kamma

Hi,

My first post here as I found this site while searching for info on Canadian immigration lawyers (Cohen Campbell and Abrams Krochak). My title sums up my main question.

I've downloaded the CIC documents and forms, and gone through this forum's excellent wikis. The process looks very tedious, but straightforward for normal cases.

But there are a few wrinkles in my situation.

First is age difference: I'm 60 and my wife is 35. We are newly married, but have been involved for 5 years.

Second is intent to reside in Canada. I have Canadian and UK citizenship (my wife is Indian). But I last resided in Canada in 1982, though I have gone back yearly and sometimes stayed for many months. Currently I'm essentially a nomad, looking for a place we can settle.

Third, a back injury ended my career (professor) 12 years ago, so finances are very tight, and I'm currently unemployed. Neither of the law firms I've contacted thought that was a problem.

So I'm wondering if we can do it ourselves with confidence in the outcome, or might be better off going through a lawyer who would have the experience to know how to handle such possible red flags. Are the items I've listed likely to pose serious problems?

Thanks for any help.

plasticcanuck

As a Canadian citizen you may return to Canada at any time without anyone questioning your intentions. You should not need to hire a lawyer to complete a spousal application for you. You should have the ability to complete yourself. Unless your spouse has any circumstances making her ineligible your application should fly through the process. Many people on this site have experienced the process.

SchnookoLoly

With 5 years of proof of relationship you should be ok. Age gaps usually just mean a bit more scrutiny but no more than that. Imo everything else is trivial. I don't personally think you need a lawyer.

JonboyE

From people I know that have been through it a large age gap will often mean an interview as CIC will want to establish the relationship is genuine. I don't see why the OP should need to hire a lawyer if everything else is on the up and up.

kamma

Thanks all, that's very encouraging.

I should have made clear, we have a relationship of 5 years, but haven't been living together owing to visa expiries and my back problem flaring up - instead, we've spent from 2 weeks to 7 months together in various countries (including Canada, when she was doing an M.A.). And now that my Indian visa is expiring next week, we'll be separating again for some time...

Our skype chat history comes to nearly 3000 pages, should we include that as evidence in order to help avoid an interview?

SchnookoLoly

All you can really do is provide the evidence you have.

Do NOT send 3000 pages of Skype history. That is insane. No CIC officer is going to sit there and sift through 3000 pages, that's bonkers. You need to be SENSIBLE about what you provide. (Someone a few years back who applied around the same time as me sent over 1000 pages of evidence of his common-law relationship, CIC sent the application back and told him to give them something they could actually reasonably work with.) Use your judgement when you are providing evidence. Provide enough evidence to make your point, but not so much that it becomes overwhelming. Use common sense. (For example, when I was providing my phone bills, my online bills went back 2 years. I provided one bill from every 3-4 months, so only about 8 bills total out of 24. IT was unlikely that my husband and I texted and called each other hundreds of times in January, had radio silence in February and March, then started up again with hundreds of texts and calls in April.) You can also provide a cover letter explaining that you have just picked a random selection of chat/call history spanning the past 5 years to show that the communication is ongoing, and that if they want to see extra evidence you would be happy to provide it.

Make sense?

kamma

Absolutely, thanks.