truesmile said:
For an application out of Manila, I respectfully disagree. None of my family came to the Philippines for my wedding, I simply stated they were unable to attend each for their own reasons.
True, but you're far from a red flag case. I don't know the details of your case (you have too many posts to go through), but someone who only needed 3 sentences to describe their relationship must be a very solid case. Your family didn't come, but the rest of your relationship is solid.
o6ocpaka said:
Oh really, where does it say in CIC guides that quick wedding is trouble?
We got married on Friday afternoon in the city center without any ceremony(whole thing took about 20 minutes) and had absolutely no issues with our immigration process. It is a personal choice how people want to get married, in our view spending thousands on the house sounded like a better investment than on a drunken marriage party with 100 people.
It doesn't say in CIC guides, but if you look at Canlii.org cases (red flag cases), they frequently mention the absence of parents at the wedding, and of course, the applicant's insufficient reasoning behind it, as red flags. Also these people already have other red flags on top of that. Absence of parents by itself, as I already mentioned before, doesn't mean much if the rest of your relationship is solid.
By the way, your spouse is an American, court weddings with no ceremony (or no parents), is a very common occurrence, hence you had no issues with your immigration app. You could even marry someone with a 30 year age difference and it'd probably won't raise suspicion.
beast2000 said:
Comment of the day. Ive been married over 10 years and together for 15. I had no issues. Didnt even have a photo of the day. We had more important things to spend money on at the time.
Married for 10 years, together for 15. A solid relationship profile. Of course you wouldn't have any issues. And once again, you're an American. Lack of ceremony/parents, is a non-issue in that country.
And I wish you guys would've read my post more closely when I said
" Of course each person's circumstances are different and CIC won't necessarily refuse an application because the parents/family didn't attend the wedding, but if you have really good reasons for them not attending, it won't be an issue."
If an applicant, typically from a non visa exempt country where parents/traditional marriages are the norm, does not perform one AND their relationship profile is rather weak, it would be wise to at least try to invite the parents to attend to bolster their case. I know of one member here whose case had lots of red flags, but showed he couldn't get his dad to come to Indonesia to marry because he was dying and ill, and his mom was ill as well. They ended up not getting an interview and got the visa in under a year. For people like that, it's critical that if the parents cannot attend, then there is some good reasoning behind it. With with strong relationship profiles, this becomes less of an issue, and even a non-issue for US citizens.
