Getting Married in Canada on a Visitor Visa?

[almostkewl]

I'm Canadian and my girlfriend is Taiwanese. We are going back to Canada at the end of September for two weeks, she has a visitor visa. Does anyone know if there's any problems with getting married while we're there? We're coming back Oct 10. and are also having a wedding in Taiwan in Nov.

I heard at Customs they will ask if you are planning on getting married, and if you say yes you'll have to interview to try and prove that your plan to get married isn't a scam to bring someone into the country.

[kene]

Hey,
you shouldn't have any problems, however you might be asked for a "letter of no objection" from her country, stating that there Taiwan Government doesn't have any objection to her marriage - you will need to get your papers started ASAP, as you need to get a marriage licence which can take a few days.
A friend of mine was married to a Korean at City hall, and found out when he was about to get married, that his letters saying his marriage licence was approved, wasn't the actual licence, and he had to rush down to the marriage licence (same building, but big lineup) and get the actual licence, they also needed the letter of no objection from Korea.
i was married in Bangladesh, and discovered that i should have sponsored my girlfriend to come to Canada and gotten married there, now, it's impossible for us to go to Canada for a visit, as they will ONLY give her a permanent residence, based on us planning to Permanently reside in Canada. Also, now married, i am the only one who can sponsor her, and living abroad on a tourist visa, it's pretty hard to qualify.

the long and short, get married in Canada. FYI, last time i went back to Canada (sadly alone) the immigration officer asked me why i didn't bring my wife, and understood that i was unable to get a VISA for my wife, She told me not to loose hope, and sympathized with my situation. It's my experience that the Canadian Bureaucratic system is totally without emotion, but when you enter the human officers, unless you get some real sod and a bad day, if you are genuinly in love, you won't have any problems.

[bushu]

I am from bangladesh. What is the letter of no objection? What do u need it for? How do you use it? When is it used? I want to get married to my bf who is canadian and migrate so what do i do?

[kene]

Bushi, we are hijacking this thread. (Moderator, feel free to split this into a new thread if you like).
I assume you are in Australia now, but carry a Bangladesh Passport?
If you can get a Tourist visa for Canada, which will make your life much easier, you may want to try while in Australia as in Bangladesh the official chance is 5%. Once you are married to a Canadian, it's virtually impossible for a Bangladeshi to get a tourist visa, you’ve got a 1% chance. You will be told to get Permanent Residence instead, which is a long, tedious expensive process, and could end up with you two living apart for up to 3 years, he in Canada, and you in Bangladesh. In the official documents, it says that you can apply for a tourist visa after applying for Permanent Residence, but the refusal rate remains very high. I know one couple, both very well off, who got her PR card in a little less than a year but they had to live apart till everything was approved.
On the Canadian Gov website, it says that the sponsor’s application can take up to 9 months, and the Bangladeshi's application can take up to another 2 years. It says if you submit both applications together, it's faster, and you can appeal if sponsorship is denied, otherwise you’ll have to start all over again.
If your Canadian spouce remains in Bangladesh with you, income will not be considered for sponsorship, and the application process can take less time – we’re about to find out!
Before you are married, visiting Canada is possible if you can 'prove' that you must return to Bangladesh, Money - and a lot of it (in other words 6 months of bank statements that show a big balance), is the key proof that Canada seeks, as well as your education, family ties, etc. You can be sponsored (invited officially) by anyone, but once you are married, the ONLY person allowed to sponsor you is your spouse, and not even his parents will be considered in the application. I know far more people who have been refused Canadian tourist VISA's than those who have been approved.
Once in Canada you can get married, then start the immigration process there - together. you may have to leave Canada before it's completed, and you'll have to leave and return to actually get the PR card, but your husband can leave with you. Outside Canada, Bangladeshi’s must apply through the Canadian High Commission in Singapore; the Visa application center for Dhaka doesn’t do it, and is no help – they’ll tell you to check the Canadian government website.
As for staying in Bangladesh: There is a relatively unknown TF Visa (Tourist Family) which I currently have, it's the same price as a normal tourist visa, you can get single and multiple entry, and you can get it for up to 5 years, it's automatically renewable. So your husband, once the initial checks are done, should have little trouble staying with you in Bangladesh if you need to stay together in Bangladesh. Employment is strictly prohibited on such a visa, and you'll need a police report, the affidavit and marriage certificate if Christian, you might only get a 3 month TF visa outside Bangladesh, but it’s relatively easy to extend once you are in Bangladesh, problem we faced is that the foreign Bangladesh consulate may or may not know what to do, one friend had no problem getting 3 months TF in Tibet, while we in Nepal only got a 30 day tourist visa, the Dhaka office converted that into a TF once we explained the problem - can't get a Bangladesh police report in Nepal.

Getting married in Bangladesh is done according to your faith. So if you are Muslim, you will need to have an Affidavit signed by a Notary Public on a 100 taka (if i recall correctly) stamp. If you are Christian, you will need a Church Certificate also. For Bangladesh Immigration you are required to get the Affidavit, and this can be done anytime, we got ours after returning to Bangladesh from our Honeymoon. The pastor who married us required my parent’s approval, my church approval and my wife's baptism certificate, and "a Letter of No Objection" from Canada. Some countries where Marriage is controlled by the state, will write a letter saying they have no LEGAL objection to your marriage, unless: if you are already married, or whatever. In the case of Canada, they don't have any such controls so they will write you a "letter in lieu of a no objection certificate" which is accepted here. For this letter you will need to pay $50.00 Canadian in Taka - gotta love capitalism - and it takes about 1 week to produce, you have to go to the High Commission in Dhaka and request the letter personally.
Hope some of this is helpful. A lot we learned after the fact, like it would have been better for my wife to have gone to Canada BEFORE our wedding, we assumed the opposite, and now we are facing a lot of problems in my wife coming to Canada, i had to return to move from my old apartment, and it was very shameful to not have my wife with me, I am very ashamed and angry about this prejudice against my Bangladeshi wife, and resent the fact that i am compelled to lie about wishing to remain permanently in Canada so my wife can Visit my parents, see Niagara falls, and return to Bangladesh where we both happier. Thankfully our children are automatically Canadian regardless of where in the world they are born. I’m hoping that our newborn child will be allowed to bring her mother along to visit her new country so that she doesn’t starve to death, but i’m sure some bureaucratic has that impossible too.

[bushu]

Yeap i am in australia holding a bangladesh passport. I plan to get married in canada itself so I would still need a tourist visa? what if i want to work while i wait for citizenship?
Ok so if i get married in canada, everything is alright? Can i get married without my parents? If I cannot prove money, education, family ties, etc, what happens? My family is not going to be a part of my life with my bf.
How do I 'prove' that i can return to Bangladesh? What if I do not want to return there? I never lived there i was born and raised elsewhere.
You said I have to apply through the canadian high commission in singapore, how about the one in australia?
still confused.
Thanks

[kene]

First two questions are easy, the rest - not so easy.
you can get married in Canada on pretty much any VISA - i know of several examples.
If you want to work in Canada, you will need an employment visa, which is much harder to get than a tourist visa - as your employer will have to show they NEED you, and no Canadian wants the job. You also need to enter Canada on this visa, you can't change once you are here without leaving the country (24h in US will work, but to do that you will need a US visa)
Number 3 - once married everything isn't alright, you will still need to apply for a PR to permanently stay in Canada, and this can be a very lengthy process. You can remain in Canada on the visa you arrived on, but you will need to leave should the visa run out and your PR status not yet granted. Where you go will depend on your ability to get a VISA elsewhere.
In Canada you can get married without your parents. Your marriage in Canada however should be legal in both your countries. In Bangladesh you can get married without your parents permission, but it's uncommon.
how do you prove that you will return to Bangladesh? good question! my personal opinion is that you show a HUGE bank balance. It's also my personal opinion that this is a load of rubbish, and what Canada really cares about is that you will bring to Canada a boat load of cash, and not end up on welfare (social services), however i do joke with my wife that the simplest way to get into Canada would be to claim refugee status, maybe she is being persecuted in Bangladesh because she is a bangladeshi married to a white bedeshi christian canadian, and she is being persecuted as a result.

Now - more seriously. You say you were not born in Bangladesh. If you were born in Australia, do you not have the right to Australian citizenship, that will make getting a tourist visa immensely simpler, as Canada is prejudiced against bangladeshi's and it's far far more difficult for a Bangladeshi to get a visa than an Australian. In fact, the Swiss ambassador in Dhaka suggested that we should go to switzerland, get citizenship there, then both of us travel to Canada on an EU passport - it would take less than 3 years. I could get an EU passport through my father who was born in Scottland, and actually this is a very tempting idea! It's sad that the simplest way for my wife and i to visit Canada is to give up my Canadian citizenship, but there you have it.

Of course, in your case you wish to settle in Canada, ultimately this will require you get PR. That's not going to be a fast process for any nationality, so you should start asap. One thing that my wife and I did do was get legally married at the earliest convenience, This allowed us to start processing legal documents (namely her passport) so that when we were married as per our wish, we would be able to go on our honeymoon outside Bangladesh. We had also thought to apply for her Canadian Tourist visa before being guaranteed a refusal.

so it boils down to two things, Do you have a lot of money? (don't answer that, just think about it) and can you show that you are not going to be living on Welfare (social services) if you go to Canada. Your education (where, major study) your work experience, your English ability (obviously pretty good), property you own, etc. so on and so forth. Canada uses a point system for immigration:
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/ ... /index.asp
http://www.cic.gc.ca/ENGLISH/informatio ... s/EG74.asp
http://www.workpermit.com/canada/points_calculator.htm
http://www.canada-city.ca/canada-immigr ... ssageid=33
(only the first two links are from the official government website - they might not be the right guide for you, but i hope it's a good starting place - the gc.ca website is a tangled mess)

One other thing to consider is to apply for immigration to Canada on your own. As sponsorship once you are married is limited to your husband, if he isn't going to be any help, you might wish to immigrate on your own merit or with sponsorship from an employer, another relative, his parents or whatever (i'm not really sure what, but that's the feeling i get). As you can see - the worksheet is for employment based immigration allocates most of the points for your ability, not your accompanying spouse. When you try for PR based as a spouse, your application can rely totally (if he fails to qualify as a sponsor) or largely (if he is a borderline sponsor) on your spouse, and not your merit at all.

regardless, as you are not only in Australia, but have never lived in Bangladesh, you will likely find that immigration will be easier for you, how much easier i can't say. First things to find out are, how much easier would it be for you if you held a passport (citizenship) from the country where you are born. Canada not only wants to know what your citizenship is, but your birth place) so that will make a difference even if you don't have citizenship. Canada and Bangladesh both allow for dual citizenship.
I don't know if you can apply for immigration to Canada from the Australian High commission, what i do know is that we can't apply from the Delhi High commission, which is a lot closer and easier for us to go to. We have been told that we can only apply from Singapore. However, if you were born in Australia - that might have some bearing on where you can apply from. Also - keep in mind that the people in Australia are going to be issuing you your visa, and they probably aren't so accustomed to refusing VISA's to bangladeshi's as the office here in Dhaka is.
I would strongly advice you to go there or if it's too far, phone them, and speak to someone there to find out what they can/will do for you.

[bushu]

hi can we chat? like online sometime? i still wanna tlak about this
can we? tell me which messenger you use.

hope to see u sometime soon

Thank You

[bushu]

hi again after a long time.

I guess chatting is not an option. I want to go visit my boyfriend in february and get married then. However, I cannot find the tourist family visa online anywhere. And there is no such thing as a visitor visa. Only a temporary resident visa. This is very frustrating. How hard can it be to get a visitor visa to a country. I have never seen this before. What country wants to see your bank details and person whom you want to visit? I have never seen this before, even when visiting USA.

So do I have to apply for the tourist family visa from Singapore? If so, that is very very stupid. Every embassy should provide visa options for all countries.

I have been trying to contact the high commission in Singapore, Dhaka, Sydney. No reply. I feel like stomping over and strangle the words "we'll do it for you here" from the Sydney office.

There is no way I'm going back to Bangladesh because I am a convert and I'm not in touch with my family. What the hell am I going to do?

This may sound stalker-like, but I could stay over with you until i get my freakin visa so I can finally go see my boyfriend and be joined in holy matrimony, FINALLY.

HELP! cryy