Sponsoring my Wife

[jonokrause2018]

Hello everyone and good day,

I have been in a relationship with my (now wife) spouse since 2011 (Thankfully Facebook keeps a message backup of all our chat records since 2011), and I have visited her 3 times in Cambodia in the last 3 years, and have the photos to show, as well as just got married in Dec in a ceremony in Cambodia (also have photos for that as well) the issue is (and anyone from Cambodia will understand) is that for the actual marriage certificate the government screwed us, we had all the documents needed and all I had to do was submit a document with my finger print on it from the local government to the ministry of the interior, however things as they may be, the last 3 days I was in cambodia (I had been there for 2 months) the ministry of the interior changed the rules so we could not get the finger prints they needed for the marriage certificate in time, so instead we decided in May for her to come here for 1 week so we can marry in Canada and then she can go home to Cambodia and I can start the outland spousal sponsorship process, or be failing that we will meet in Hong Kong for a civil marriage

I am sorry for the long-windedness of the explanation, the question I have is, if we applied for a TRV and for some reason or another it gets rejected when we eventually do go for the sponsorship process, will that hurt our chances of her getting here if the TRV she applied for was rejected? and 2nd, if we did apply for the TRV, would it be a good idea to just be honest and upfront about her reasons to come here which would be "Coming to Canada for 1 week to have a civil marriage with my fiance and then leaving back to Cambodia to start the sponsorship process?" the last thing I ever want to do is lie to CIC about her intentions and thus hurt her chances of processing the application. and I guess 3rd, does anyone know how long the sponsorship process can take for Cambodia, I know the CIC brags about the fact that they process applications within 12 months for 80% of the applications.....but I think Cambodia is probably in the 20% thank you all so much for your time and I cant wait to hear everyone's thoughts on this Cheers!

- Jon

 

[Riley Haas]

Hi,
Let me try to answer your questions:
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[*]The sponsored spouse getting rejected for a TRV is not an issue for sponsorship applications unless that spouse is inadmissible to Canada in some way (criminal record, health concerns) so, normally, it has no effect.
[*]You should be honest however if the only reason is that she is coming here to marry you so you have a marriage certificate, the application will be refused. You need to prove that she is coming here to visit you and that she will return to Cambodia before her entry stamp expires. If you say it's for the marriage, and you are going to do outland, you should make sure there's a purchased plane ticket and proof she needs to return home (job, etc.).
[*]Sponsorship is 12 months right now for basically any country. We haven't seen too many delays lately.
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