AllyS

Hi,

What are the advantages of getting in married in Canada (when we visit in May) as opposed to back in Blighty?

Will it help our case or complicate it?

Has anyone else done this and why did you choose to marry in Canada? Was one of you a Canadian citizen?

Any advice would be appreciated!

mr.mac

Firstly, CONGRATULATIONS!

As far as I'm aware it doesn't make much differance as to where you get married, both countries are recgonised as "legal" places to marry.

I think proving a genuine lasting relationship is more important to them (CIC)....as anyone can have a "quicky" wedding in the UK or Canada.

I married my Canadian wife here in the UK. we just had to provide a photocopy of the marriage certificate whereas we had to send a stack of photos, cards and emails to prove we are genuine couple.

I'd say get married where YOU want to and not to worry about how it affects your application.

Auld Yin

There are no barriers to non-residents getting married in Canada.

AllyS

Thanks Mr Mac!

Just wondered whether the geographic location made any difference - this emmigrating malarky is a nightmare!

mr.mac

I know, we got married last November and spent the last two weeks preparing the forms and supporting documents, having a medical and getting police checks. I sent mine off yesterday....was such a joy to do it, we are still on cloud 9.

Please don't hesitate to post here or contact me via PM if you need any advice/help.

everyone is at a different stage but they are all the same stages we have to go through.

el_richo

I married my Canadian wife (i'm british) in Vancouver last April (believe it or not we had pure sunshine and 22c weather on the day). We chose Vancouver purely because we loved the location and it was financially easier for my friends and family to go to Canada than the other way around.

The only downside was that my dad was too ill to travel.

So anyway, choose where YOU want to be married and don't worry about the application as i very much doubt it makes a difference.

Rich

PS - Congrats

ptomlin01

I'd just like to add that the last time I looked into this a year ago.. a Canadian getting married to a UK citizen in the UK has to apply to the home office for a marriage visa and a certificate of approval which can take around three months or longer to obtain. So not the quickest way to get married if time is important. I had a quick look for the information and this may help..

http://www.ind.homeoffice.gov.uk/vis...ied/documents/

My Canadian hubby and I married in the USA last year just to simplify the process for us as we were both divorced which would have added another bit of red tape to us marrying in Canada.

Good luck for the future!

Pauline

Ooops forgot to mention that if you intend to marry in an Anglican Church here in the UK the certificate of approval thing doesn't apply!

mr.mac

Yeah I forgot about the COA. My wife had to apply for it...ours took 6 weeks, we had to both send our actual passports and it costs about £300, but if you want to move to Canada you might as well get used to spending huge amounts of cash on bits of paper

Piff Poff

Congratualations, we got married in the USA, it didn't affect our immigration so I don't think it matters as I don't think it will either help or hinder your chances if you know what I mean?

danfolkestone

Certainly agree that it doesn't matter from an immigration perspective, so get married wherever you want. We got married in England and it didn't cause any delay in processing times. We didn't need any visas or permissions either, as we were married in an Anglican Church.

We chose England because it was more convenient for us to get married where we were living. In addition, my wife's family are spread out across Canada, so if we married in Canada pretty much everyone would have been flying to the wedding. With the high cost of internal flights in Canada, it was cheaper for her relatives in Ontario to fly to England than it would have been for them to fly to Calgary!

Oakvillian

we were married in Canada while both living in the UK. We're both British, but OH's family had been living expat in Montreal for years, OH was brought up and educated there. Being a bit traditional about it, it made sense to be married from her parents' home, so the Brit contingent flew over and made a holiday of it at the same time. We were married in the McGill University Chapel by the Anglican chaplain, and spent our honeymoon driving around the Atlantic provinces.

It made absolutely no difference at all to immigration status then or subsequently.

EmmaGrate

Hmmm - are they funny about divorcees getting re-married over here ( Canada!) then???

ptomlin01

No not at all.. if you were divorced in a country outside Canada you have to take your final decree to a lawyer in Canada who (for a couple of hundred dollars) will write you a letter, giving his legal opinion on why the divorce should be recognised.

Then you send this letter to the registrar general to apply for written authorisation to marry. On receipt of that a few weeks later you take it with you to buy the licence. The licence is then valid for three months.

I was looking into marriage in Ontario but I think it was similar rules in other provinces.

In our case we were living apart at the time so we had to simplify things as best we could. The USA won hands down as we simply went to the town hall, filled in a form together writing the dates of our divorce down, showed ID, handed over the money ($100) and took the licence away the same day.

So they're not funny about divorcees in Canada, it's just a little complicated sorting out the necessary paperwork if you're not living there and want to marry within a few months.

BristolUK

So this certificate of approval for a non resident isn't needed in Canada.

But then, from memory, the relevant authority does like a minimum period between licence and wedding....so that may not be so different.

I married my Canadian wife in Canada while I was UK resident. It was more practical than trying to do it in the UK. Plus it was a good way to keep the numbers down.

mr.mac

nice!

yeah the COA is a UK Home Office requirement.....they used to be pretty straight forward from what I've read but a few years ago they jacked the price up to £295 to put people off the whole marriage of convenience thing and made changes to the process.