how to marry ina civil ceremoney and then get her a canadian visa

vicshere says on Jan 8, 2007, 08:18:

well after you marry you have to be back in Canada then make an application to sponsor your new wife.....depending on her back ground and children it may take as little as 6 months to a year before she can come to Canada legally....you will have to show proof of marriage including pictures of you 2 together .... she will need stuff like medical clearance....justice clearance.....I heard the costs for immigration Canada have come down a bit.....5 years ago it was something like 1700 bucks of fees
also check this out
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/faq/family-2.html
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/applications/guides/5289ETOC.html

listo
"con mucho gusto"
Vic

listo

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jfsawatzky says on Jan 8, 2007, 10:56:

FYI check out colombianBlog.com... there are a couple Canadians who posted their experiences with the Permanet Resident visa process... that is the visa to sponsor your spouse. For the two who have completed and posted their experiences, the process took approx 1 year for each of them. It is a long thread to read through, but quite informative. One comment, I think both their spouses had complicating factors, so if your spouse has nothing out of the ordinary (ie working / living out of the country more than six monthes, without children etc) then you may be lucky and have the visa within six monthes or so.

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jfsawatzky says on Jan 8, 2007, 11:00:

search the site Also, do a search as there have been previous posts / threads regarding Canadian visas, requirements for marriage specific for Canadians... (ie apostile of documents does not exist in Canada, as Canada failed to sign the Hague convention regarding apostilles. So if I remember correctly, you need to:
1. notarize the documents,
2. send those docs to Foreign Affairs in Ottawa to authenticate the notary stamp,
3. send those docs to the Colombian embassy/consulate in your area, so they can authenticate the previous FA stamp,
4. send the docs to bogota to authenticate the embassy stamp...
5. translate docs to spanish
6. present to notary in colombia...
yes, what a PAIN IN THE BUTT... but, depending on which consulate, and /or notary in colombia you deal with, etc you may find that not all these steps are required, but I believe this is the 'official' process, according to the consul in Ottawa)
Most of the other steps required for Americans apply to Canadians... except for you need a search letter from the province where you reside stating that you have not been married. That's all I can think of right now... but if I remember anything else, I will add that later. Good luck.

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Lovelysanandres says on Jan 8, 2007, 11:58:

TRY SAN ANDRES... The easyiest place to have a civil wedding in Colombia is San Andres Island, where request passport..this will make your tramit & life easier.
actually at this momeny Airtransat has a straight flight from Toronto & montreal to san Andres in a very good rates.

It is a good option

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jfsawatzky says on Jan 8, 2007, 15:10:

Lovelysanandres and Canadians... Lovelysanandres...

I am compelled to correct you on one aspect of what you posted above... at least in respect to Canadians who marry a colombian(as far as the research I conducted 6 months ago... and if anyone has contradictory or more current information, please post a reply). While it is not your responsiblity to know all the requirements of all countries, I need to point out that some people may not consider that there are two parties (Colombian and the Canadian authorities) that will be involved with the immigration process, and the implications of this (the Canadian authorities need to accept the marriage as legal / valid). So when you state that only a passport is required for a civil marriage in San Andres, while being true, may lead people to believe that said marriage MAY (or MAY NOT) be recognized as legal in / by Canadian authorities (this situation may also apply to other countries, but I cannot elaborate on this).

Now, the reason why I am writing this, is that I came across some indicators when I was researching my upcoming marriage, that the Canadian authorities MAY NOT (emphasis MAY NOT) accept a marriage performed on San Andres as legal/valid. I have not verified this info, as it does not apply in my situation, but I need to recommend that any Canadians, or any foreigner needs to verify that a marriage on San Andres meets the requirements of their home country. Contact Immigration Canada and / or the Canadian Consulate in Bogota to verify the legality of a San Andres wedding. (I would hate to have someone run into trouble after marrying a Colombian on San Andres, and find out later the marriage is not valid/legal in the eyes of their government.)

(A side note, I do not understand why the Canadian government would not accept a San Andres wedding... To paraphrase what I recall... The government will accept any local marriage that meets the local requirements. So, if a marriage on San Andres only requires a passport, why does Canada not accept the marriage as valid? I do not know the answer)

Again, if any Canadians have been married on San Andres with a colombian, who have completed the visa process, please correct me if any of this info is inaccurate, or if the situation has changed over the last 6 months.

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Lovelysanandres says on Jan 9, 2007, 09:49:

I know for a fact I know personnaly, couples made by a Colombian person and Canadians citizan and get married without problems in here, actually, not more than three months Canadian girls with San Andres guys which they met in the last vacations.

they are again in hollidays in here, I will ask her to tell their story exactly how thay did, and we found out, like this we all know.

promes..write you soon

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Lovelysanandres says on Jan 9, 2007, 10:31:

sponsor well, it seems it is not a problem with San andres, All the procedure to bring your Colombian wife it has to be done in Canada, you need to call : 1 888 242-2100 (in Canada only) they will give you all the info, tell them, you are getting married in Colombia- San Andres, CIVIL WAY and you want to sponsor your wife.

After you get married in San Andres or other city in Colombia you must take your certificate to valid at the Superintendencia de Notariado (calle 26-13-49), Bogota. in Bogota "YOU MUST" they stamp and make it valid , it will take 5 minutes and then translate it in english by a autorize translator, once it hAs been traslate the certificate it needs to be take to the Minister of foreigner relations in Bogota also,(calle 98 No.17-32) pay ($ 25.000) about 12 dolars and then it iS done, Canada it is part of the haya Convetions so it is valid.
Once with your certification the rest is the sponsor part,(Then you need some pacient it can atke some months, call the 1800 number in the top.

hope this help....anyway I gonna try to speak with the girls I was taking about they are in the isalnd right now

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jfsawatzky says on Jan 9, 2007, 15:04:

LSA ... thanks for update LSA...
Thanks for the valuable update!!! I certainly hope this will help any Canadians that want to marry on the island.
A couple questions and a comment....
Have your friends completed the visa process? Did they experience any issues either in Canada or at the embassy when the visa was being processed?
With respect to the haya (hague) conventions... Canada has signed many, but the one that is relevant in this case has to do with the authentication of foreign documents (offically the Hague Convention on Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Documents 1961)...at least I believe this is the one to which you refer when you said 'Canada it is part of the haya Convetions so it is valid'
Canada has not signed this convention (unless Canada has ratified it within the last six months), and as such does not recognize apostilles. So the process I outlined is required to use Canadian docs in Colombia... and I believe the steps you outlined above with taking the marriage license to bogota, and having it stamped at the various places is the same process in reverse. (thanks for the info by the way... i will need to do this within a couple weeks)
Part of me certainly wishes we would marry on the island, as this would have prevented many of the hassles I had when I was organizing my documents.
THANKS AGAIN LSA!!!

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jinksmiester says on Jan 24, 2007, 18:34:

info... i am in the process of doing just what you have suggested...married in a civil cerimony and my documents for my wifes pr visa are now in bogota...in order for the marraige to be valid there are a number of documents you will need that have to be translated and apostilla,s.
i reccomend you do what i did...contact a colombian embassy in canada and they will tell what documents are required...ask them to fax you a list...of whats required and what has to be officially translated ....noterized...etc...some of these documents will need appostilla,s from a canadian embassy as well...so i would then talk to them so all your ducks are in a row,(its a pain in the ass but at least then there are no questions its legal)and its doubtful it will be if you don,t follow these steps....the sponsorship and pr visa app can be downloaded from canada,s imigration website...it has all the information there so i won,t go into that...cost is i believe 1150.bucks. it took about 7 weeks to have the sponsorship approved for my wife...and our pr documents are in bogota since oct /o6 now gathering dust....bogota does not move quickly but making sure you have everthing they require in your application will help when they finally look at your app....average processing times in bogota are posted on canada,s immigration website....30% are done in 8 months...50%in 11months...80%in 15 months....there is nothing you can do to speed up the process unless you know someone there you can bribe with cash...canada,s embasssy in bogota is a stone wall that will not accept phone calls...and will probably not answer if you write or email...if they do respond its months later..not weeks.
ive heard of british people taking there wives home in 3 days...ive heard of europeans taking there wives home in 20 days...and manny other countrys are similar...but the canadian embassy in bogota is one of slowest on the planet...god help you if you are a canadian like me...because immigration canada certainly will not....you just have to wait for the slow burocratic wheels to turn...hope this helps...any questions feel free to email..

A man is not old until regret takes the place of dreams

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