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| Subject: Sponsorship-Conjugal Partner |
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Greetings, I have a question regarding the possibility of being sponsored as a conjugal partner. I (male) would be sponsored by my Quebec partner (female). I´m a US citizen and she is canadian, and she is also 7 years older than I am. We met online and have seen each other on MSN every single day for months now. I have been up to visit her three times, twice for a weekend and recently for about 1.5 weeks. She and I both care for each other very much and would like to live together, and I am willing to move to quebec to make this possible. I would not qualify to immigrate under any other category to Quebec, I have already checked. However, I have a few questions regarding this form of sponsorship:
1) Does the region of Quebec require the sponsor to provide proof of sufficient income in the case of conjugal partner sponsorship? The main canadian site seems to exempt spousal and conjugal partners from proving income, but the main quebec-province site implies that all sponsors must meet the criteria.
2) How much proof/what kind would they require that the relationship is one of genuine affection? It seems that this is the category used for those that are in a caring relationship and can´t get married yet, and also can´t be together under normal immigration circumstances. I have known her for 2 years and can provide evidence dating back at least 1 year in the form of an e-mail, and I also have detailed logs of MSN conversations dating back months that contain conversations that show we obviously care for each other. I did not think to save proof of my trips up there, although I have chat conversations detailing my stays in less than precise terms. I believe that I could most definitely prove an emotional interdependence between us, but is that enough? We haven´t consolidated finances or anything like that simply because it is impossible to do at this stage.
Basically, how strict are they on proof in order to prove a genuine relationship? Also, if I can provide evidence that it would in fact be harder for me to move to canada than to remain in the US (giving up a solid family support structure, leaving all my friends/everything I know behind), would this be taken into consideration?
Thanks in advance for any advice, I am really scratching my head at this problem and any help is appreciated :).
[14-08-2005,03:58]
[**.65.197.179]
CurioslyHopeful |
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(in reply to: Sponsorship-Conjugal Partner)
I´m in Ontario. I´m not sure if Quebec works any differently, but I can only tell you my experience with our conjugal class application. My husband is American, and we also met online. He is 12 years older than myself. (I´m 35, he´s 47)
We weren´t married when we we filed our application, we had been in a conjugal relationship for over 3 years. We had over 3 years worth of flight records, telephone records, photographs, gift receipts. He had been here at least a dozen times, and I had been out to California 2 or 3 times. There should have been NO doubt as to the validity of our relationship. That file was SO thick, nothing was spared. We also had his medical and FBI clearance done beforehand and sent in with the application. He has no health issues nor a criminal record.
At the time we filed, I was not divorced from my ex-husband yet, and my ex was delaying the divorce. We figured that would be a good enough ´impediment´ to marriage, as bigamy is pretty much frowned on here, lol.
We used an immigration agency, and were told it should be a ´clean cut´ case. At most, we were told we MIGHT get called for an interview. We got everything sent off, and I was approved as a sponsor almost within 3 weeks, and the application was sent to Buffalo for further processing. That was in January of this year.
There began the wait. In the meantime, I finally got my divorce finalized. We initially intended to wait until he was moved here to get married, as we wanted to do it ´right´, and his family being scattered all over the US.. these things take time to plan!
However, in June, it had been 6 months since we heard anything from immigration, and we really wanted to get on with our lives. We planned to buy a house, and it was important to us to get settled into a house this summer before the start of a new school year for my 6yr old daughter. We decided to go ahead and buy the house anyway, my daughter and I would move in, and he would just join us once he got his PR. We found a house online and I put in an offer which was accepted. He made a trip here, and we finalized the joint mortgage stuff with the bank, opened a joint bank account, had all our beneficiary information with RRSP´s/401K´s and insurance policies changed to one another.
We figured if we were doing all this, why not just get married. We wanted the house title to be in our joint names, and name changes are always a pain to do after-the-fact.
We also figured that, once we were married, we could inform Buffalo of our change of status, and all our new information (the house, combined affairs, etc) and that would help our case, and maybe even make the difference between an interview and no interview.
We planned our wedding in less than 3 weeks and with a handful of our closest friends and family, we were married here in Ontario, on June 18. He had to get back to work in California, so a couple days later I was seeing my new husband off, once again.
The day he left, I had gone back to work and had spent the day gathering all the new info (marriage cert, bank account info, mortgage info, a letter from my lawyer, wedding photos, insurance policy info, etc) and was going to drop it off to our agency the next day to get sent in to Buffalo.
I came home from work and checked my mail that day. My husband was still in flight back to CA. I saw the letter from the Buffalo Consulate and FULLY expected to see he´d been approved, or the very least, a request for interview.
He was refused. Flat-out declined. No interview - nothing. They sent me a form for my right to appeal, which I had 30 days to do so, if I so chose. Their reason? The designated immigration officer ´wasn´t satisfied´ that we met the characteristics of a conjugal partnership. He/she clearly stated that they believed we DID have a relationship, but it was merely a ´dating´ relationship with no real impediment to marriage. We had not (at the time we filed) combined any of our affiars, financially. Apparently waiting out a divorce is not considered a real ´impediment´ to marriage. Whatever.
We were crushed, and I was ready to roll some heads. I felt MY rights as a Canadian had been violated. Here I was married, and my husband was not allowed to be with me because some ignorant beaurcrat ´wasn´t satisfied´ with the 30 pound package of PROOF we sent them.
I was going to appeal, but found out there would only be a 50% chance of the decision being overturned, because even though we were now married, the appeal would be based on the conjugal ruling and no new information would be entered into it. It would cost us about $3,000 and 14-20 months for an appeal, and in all probability would be told "the conjugal decision stands, but you are free to re-apply under spousal"
Around the 1st week of July, we sent in all our new information anyway, and a strongly worded letter from our immigration agency - to the attention of the Supervisor at Buffalo. We explained our situation and disappointment that we were mot even given the opportunity of an interview, and asked for a ´reconsideration´. They are under no obligation to do this, but it has been done in some cases, and felt it was worth a shot.
That was over 6 weeks ago and we still haven´t had a response from them. We´ve pretty much given up and have started to get all the information together AGAIN to re-apply as Spousal. This means anothe FBI clearance/fingerprints, another medical, etc. A colossal pain in the butt. Not to mention expense. We lost about $500 in processing fees we won´t get back, another $500 for a medical, more air travel expense for visits (Air Canada loves us!) and that´s not even including the TIME involved in all this. Once we get it sent off, it´s going to be a MINIMUM of 6 months processing.
Conjugal class was a HUGE waste of time for us. Had we known then what we knew now, we would have just waited out the divorce, got married and filed as Spousal. He would be living here by now.
Basically, they want you married, period. And if you´re not married, you have to have a VERY good reason why you cannot be married. Nobody could possibly send in more ´proof´ as to the validity of their relationship than we did, and that had no bearing on their decision.
If you are going to go ahead with conjugal class, my only advice is have a GOOD reason why you can´t marry. Change beneficiary information on life insurance policies, etc., open a joint bank account, combine your affairs as much as possible. But if you can do it, just get married first and save yourselves a LOT of grief.
Good luck.
[14-08-2005,11:44]
[**.193.72.81]
FWChelle |
(in reply to: Sponsorship-Conjugal Partner)
they should have never eliminated the fiance class. It seems rediculous. How many times have we seen on this forum where a spouse arrives only to say they don´t want to be married any more. Marriage does not guarantee anything.
The world is getting smaller and the way we conduct our relationships is changing dramatically. My relationship would never have existed or survived before cheap telephone and internet.
Every piece of advice I have heard suggests that conjugal applications are almost impossible. CIC seems to think the world should be desperate to get married, forget practicalities and problems with visitors visas and the rest of that kind of stuff.
Hopefully, they will take a look at their processing and make some changes. In the mean time, I think we are going to endure a skilled worker application rather than the heartbreak of the sponsorship process. Fortunately, he has the points.
[14-08-2005,15:04]
[***.20.170.23]
sharon |
(in reply to: Sponsorship-Conjugal Partner)
it was so nice.... conjugal partners...
can i apply for conjugal partner? because our country is prohibiting the divorce and i have a relationship to other since my married was´nt work longer..
[05-09-2006,06:41]
[***.75.45.60]
kerby |
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