مهاجرت آگاهانه و موفق Successful and Smart Immigration

Ali Mokhtari

In its initial definition, marriage is a happy bond between two people and is indeed nothing but a legalization of the passion and the interest that exist between them. Sometimes, each of these two people is living in a different part of the world, yet a loving relationship has been formed between them anyway. In this case, immigration regulations come to the rescue of the lovers and allow them to lead their love life in a common land. In other words, one of them immigrates to the country where his/her beloved one lives in order to join him/her and get married. The dominant law in this regard is that the host countries pave the way for and respect this legitimate demand of the couples to be together and get them together as soon as possible. So far, this seems quite nice, quite humanitarian, but sometimes, couples have to wait a long time and face many obstacles in meeting their beloved ones. What are the reasons for this?

Since a larger number of people in Iran and many other countries decide to immigrate, yet immigration laws and regulations are becoming stricter and stricter every day, many people resort to shortcuts, even to cheating, to reach their goals. After exploiting asylum regulations, which are primarily intended for special cases and only for those whose lives are endangered in their home country, exploiting the immigration regulations for the spouses of the citizens of the host country is indeed prevalent. In other words, many people marry only for the sake of immigration and unlike the first group, try to find a person and to file a fake marriage in order to be admitted to the host country. On the other hand, there are some people who, for the sake of the money they thereby make, are willing to get involved in this illegal process and to help these fake couples. This process has turned into a business for some people who want to make a considerable amount of money quickly. A woman who had been living in Canada for many years came to me and asked me if it was possible to sponsor a third spouse.

Another subgroup of the second group does not even pay any money to achieve their goals, but they just leverage their art of coquetry. A little while ago, the Canadian press reproduced many stories about young African boys who tried to seduce those lonely Quebecois women who were desperately seeking husbands in social forums. These cunning young people, who could not immigrate legally, deceived those lonely women to marry them. The women, happy to have found a young and fresh husband, did anything to bring their beloved ones under the same roof and to start a happy life. But the young cads, upon arriving in Canada, left the women, only adding to their loneliness and disappointment. These victims not only lost the money they had spent on the immigration of their spouses, but also returned heart-broken from the airport, as the fake lovers left them as soon as they had arrived at the airport.

Laws and regulations of immigrant-accepting countries consider immigration for the sake of marriage legal, but marriage for the sake of immigration illegal and in some cases a crime. Indeed, the behavior of the second group has coloured the reputation of the first one and is actually an obstacle in the way of immediate fulfillment of the legal request of real couples to be together, because, on one hand, governments have to spend a lot of time verifying the claims in order to make sure that the one who claims to be a spouse wanting to meet his/her spouse is telling the truth and is not cheating, and on the other hand, they have to pass some regulations to guarantee the efficiency of their future verifications.

As far as Canada is concerned, last year, following some complaints filed by such victims, the Immigration Ministry started to enforce stricter regulations. On one hand, the processing duration for applications has been prolonged, because more accurate and stricter processing was required for these applications; factors like age differences, the length of relationships, and the extent to which the families were involved regarding the customs and traditions of the home country, were taken closely into consideration; in some cases, spouses claiming to love each other are even invited for a (rather breathtaking) interview.

On the other hand, in order to make sure that fake spouses are not able to easily implement their plots, a law has been passed based on which couples married for less than two years cannot immediately gain permanent residence, their residence remaining conditional on the lasting of their marriage for at least two years. Also, many years ago, a five-year limitation was set for applicants wanting to sponser a second spouse, a limitation still in place. Therefore, a person who has sponsored his/her spouse should wait for five years after divorce before he/she tries sponsoring a second spouse.

In short, if you intend to get permanent residence, fake marriage is not a legal means of doing so. It is alright to immigrate for the sake of marriage, but it’s a mistake to get married for the sake of immigration.