Spousal Sponsorship Clarification

[teamduckie]

Hello all,

My long distance girlfriend (USA) and I (Canada) are planning to get married this summer. She will be coming to Toronto where I live to do the marriage but will only be staying a week before going back to USA. We want to get the immigration process started ASAP so we can live together in Canada.

Some questions:
1) Does she need to be physically present for us to work on our spousal sponsorship application and send it in? (She's only staying a week so it'd be nice if we could work on it when she went back home)
2) How much evidence of our genuine relationship do we need and do we send it together with our application package? (We only really have Skype chat logs but we are mostly on call anyways, some pictures of us on phone, and perhaps a few hotel and flight receipts.) What else should we do here?
3) Any more help or advice would be greatly appreciated

Thanks everyone,

JC

 

[sammystorm19]

1) She doesn't need to be present however I would get her to sign all the forms before she leaves so you don't need to send them to her to sign. It will save some time in the process

2) Send in pictures of yourselves. They can be from trips, family gatherings, of course your wedding, with other family members etc...It doesn't have to be 100's of them but send the ones where it shows that there is a real relationship. Also you can send in anyother proof like phone records, skype chats, FB chats, etc. Any trip receipts are good as well

3) Make sure that all forms are signed in the correct spots so nothing is sent back to you. Don't rush the application to get it done...take your time so everything is on there. And the big thing is prepare yourself for a emotional journey. This process is hard and can be time consuming, however the love you have for eachother will get you through. My motto is " each day that passes is one day close that we are together forever"

This is a good place for questions and help so welcome

 

[Zarilenth]

Also, you'll need your wedding certificate. You don't need to send in the original but you'll need to photocopy it. You should send in a request for it right after you get married. It took about 2 months for me to get mine, but I did read on here that someone requested it ASAP and they got it quickly (I requested mine asap too but it still took 2 months). As well, she needs an FBI fingerprint clearance, and those take approx. 6 weeks to get right now. So order them in advance but they need to be less than 3 months old when CPC-Mississauga gets it (you'll send the whole application to CPC-M first).

I suggest when she comes up to get married, she does the medical with a panel physician. The test is much cheaper in Canada, but it's totally up to you. I actually had some issues with the medicals and my American husband had to fly back up to finish his up, but that's a very rare occurrence.

You'll need to get an Option C printout from the CRA, and that takes about 6 weeks as well.

And finally, before you send in the application, check and double check everything! Make sure you didn't make any silly mistakes or forget to sign anything. Also double check that your forms are all up to date. CIC tends to update forms randomly.

 

[steerpike]

Many people include a short essay describing their relationship and how they met as part of the evidence. You dont need to provide 500 pages of skype chats. Just be open and frank.

Also, you will want to include some proof or at least a "well thought out plan" for what you wife is going to do in Canada once she gets PR.

Keep records of dates of when you met all her relatives and she yours. Include this in your application. If you havent met all the parents/aunts/uncles/cousin/ make an effort to meet at least a few.

Make an effort to have both sets of parents attend the wedding. Not just because it looks good for CIC but because this is a pinacle moment in both your lives and they should be there (if possible). We flew in my wifes parents and her brother from Indonesia for our wedding, and we even took them on our honeymoon (because we couldnt really leave them behind alone in my apartment).

Photos of engagement, wedding, honeymoon, vacations.

One other thing may have helped our application was we had pre-marriage counseling and had records for that.

 

[sammystorm19]

Hello all,

My long distance girlfriend (USA) and I (Canada) are planning to get married this summer. She will be coming to Toronto where I live to do the marriage but will only be staying a week before going back to USA. We want to get the immigration process started ASAP so we can live together in Canada.

Some questions:
1) Does she need to be physically present for us to work on our spousal sponsorship application and send it in? (She's only staying a week so it'd be nice if we could work on it when she went back home)
2) How much evidence of our genuine relationship do we need and do we send it together with our application package? (We only really have Skype chat logs but we are mostly on call anyways, some pictures of us on phone, and perhaps a few hotel and flight receipts.) What else should we do here?
3) Any more help or advice would be greatly appreciated

Thanks everyone,

JC

I am trying to PM you back but your mailbox is full. I have answered your other questions

 

[teamduckie]

Oops, OK my inbox is cleared if you could resent that'd be great thanks!

So we aren't actually having a wedding so we won't have wedding photos, just doing the marriage signing.

There's so many things you guys are adding that I didn't account for so it's really confusing :S

So far it's looking like our best option would be to
1) do marriage and possibly figure out all the forms for spousal sponsorship and permanent residence she needs to sign before heading back home
2) gather evidence and have an essay describing our situation and send it with our application package
3) possibly do anything we left out online and maybe send some stuff back and forth that we forgot?
4) I also don't know where the medical part of the application goes in here, and other forms you guys mentioned I never heard about :S

Thanks all so far!

 

[Zarilenth]

You should then definitely take a closer look at the check list.
For outland applications:

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/applications/fc.asp

I suggest you also read this guide very carefully:

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/applications/guides/3900ETOC.asp


Document check list:

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/pdf/kits/forms/IMM5491E.pdf

The last point states:
Proof of medical examination for the sponsored person and each of his or her dependants. You include the paper you'll get at the medical office with the other supporting document. I would suggest organizing the application in the way it's grouped in the document check list. One envelope for the sponsor, one for the applicant, and one for additional proof/documents.

You need to do some research and make sure you do everything that needs to be done while she's up here with you or you'll be spending lots of money organizing!

 

[teamduckie]

Ok so we have started working on the application and figuring out when to do what.

We're going to have her come down for the marriage, medical in Toronto, and sign any papers she needs to before she goes back to USA. Then we will wait for marriage certificate and police check so we can send in our application with our evidence, essay, etc.

Some questions that are coming up:
Can she do the medical before we submit the application? We read that for the medical exam you need passport ID, passport photos, and a form mailed by immigration, is this correct and how can we get it if we haven't submitted an application yet?

Thanks everyone so far for your help!

 

[Zarilenth]

Ok so we have started working on the application and figuring out when to do what.

We're going to have her come down for the marriage, medical in Toronto, and sign any papers she needs to before she goes back to USA. Then we will wait for marriage certificate and police check so we can send in our application with our evidence, essay, etc.

Some questions that are coming up:
Can she do the medical before we submit the application? We read that for the medical exam you need passport ID, passport photos, and a form mailed by immigration, is this correct and how can we get it if we haven't submitted an application yet?

Thanks everyone so far for your help!

I was a bit confused about the medical too, but you do not need any forms from CIC for the medical. You just go in and say it's for immigration purposes and that you haven't sent in the application. They'll give you an e-medical form with a barcode on it - that's what you send in with the application.

 

[SenoritaBella]

Take photos the marriage signing. I believe marriage signing is synonymous to "civil wedding ceremony".

Oops, OK my inbox is cleared if you could resent that'd be great thanks!

So we aren't actually having a wedding so we won't have wedding photos, just doing the marriage signing.

 

[teamduckie]

Hey all,

So far so good, continuing to work on application, booked marriage, in process of booking medicals and police check. We are getting ready for her to sign the forms when she comes to Toronto to get married and have everything good to go before she heads back to the States.

We are a little worried however and was wondering if anybody had experience with proving a genuine relationship.

We are about 1.5 years in a serious relationship and have had 2 visits only. The 3rd one is coming up soon where we are getting married.
We have skype chat logs from day 1 that we can filter through and send, we have WhatsApp messenger on phone messages that we can send. We only have a few photos of our trips since we are both shy and generally don't take many photos. We may be able to retrieve some receipts of hotels/flights/restaurants. We can get friends and family to write letters that say our relationship is genuine.

But we are still worried this will be hard because of our short time frame. Will this be enough and is there anything else that can help?

Thanks all for your support.

 

[SenoritaBella]

1.5 years is not a short time in my opinion (I married after 9 months). I would focus on describing how your relationship developed and the evidence you have. A few things I could suggest:
- take photos of the court signing
- have some kind of reception after even if it's a sit done dinner. Submit photos from reception and receipt.
- if you can, ensure both families are present at ceremony
- if you plan to have a 'big wedding' later or have a date, mention it
- copies of receipts/photos of gifts
- wedding invitation(or copy) if you have one
- copy of wedding guest book, if you have one

 

[Serabeth]

Hi, this is teamduckie's girlfriend and we're encountering a couple obstacles as we work through our 5540. In Question 7 (employer information from the last five years) we're having some trouble recalling exact dates of employment as well as the order of employment for certain positions. We've gone through bank history (holds up to 1 year) and have called some places but we're struggling as some of these places have actually changed ownership.
Has anyone had any trouble with this before? -And does anyone have some suggestions on how to find this information without guessing and hoping for the best?

Thanks!

 

[steerpike]

For Canada you may be able to get copies of past T4 slips. (And from now on keep all your T4 you recieve and never lose them. ) http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/ndvdls/tpcs/ncm-tx/rtrn/cmpltng/slps/menu-eng.html

 

[Rob_TO]

Hi, this is teamduckie's girlfriend and we're encountering a couple obstacles as we work through our 5540. In Question 7 (employer information from the last five years) we're having some trouble recalling exact dates of employment as well as the order of employment for certain positions. We've gone through bank history (holds up to 1 year) and have called some places but we're struggling as some of these places have actually changed ownership.
Has anyone had any trouble with this before? -And does anyone have some suggestions on how to find this information without guessing and hoping for the best?

Thanks!

This form is for sponsor only. As long as the most recent (current) employer is accurate, I think it's safe to just use best-guesses on the rest. The current employer is the one you will be getting employment letter from.

For the others, if you can guess the approx month/year for from/to info, that should be ok (i.e. if you know a previous job ended in the summer sometime in 2011, just put 2011-07-01 or something for date). I don't think CIC ever actually does previous employment checks on the sponsor, and being off by a few days or months on this should not matter.