Canadian Sponsorship

canadianinneedofadvise · #1 02-04-2008, 02:42 PM

Hello Everyone,

I have been reading countless hours here about this topic, but need some extra advise from anyone that can help.

I am engaged to my Dominican girlfriend ( I am from Canada ). We are right now waiting for her to get either approved or denied a visitor's pass to Canada and from what I understand there is a very slim chance of it getting approved, although I am trying to stay positive until we find out this week.....

We are planning on her getting the visitors pass and coming to Canada this month and getting married while she is in Canada. My immigration lawyer tells me it's no problem for her to stay if she can just get the visitors pass, as long as we get the spousal sponsorship forms started ASAP.

However I am trying to plan what my next move will be if the visitors visa gets denied. Our goal is for us to live here in Canada as quickly as possible. My work is here and it's a much better life for us to be here. My question is, where is the best place to apply and start the spousal sponsorship forms ( Canada or the DR ) ? My lawyer tells me if we let him do all the paperwork from inside Canada it will take up to a year. Is it quicker of we file all paperwork in the DR instead ? Will this speed up the process ? Is it even possible for us to do everything from inside Canada ?

My other question is that if I go to the Canadian embassy in either Haiti or the DR, is there a way of us getting her a temporary visa to come to Canada while the application is being processed ? I mean really I am taking full responsibility as a Canadian citizen for her to be here, and would like to even know if she likes this country ( can adapt to the climate, culture change, etc. ) before we plan our futures an where we are going to live.

Any help would be very much appreciated, thanks in advance!!!

canadianinneedofadvise · #2 02-04-2008, 02:45 PM

Also she does have a US tourist visa and has travelled many times in the past there. If her visitors pass gets denied, would it be worth a shot to have her go to the US and apply for a visitors pass ?

bob saunders · #3 02-04-2008, 03:15 PM

I can't say for sure, but if she has a valid and current American Visa, there is a good chance she will get her Canada VISA. I base this on the reversal meaning my nieces got visitors visa to come to Canada for summer ESL from the DR. Upon returning to the DR they applied for American Visa and were accepted.

cielo · #4 02-06-2008, 04:16 PM

I just went through something similar. My husband was denied a visitors visa to Canada--twice from the DR (Haiti). He has a US visa, so we decided to take a chance on applying for a Canadian visitor visa from the US. We applied at Buffalo, and it took all of 30 minutes for him to be approved. He was allowed to go to Canada that same day. If you would like more info, PM me and I will explain the process! Good luck!

canadianinneedofadvise · #5 02-06-2008, 07:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cielo

I just went through something similar. My husband was denied a visitors visa to Canada--twice from the DR (Haiti). He has a US visa, so we decided to take a chance on applying for a Canadian visitor visa from the US. We applied at Buffalo, and it took all of 30 minutes for him to be approved. He was allowed to go to Canada that same day. If you would like more info, PM me and I will explain the process! Good luck!

Great! Thanks for the reply. I sent you a private message

MrNiceGuy · #6 02-06-2008, 09:22 PM

Been down the same road! I hope the advise helps.

Best of luck.

canadianinneedofadvise · #7 02-12-2008, 02:19 AM

Well, we are now in Seattle, USA and she was denied the visitors visa again. Reason being, the officer was not convinced that she would return to Canada because she has only been at her job in the DR for 6 months....... makes no sense to me!!!

Any other ideas anyone has would be appreciated.

canadianinneedofadvise · #8 02-12-2008, 02:58 AM

OK, next plan..... thoughts please:

We are going to be married in the US this week and apply for a spousal sponsorship at the Canadian embassy in Seattle. Does anyone know if the application is submitted in the USA, will it go quicker ? Or does the application still have to go to Haiti for approval ? I would assume that there are fewer applications being submitted from here, thus a quicker turn around time ?? Today we went in for the visitors visa and had a no answer within 3 hours / opposed to 15 days to hear no in the DR.

Johana · #9 02-12-2008, 02:36 PM

I am by no means an expert - but I have submitted my own sponsorship application for my husband and have helped friends with their papers.

I don't think it matters where the wedding takes place.
If your primary residence is in Canada then you will submit the paperwork to the Case Processing Centre in Mississauga. Once you are approved your wife's application will be sent to the nearest issuing Visa office for her country of residence - which would be Haiti.

I believe that only if your primary residence is outside of Canada -that you send the paperwork elsewhere. (I'm not sure if the spouse's application ends up in the same place or not).

I would guess based on all the posts I have read by various people - that if someone had found a quicker way through the process they would have shared the info.

I know it's not what you want to hear - and if I am wrong then I hope someone will correct me.

Congrats for your wedding!!! And best of luck with the papers.

Jo-Anne (another spouse who waits

)

MrNiceGuy · #10 02-12-2008, 07:59 PM

I sent you a Private Message that gave you some good direction. I don't know if you checked your private message or not but I did not get a response from you so I am thinking you might have missed it.

Check again, maybe it will help you...