smivers

Hi all,

I'm getting married on June 5th in Edmonton, and our intention is to live somewhere in Alberta, which is where my fiancée lives and works. There is still a possibility that I'll manage to get a TWP (an employer is interested in me, but doesn't seem to be making much progress on an LMO or ELMO), but it's looking increasingly like I'm going to have to come back to the UK once we're married while we wait for the PR application to go through. Our plan is to get the marriage certificate within a day or three of our wedding, and then submit the paperwork as soon as possible for processing in London. With any luck I'll be able to head back to Canada with her after our honeymoon in Europe in September!

My question is this - how much evidence do we need to provide? I'd have to knock down several small forests to print off all the evidence of our skype conversations, e-mails and phone calls, the photos we've taken and the letters and cards we've sent, but I don't want to risk holding things up by not submitting enough information. Any advice please? Is there any way to submit stuff electronically? I'm trying to sort out as much of the dosier as possible now, before we get too caught up in last-minute-wedding-arrangements!

Also I've confused myself about medicals by reading the rest of the forum - I was under the impression that I need to get a medical and police check done before I apply and send them with the application, but now I'm not so sure...

Thanks in advance!

Andy

el_richo

When we married in Vancouver, we got our marriage cert straight after the ceremony.

I'm not sure why you'd need to leave the country during the processing of your application though. Even if you apply "outland" you're still able to remain in Canada for as long as your visitor allowance permits.

As for evidence. All you'll need is your marriage certificate, your partners birth certificate, a couple of photo's (copies) of your wedding and a couple at other stages of your relationship (i included pictures of myself with my other halfs family). Other than that, you'll include written evidence within the forms so you'll need nothing more.

For the medical and police certificate. Yes you must do these before you send the application and include them within the forms you send.

The total processing time for mine was 3 months end to end.

Waltzing Matilda

Hi Andy,

For PR via spousal sponsorship you do need to have your medicals and police checks done BEFORE you send off your application. You send a photocopy of your medical receipts and the original police certificate.

As for evidence....as you will be married, I wouldn't worry about sending too much stuff. I applied via the common-law route and this is what I sent.
Copy of joint bank statements/RSP contributions
10 photos
4 emails
2 letters from friends stating our relationship was genuine and on-going
Evidence of joint ownership on a truck
Copy of passport stamps from trips we took together
Statements showing each other named as beneficiaries on bank accounts/RSP's

Good luck with your application!

WM
About 5 christmas cards addressed to both of us at the same address
Copy of our rental agreement
Copy of our drivers licences

And that was pretty much all I sent and I just had my passport request about a week ago.

louiseeg

Waltzing Matilda - ive just seen you sent a photocopy of the medicals stuff, i actually sent the form off that they gave me....ah crap. I totally forgot to photocopy that too...crap, do you think that will matter?

smivers - i sent:
8 photos from the wedding
Letters from parents
screen copied skype showing me and my husband chatting
written info about things we did including photos in that
flight info for each
i think thats it, but not sure.

smivers

Takes a few more days in Alberta, I believe! You get a peice of paper at the ceremony that you then take and convert to a proper certificate.

I was under the apparently misguided impression that you had to be in the UK to apply using the outland route - using the inland route would have meant too long spent in Canada without a job under a tourist visa and would have caused money and re-employment issues. We may have to reconsider the plans now though, as 2-4 months might be more manageable.

I assume for the outland route you have to be prepared to travel back to the UK for an interview if required, and you obviously need to send your passport back for the stamp? Are there really no other conditions? Do you have to give residential and mailing addresses in the UK on the forms?


Thanks for the advice!

Waltzing Matilda

You can apply outland even if you are living in Canada. I'm sure that if you wont get called for an interview if you are married/have plenty of evidence to show that your relationship is genuine. I think the interview is for when you don't have a lot of evidence, or if there are doubts about how genuine the relationship is. And yes, you will need to send your passport to London, but I think this takes a maximum of 6 weeks to be sent back to you.

I provided my Canadian residential and mailing address even though I applied outland.

Waltzing Matilda

Shouldn't be a problem. I just sent photocopies in case they lost the originals. Also I needed my originals so I could claim the costs back through my work!!

bflava

i sent alot of evidence but still waitig but within the processing time frame.. 2 months 2 weeks, .

as for photos i sent about 20- 25 of wedding, about 50 of our time together and trips and things like that with family of both parties.. birthdays cards, vals , xmas and just yahoo and skype.

I would say give them what u have but arrange them and make them tell the story too much of everythig too is bad so just weigh it ok.. u will be fine and

make sure u apply for your police cert a month b4 u sent yr application so that u can get it in time to send your application and also your medicals has to be done b4 ..

police n medicals goes with application ok... and do outland..


good luck

blue monday

Hi Andy,

Im in the exact boat too, im getting married a few weeks after you, June 30th, in Edmonton and I have been wondering about the need to print off emails and evidence of skype calls etc. Im quite reassured by waltzing Matilda's comments on what she sent as i don't fancy printing off hundreds of emails etc.

This forum is increasingly reassuring when i read such info, there seems to be a trend of marriage between people from 1st world countries are accepted as genuine etc and just needs a photos and wedding cert.

Waltzing Matilda

I applied via the common-law route (which I'm told requires more evidence than spousal) and I didn't really see the need to send off hundreds of emails/photos etc! I thought that would annoy them more!! To be honest, the only reason I sent emails was to prove when we met, as we met in Thailand and did the long distance thing for a year and a half before I moved to Canada. If you are married I don't see why they would need to see emails between you and your spouse.

el_richo

Nah you'll be fine. Don't worry about it.

thewolfman

I had been married for 4 months by the time the application got sent. Photos and the certificate was the only proof of the wedding . A couple of photos from holidays etc but we didnt sent a lot of proof

J2J

HI i hope this isn't off topic, but we have been collecting evidence of our relationship for a while in preparation to submit application this summer. Could you please tell me how to get a Skype screen copy. I have tried to print the pages, but was unable to figure out how to do it Thanks

louiseeg

do you have a pc or a mac, as i can tell you how to do it on the mac.

smivers

Either select all of the text and paste it into Word (it does some time-based formatting too), or when you have the Skype window selected, hold down Alt and press PrtScn. You can then use the past command in Word or in a picture editor and it will insert a screenshot which you can print.

Andy