Conjugal case Refused

Canada Immigration Forum (discussion group)

Subject: Conjugal case Refused

Just a word of advice for anyone trying to obtain PR in Canada under Conjugal Partner status. Get married first!

Our situation is pretty unfortunate. I am Canadian, and my (now) husband is American. We´ve been maintaining a long distance relationship for over 3 years now. When we started the application process a year ago, we weren´t able to get married because my ex-husband was delaying the divorce. However, we had over 2 years worth of ´proof´ of our relationship, including over $8,000 worth of flight records (Air Canad loves us), telephone records, personal emails, letters, photographs. My husband has a clean FBI record and no health issues. We used an Immigration Consultant agency, and paid them a lot of money to handle our paperwork. They did tell us that conjugal cases were ´iffy´, but given our situations, and over 2 years of ´proof´, felt at worst, we would get called for an interview.

Fast forward to now. Since then, I was finally able to get my divorce settled, and my husband and I were married the week before last (on June 18th). We´ve also purchased a house together which will close on July 15th, have a joint bank account, and will assume a joint mortgage. We´ve changed all our beneficiary information on life insurance policies, 401K´s, RRSP´s to each other.

He has a good job in California and until he recieves PR for Canada, he needs to keep his job there. So, the Tuesday after the wedding, he left to fly back. I was gathering up all our new information (marriage cert, bank account info, house and mortgage info) to drop off to our agency to send to Buffalo to inform them of our change of status. We were about at the 5 month mark in Buffalo and still had no word on the status of our application.

When I got home from work that Tuesday night, while my husband was still en route back to California, I opened my mailbox to find a letter from the Buffalo office. Expecting to see either an approval or a request for interview, I tore the letter open.. and cried as I read that he had been refused. No interview, just refused. The only reasons they stated was to do with the validity of our relationship. The officer wrote he/she believed we had a relationship, as indicated in our ´proof´, but felt it was merely a long-distance ´dating´ relationship with no impediment to marriage.

We clearly stated in our application the impediment to marriage (pending divorce), but that was obviously ignored.

As of now, the director of our agency has written the supervisor in Buffalo and requested a reconsideration based on a change of status, and due to the fact we were not given the opportuntiy of an interview. If Buffalo refuses to reconsider our case, we will have no choice but to re-apply as Spousal.

We could appeal, but an appeal process will take upward of 12 months, and it would be quicker to re-apply.

We could re-apply from within Canada but that is a gamble for my husband to quit his job right now and move out of his apartment, as you do not have appeal rights under this class. If it´s refused again, he will have to leave. Our agency tells us that it wouldn´t be refused again now that we´re married, but frankly, I didn´t think it would be refused the first time, so I have little faith in my government right now, and that would be giving them entirely too much trust at this point.

If we had to go back and do it again, knowing what we know now, we would have waited the few extra months to get married and just file as spousal. Our case was pretty solid. If they could refuse us, they will refuse anyone under this class, simply because they can. Do not waste precious time and money on this class!

Does ayone know what the chances are of actually getting a reconsideration at this point?

Thanks for listening.

[27-06-2005,22:48]
[**.114.78.4]
FWChelle