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Harry Yung with his wife, Thu, and their baby, Jessica, in Vancouver. Photo: Petti Fong

Documenting courtship eases Vietnamese bride's entry to Canada

Petti Fong in Vancouver

LIFE
Petti Fong

Harry Yung wasn't looking for love when he posted an ad online for a tour guide in Vietnam, where he was heading on holiday. But when he felt a romantic connection with the woman who replied, the Canadian of Chinese-Vietnamese descent knew one thing: everything about their relationship had to be recorded.

A training document for Citizenship and Immigration department officers in Canada, which became public last month following a freedom of information request, confirmed that Yung's instinct had been right: officials had been instructed to watch out for bogus marriages involving Chinese people.

There are, according to the document, some red flags to be aware of when looking for a fake union: a graduate from China marrying an uneducated Canadian on welfare is deemed suspicious, as are wedding pictures that do not include many family members and in which couples do not kiss on the lips. The bride's lack of a diamond ring in a wedding picture is also considered to be dubious.

The manual has been accused by some of being racist, for targeting Chinese.

But Nancy Caron, spokeswoman for Citizenship and Immigration Canada, tells that the Canadian government does not discriminate against applicants based on their country of origin or ethnicity: "We will continue to protect the integrity of our immigration system against abuses such as marriage fraud."

Allan Nicholls, president of the Canadian Expat Association, says, for most people, documenting a relationship isn't a common habit when they start dating.

"By the time you start thinking you might have to document things, you may have missed opportunities such as holidays. People falling in love aren't taking photos assuming they may need them later to show [to immigration]," he says.

But that is exactly what Yung did.

"It was a matter of showing immigration that we built a relationship over time. A lot of [couples who enter] fake marriages might have emails or Skype messages saying, 'I love you', but I made sure we had mundane messages about what I made for dinner, what she had for lunch."

Yung married Thu in Vietnam after they had been dating long distance for a year. When he wanted his wife to join him in Canada, he wasn't worried that immigration officials would uncover something bogus about his marriage, but he did fear a delay. If immigration had asked the couple to sit down for an interview to confirm their relationship, it could have added another year to the proceedings.

Last year, Thu arrived in Canada in time to give birth to their baby, Jessica.

Yung knows people who have waited three years to bring their spouses over. He thinks his planning helped shorten the process to seven months.

Their baby is now six months old, and the couple have lots of pictures and videos to show her.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: CITY SCOPE Love: the whole story
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