Where to marry-Taiwan or Canada

Hi all! This is my first time on this board. Glad to see there’s a good resource for those in or wanting to move to Taiwan.

So this is my situation. I’m a Candian living in Canada and my gf is also here, but she’s from Taiwan. We have only been together a few months, but would like to get married. She’s here on some sort of work/study visa but it’s about to expire in a couple weeks.
Now I know some of you will be concerned that she might just be looking for spousal sponsorship, but in fact she doesn’t care where we live. Taiwan or Canada. We’re both in our late 30’s and both have our heads on straight. We also want to have a child together, but at her age there’s no time to waste!

Anyway…we plan on moving back to Taiwan (I’ve never been) to get married and then back to Canada by Fall 2013 as I want to go back to school (if she is approved for her permanent resident card). In fact, I would like to get married in Canada and apply for PR here, but we are afraid it won’t be approved due to the timing (been together only 3 months, only having a civil ceremony, visa is about to expire, etc…) If rejected while in Canada we can’t appeal and it takes longer to get the PR 12-18 months instead of 6-12 months out of country.

I wonder what would be better…having a quick civil ceremony done here in Canada and then moving to Taiwan, or getting married after arriving in Taiwan. My fear is if we get married in Canada with only a couple weeks left on her visa it will look like we are only getting married for her PR.

In case it matters…after arriving in Taiwan I hope to find work teaching. I taught in Korea for 5 years and am eager to teach again.

If anyone has any info regarding this situation I’d really appreciate it. I’m wondering if there would be less hoops to jump through if we got married before moving to Taiwan or after. And would the shorter processing period apply to her if we married in Canada and then applied for PR from Taiwan, or do we need to marry in Taiwan for that to take effect.

Thanks all!

[quote=“obwannabe”]Hi all! This is my first time on this board. Glad to see there’s a good resource for those in or wanting to move to Taiwan.

So this is my situation. I’m a Candian living in Canada and my gf is also here, but she’s from Taiwan. We have only been together a few months, but would like to get married. She’s here on some sort of work/study visa but it’s about to expire in a couple weeks.
Now I know some of you will be concerned that she might just be looking for spousal sponsorship, but in fact she doesn’t care where we live. Taiwan or Canada. We’re both in our late 30’s and both have our heads on straight. We also want to have a child together, but at her age there’s no time to waste!

Anyway…we plan on moving back to Taiwan (I’ve never been) to get married and then back to Canada by Fall 2013 as I want to go back to school (if she is approved for her permanent resident card). In fact, I would like to get married in Canada and apply for PR here, but we are afraid it won’t be approved due to the timing (been together only 3 months, only having a civil ceremony, visa is about to expire, etc…) If rejected while in Canada we can’t appeal and it takes longer to get the PR 12-18 months instead of 6-12 months out of country.

I wonder what would be better…having a quick civil ceremony done here in Canada and then moving to Taiwan, or getting married after arriving in Taiwan. My fear is if we get married in Canada with only a couple weeks left on her visa it will look like we are only getting married for her PR.

In case it matters…after arriving in Taiwan I hope to find work teaching. I taught in Korea for 5 years and am eager to teach again.

If anyone has any info regarding this situation I’d really appreciate it. I’m wondering if there would be less hoops to jump through if we got married before moving to Taiwan or after. And would the shorter processing period apply to her if we married in Canada and then applied for PR from Taiwan, or do we need to marry in Taiwan for that to take effect.

Thanks all![/quote]

Talk to an immigration consultant in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Montreal or Halifax. :2cents:

[quote=“obwannabe”]

Anyway…we plan on moving back to Taiwan (I’ve never been) to get married and then back to Canada by Fall 2013 as I want to go back to school (if she is approved for her permanent resident card). In fact, I would like to get married in Canada and apply for PR here, but we are afraid it won’t be approved due to the timing (been together only 3 months, only having a civil ceremony, visa is about to expire, etc…) If rejected while in Canada we can’t appeal and it takes longer to get the PR 12-18 months instead of 6-12 months out of country.

I wonder what would be better…having a quick civil ceremony done here in Canada and then moving to Taiwan, or getting married after arriving in Taiwan. My fear is if we get married in Canada with only a couple weeks left on her visa it will look like we are only getting married for her PR.

In case it matters…after arriving in Taiwan I hope to find work teaching. I taught in Korea for 5 years and am eager to teach again.

If anyone has any info regarding this situation I’d really appreciate it. I’m wondering if there would be less hoops to jump through if we got married before moving to Taiwan or after. And would the shorter processing period apply to her if we married in Canada and then applied for PR from Taiwan, or do we need to marry in Taiwan for that to take effect.

Thanks all![/quote]

Get married in Canada and apply for your JFRV (allows you work rights in Taiwan through marriage) at the TECO nearest to you in Canada. That will give you open work rights as soon as you land in Taiwan. With regards to getting her Canadian PR, you can apply for that in Taiwan as there is no benefit in doing it in-country back in Canada. It can be done just as easily out of country applying at the nearest consulate. As soon as you land in Taiwan to teach, start applying for PR for your wife in Canada. It takes 12 to 18 months as it now gets processed in HK at the Canadian consulate there, not in Taipei as it used to (it only took me about 6 months to get my wife PR when it was processed in Taipei). You’ll have to do a medical at a sanctioned clinic in Taiwan (will cost about 1500NT or so) and fill in about 30 pages or so of forms. After it is processed in HK, she’ll get an Canadian immigrant PR visa stamped on her ROC passport and you can move back whenever you want.

Canada’s processing time at Immigration and Citizenship Canada is bloody slow and a bit of a disgrace in my opinion. In fact, outside of spousal applications, they’ve suspended processing extended family applications at the moment because of the huge backlog. To deal with this suspension of applications, they have created a super family visiting visa that allows extended family members up to two years per visit but it has nothing to do with PR. In others words and in practical terms, you can apply for PR for her, but not for her parents etc.

If you move back to Canada on a spousal immigration visa and your wife gains three years of residency as a PR, she can then apply for citizenship after she passes a very hard social-studies related exam (if she fails she will have to meet a judge for an oral interview). Processing time for citizenship. Almost another two years!!!

Canada wants to attract the best immigrants but it takes them years to process what it takes countries like Singapore a few months. Not a good signal to send to investors, spouses, and the Asians it so desperately wants to attract. :2cents:

So what is my advice? Rather than deal with submitting an application in Taiwan for a JFRV, submit the paperwork to TECO in Canada while still in Canada where it will be easier to obtain criminal background stuff, free medical tests, authentication of docs at TECO etc. Then once in Taiwan where you plan to work anyways, start the PR process toute suite after arriving as it will take time! [quote]

Talk to an immigration consultant in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Montreal or Halifax. [/quote]

No need. The info is pretty straightforward and available on websites. Most consultants, especially in other countries advising on Canadian immigration, are as useless as tits on a bull, and at worst fraudulent! :2cents: :laughing:

If you feel wedding is about the couple, then do it in Canada. If you feel like wedding is just for the parents and family, do it in Taiwan.

:thumbsup:

Also bear in mind that a contested divorce is virtually impossible in Taiwan. Just FYI :whistle:

I would go with ChewDawg’s excellent advice.

I echo bigjohn - talk to a consultant. we did worth every penny at $1000.00 cnd. all rules and wait times are new as of january 2013. amd if you havent been together that long amd want kids…finley comments also echo home if things dont workout…but if you both work well together and have similar ideas and directions in life with good communication.

taiwan is a fun place but I would highly siggest lots of language lessons when you get here so yiu are indepemdantly functional.