and you would face a very high chance to have the application denied. As an outsider looking in, it looks very strongly like he is only marrying for immigration purposes. Usually a "normal" relationship will develop slower and you will know each other longer before deciding to get married.

 

[on-hold]

For what it's worth, my wife's cousin (Thai woman) met a Canadian man on the Internet, got married to him a couple of weeks after meeting him, and was in Canada within about 6-7 months, I think as a PR. His parents served as a financial guarantor, I think, and it's possible that she entered Canada as a tourist first and was then sponsored while living there.

It's probably wrong, but I've got a feeling CIC is more suspicious in fast international marriages when the Canadian is a woman; or more suspicious in high-age-difference couples when the older party is a woman.

 

[Rob_TO]

His parents served as a financial guarantor,

This must have been some time ago, as parent's have no part in a PR application today. I would definitely not use that as a "typical" example.

Unfortunately Cuba is one of those countries where cases of fraudulent marriages are higher than normal, so anyone applying from there needs to be very careful in their application and ensure it's a strong one.

 

[on-hold]

2010, and I don't remember the details. This guy married his wife under the impression that she would kind of automatically get into Canada, and if she didn't she'd just get a tourist visa like anyone from Thailand can do any time they want to go anywhere; he had a pretty nasty learning curve, but what I do remember is that they started about 4 months after we filed our FSW application, and she was in Canada 3 months before our visas were issued.

 

[keesio]

Unfortunately Cuba is one of those countries where cases of fraudulent marriages are higher than normal, so anyone applying from there needs to be very careful in their application and ensure it's a strong one.

What Rob says is unfortunately true. There has been several very public cases that have been reported by the media over the past few years about marriage fraud and a lot of them were applicants from Cuba.

I think they do look more closely at sponsorship applications from Cuba and even so if is a woman sponsoring a man... and especially if the woman is significantly older as on-hold mentioned (this fit the profile of several of the fraud cases reported on by the media).

 

[canuck_in_uk]

2010, and I don't remember the details. This guy married his wife under the impression that she would kind of automatically get into Canada, and if she didn't she'd just get a tourist visa like anyone from Thailand can do any time they want to go anywhere; he had a pretty nasty learning curve, but what I do remember is that they started about 4 months after we filed our FSW application, and she was in Canada 3 months before our visas were issued.

At a guess, I'd say she initially came as a tourist; his parents could have stated they would support her financially while she visited. The PR was probably finalized while she was in Canada.

I know there are a lot of 'reasons' for which people can get denied but I was wondering if not enough face to face time could be one of them.. Long story short I met him while I was a student there for 2 months and I'm just going there 5 months later to get married. Of course I would love to go back meanwhile but the budget is tight. Would that be a major concern for the application?

As Rob said above, an objective outsider looking at your relationship will most likely believe that he is using you to get into Canada; Cuba is known as a source country for Marriages of Convenience. I would suggest you delay the wedding, slow down, spend more time with him in Cuba, live down there for awhile if you can. The longer you do that, the higher your chance of approval.