dmendel

Excuse the length of this message, but the detail of this case is important.

I am in the process of filling out the marriage questionnaire in support of my
permanent residence application (family-class). My wife is Canadian but she has lived
for the past 10 years in the US. We met in graduate school in 1991, were engaged in
1999, and married in July 2000.

I am a bit worried about one thing that might, or might not, be an issue regarding
our marriage. Last year my wife was offered a job at a US university to begin this
past fall. At the time we had been engaged for about 6 months and had been planning
our wedding -- to take place in Canada in September 2000.

A US immigration attorney acquaintance told us at the time that once my wife got
engaged that this had likely invalidated (or at least raised serious questions in the
eyes of immigration officials about) her student J-1 visa status, which she held at
the time. We had no idea that this was case. Apparently she should have notified INS
that she had gotten engaged and begun the process for permanent residence. This never
occurred to her because she has never had any desire to become a US citizen. But in
the eyes of INS, EVERYONE naturally wants to be US citizen, so they assume that if
you marry an American then you want to become an American and live here forever. In
any case, at the time she was in the process of applying for temporary work
authorization for her new job, which was set to start in August 2000 -- a month
before our wedding in Canada. Our attorney friend advised us to get married
immediately -- before beginning work and before traveling to Canada for the wedding
-- since she could be in danger of being denied re-entry into the US, having gotten
married to an American while in Canada on temp. employment visa. He encouraged us to
get married quickly, hire a lawyer, and begin the application process for permanent
residence status --whether or not she wants to become a citizen. Then she could apply
for advanced parole to leave the country for the "real" wedding, with our families in
attendance, in Canada.

We took his advice and got married at the local City Hall in July 2000. We didn't
really want to advertise this around, though our families knew about it and
understood the circumstances. No one was in attendance. We considered it purely a
formality and nothing more. For all intents and purposes our "real wedding" was going
to be in Canada in September. (In fact, our Rabbi was not licensed in Quebec where
the wedding was held, so we would have had to be "legally married" in his office in
Ontario a few days before the wedding in any case.) We hired an attorney, paid
thousands of dollars in attorney's fees and application and processing fees, not to
mention having to drive 12 hours round trip to the nearest INS office to get the
advanced parole. We then had a wonderful religious wedding ceremony and reception in
Canada in September with family and friends. To us, this was when we were really
married, and this is the date we will celebrate our anniversary.

My question (at long last): how do I explain all this on the questionnaire? We did
nothing illegal here, but I can imagine a Canadian immigration official reviewing the
above description of events and thinking there was something dodgy going on. Really,
the only reason we went ahead and took the advice of our immigration attorney friend,
was that we wanted to do everything by the book. We could have easily lied to the US
border officer about the reason for our visit to Canada in September. But we wanted
to do the right thing, and make sure everything was above board and legal. The last
thing we wanted was for my wife to be denied entry at the border. I was still a grad
student and her teaching job was our only source of income.

Am I worrying about nothing here? Should I just tell it like it is? I want to be
totally honest here. Our marriage is a genuine one. Should I hire an immigration
attorney to advise me on this?

Many thanks for any input.

Dave

Shelley

In one way your attorney was right - had you gotten married in Canada and tried to
return you might have run into problems reentering the US. Had the agents at the
border found out you were just married they could have refused entry for your wife.
As far as you getting engaged - it would not have affected her J-1 status. The only
time being engaged to a US Citizen is a problem is when you try to enter the US
without a fiancé visa or visitors visa (customs agents sometime can assume you are
entering the country to stay). You cannot begin the process for permanent residence
until you are married to a US citizen. You did everything correctly, so far as US INS
is concerned, so that your wife was legal in the US. I'm just at the information
gathering stage as far as Canada Immigration goes, my Husband (Canadian) immigrated
to the US 2 years ago, and we are planning to move to Canada in 4-5 years when my
children are adults, so I can only tell you what I have learned from this NG and the
many Immigration sites I have visited. I wouldn't think you would need an attorney;
the only wedding date Immigration Canada will be concerned with is the first one -
your civil wedding. You don't even need to tell them about the second one (which as
you said was not an official wedding), although many couples have done the same as
you have, and had two weddings, one for each side of the family. The fact that you
had a religious ceremony with family and friends would probably go towards proving
you have a real marriage. Take Care. Shelley

    >
important.
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >