If you're in a relationship with a Cuban citizen, then you have thought about having them visit you in Canada. It may feel too soon for marriage - maybe you want to spend more time together before making such a serious decision. Maybe your relationship is new and you want to get to know your new partner better before deciding on forever.
Whatever your reason, it is completely reasonable for you to want your Cuban boyfriend or girlfriend to visit you in Canada before you decide to get married and possibly sponsor them. Even if you already know that they are "the one," it is only natural for them to want to see their new home in Canada before they move into it.
For most Cuban citizens, there are only two Canadian immigration options with a realistic likelihood of approval:
If you are a Canadian citizen or permanent resident in a relationship with a Cuban citizen, you are eligible to invite them to visit you in Canada. To do this, you have to submit an application for a visitor visa (TRV) to Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada. The processing time for a visitor visa from Cuba is approximately 10 days.
If you have submitted a visitor visa application before and it was refused, please see our other article about visitor visa refusals.
If this would be your first application for a visitor visa for your Cuban boyfriend or girlfriend, then there are several factors that immigration officers consider when evaluating applications.
Financial considerations: Both the Canadian inviter and the Cuban applicant need to demonstrate that they have sufficient financial resources to pay for the expenses from the proposed trip to Canada - any person who appears unable or unwilling to support themselves while in Canada is considered inadmissible.
Ties to home country: The Cuban applicant needs to show that they have reasons to go home at the end of their visit to Canada such as family and financial obligations. One of the most common reasons for refusal is that the officer does not believe that the Cuban will leave Canada.
Travel history: Most Cubans don't hold a passport. Even fewer have ever left Cuba. This is frequently cited as a reason for refusal of a visitor visa application - officers believe that the Cuban will not leave Canada because they cannot show that they have entered and left another country before. A lack of travel history can be overcome, but needs to be addressed.
If you do not believe that your Cuban boyfriend or girlfriend will meet the requirements for a Canadian visitor visa, or their application has been refused before, then sponsorship is usually the only other option to bring them to Canada.
In this situation, you would need to marry them or live together for one full year to be considered common-law partners. As Cubans are frequently refused visas to other countries, most Canadians in relationships with Cubans get married in Cuba.
Once you are married, you are eligible to submit a sponsorship application for your Cuban spouse. Officers reviewing sponsorship applications look at completely different criteria for approval than they do for visitor visas.
For this reason, even if your visitor visa application was refused, this will not necessarily have a negative effect on your sponsorship application. Officers reviewing sponsorship applications are most concerned that the Canadian sponsor and the Cuban applicant meet the eligibility requirements and are in a genuine relationship.
These are usually the best options for bringing your Cuban girlfriend or boyfriend to Canada.
Canadian study permits are not usually a good option for Cubans, as they do not usually meet the financial requirements for a study permit or the extremely high international student tuition fees.
Work permits are even less likely to be a good option because Cubans need a job offer from an employer who must have a positive Labour Market Impact Assessment.
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In order to determine the best option for you and your Cuban partner, we recommend that you contact our office.
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