Canadian Spousal Visa for Wife with Stage IV

Dan888 · January 2017

Recently married to wife with Stage IV Breast Cancer. She is a Korean national currently undergoing treatment in Korea. I will be quitting my job and moving to Korea to be with her. Her private insurance there doesn't cover 100% of the treatment, so when she starts Kadcyla, both our savings will be depleted rather quickly. At this point it may be wishful thinking for her to get to Canada on a spousal visa, both in terms of time and getting her into Cancer treatment in Canada. Is there any chance I can get her to Canada and into treatment? Just wondering if anyone has any comments or advice on this.

Thank you.

peggy_j · January 2017

Can you considered contacting experts where you live in Canada? Many cancer centers have social workers--they may be able to point you in the right direction. Or...perhaps start by contacting a cancer support center who might also be able to give a referral. I live in the US and when my mom was sick we found a attorney who specializes in health care issues. Maybe you can find someone like that. Best of luck to your and your wife.

Hopeful82014 · January 2017

I would suggest contacting an immigration attorney in Canada.

Beesie · January 2017

I am sorry that you and your new wife find yourself in this situation. I assume you are Canadian?

According to the following website, it will take approx. 12 months to process a spousal application. http://www.cic.gc.ca/EnGLIsh/information/times/ind...

Additionally, as you probably know, there is no medical coverage available for the first 3 months after someone enters the country as a legal immigrant. Even a Canadian citizen who has been living out of country faces this same 3 month gap before medical coverage begins.

I also believe a metastatic cancer diagnosis would make your wife ineligible for admittance; the application process does include a medical exam. Add to this the fact that you just recently married, which may give the appearance that the objective of the marriage was specifically to gain access to free medical care - this will be big red flag to those processing the application.

Perhaps an immigration lawyer can offer some advice and some hope that this might work, but honestly i don't think the odds are high.

Edited to add: I've been looking into this further. First, the medical exam must be done by an approved doctor - the Canadian government provides a list of doctors approved by country. Any applicant with evidence of cancer or who's had cancer within the previous 5 years gets a "grade B" on the medical exam, which means that it's an abnormal finding, and requires that detailed information be provided. The medical exam findings are reviewed by a Medical Officer (within the Immigration Department) who assesses if the individual's condition will result in "excessive demand on health services or social services", which would be the basis of a medical refusal. Excessive demand is quantified as exceeding the average Canadian per capita health services cost over 5 consecutive years. With Kadcyla costing about C$130,000 for a course of treatment, and with the likelihood of hospitalizations and other care requirements, I suspect that your wife's medical and social services costs will be well above the amount spent by the health care system for the average Canadian. This would therefore likely lead to a medical refusal. This decision can be challenged, but this all adds time into the process and a challenge will fail if the medical requirements are clear and the Medical Officer's assessment is upheld.

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/department/partner/pp...

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/tools/medic...

Kicks · January 2017

Have you checked with the Canadian Immigration Office ( or whatever it's called there)? That would probably be a good first start place to check if there is a possibility of her legally immigrating there to get free health care. I'm not Canadian so I know nothing about their immigration laws but have heard they are more lenient than American. You might try talking with the Korean Embassy closest to you for help. And of course, as has been suggested, an immigration lawyer but it will probably be some time before she could be allowed to immigrate legally.

From the very little you wrote of your relationship with your wife, it sounds like there could be several 'red flags' to do with this 'recent marriage'. "Recently married to Stage IV BC. She is a Korean National. I will be quitting my job and moving to Korea". Nothing is said about a long term relationship - just recently married to a Stage IV BC Girl Friend who was posted about on Dec.19, 2016 and wanting her quickly into Canada for free healthcare. That 'sings' of a scam. Also that because of language being an issue of actually knowing what is going on.

I hope I'm wrong but there are several 'red flags' and such little actual info other than wanting free Canadian healthcare.

Dan888 · January 2017

Thanks for all the responses.

@Kicks, I can understand how my posts could come across as a bit fishy, but it's actually desperation. The metastatic progression was quite a shock, given that there were no signs of it in any tests done prior to her masectamy. Now looking back, we may have naively thought that we had time and didn't plan enough for this outcome. We thought that if there was a recurrence it would be years down the line, not so soon and so fast spreading. As for our relationship, I had previously spent a couple of years in Korea teaching English where I met her and we lived together for one of those years. But I couldn't teach English forever, so came back to Canada to start a career. The relationship has been long distance for around 3 years now, with me traveling to Korea or her to Canada for 1 or 2 weeks at a time, obviously not ideal and we almost broke up multiple times. After her initial diagnosis about a year ago, we got engaged. The plan was to get married after her treatment finished, and start the visa process to get her to Canada. But now with the shortened timeline, I'm trying to figure out how to spend what time she has left together. So if that includes getting the Kadcyla paid for as long as possible after our savings are gone, that's something I'm trying to figure out if its possible.

I talked to Canadian immigration and there is an "Urgent" processing for special circumstances, it is evaluated on a case to case basis, and there are no timelines on how fast a spousal visa could be issued.

Also, initially I thought the provinces covered Kadcyla, however I believe only if certain criteria are met ie. age, income, no prior use of Kadcyla etc. that I do not think my wife would meet. The best route to get the drug covered would be through my group insurance at my job, and there's no guarantee right now it would be covered. It's difficult though, because her prognosis is not good, without treatment her doctor said 3-6 months. With Kadcyla, we're hoping for a miracle. If she only has months I want to be by her side, so right now I'm trying to figure out if I request an unpaid leave of absence to be with her, whether she could still be covered under the group drug plan. But this only works if she gets a spousal visa from Canadian immigration, and the normal timeline is probably more than a year, and I guess the marriage does raise red flags.

It's probably a long shot with immigration, a long shot with getting the drug costs covered, and a long shot getting into treatment centre in Canada in any reasonable time. And there's still the scenario where the Kadcyla doesn't work well and all this wouldn't really help. But I guess we're just hoping for the best.

nye1980 · January 2017

I live in Bangkok, Thailand and have received excellent care at one of our best private hospitals here. But there are plenty of less expensive options available as well. It might be worth comparing the cost of care in Korea (which I know is very expensive) to care in Bangkok and maybe your money will go farther as cost of living is rather reasonable here. I see my oncologist on Monday so can ask him what Kadcyla costs.

MargaritaMS · January 2017

Hi Dan888, I'm so sorry that you and your wife are going through this - it sucks. I know because I've had a similar situation though in our case, it's not between Canada and Korea but the US and another country. Not much more than one year after my husband and I were married, I was diagnosed with stage IV BC. We were living overseas in a third country at the time. And we hadn't had a chance to complete our immigration paperwork to ensure that both of us could immediately live, work and receive medical care in the same country either of our home countries. Anyway, it's definitely made tx and life in general more complicated but we have slogged our way through by taking one day at a time and taking whatever steps we can to ensure a future together somewhere. I think you are on the right track to find legal assistance and pursue whatever options you can even if they sound like they will take too long. There are many good treatments available and while this diagnosis is a shock and feels like an immediate death sentence, it is not. It has already been nearly two years for me since diagnosis and I am currently stable, feeling good and living a fairly active and normal life including taking several overseas trips. This after having bone and liver mets at dx. I've had to change treatments several times due to progression or side effects but currently doing well on Kadcyla. There are many ups and downs along the way but together you and your wife will figure things out and you will find joy along the way and I sincerely hope that you have a good long time together! Best of luck to you both! PS, the makers of Kadcyla have a program for patients who need financial assistance so there may be help for you if you have to try to pay your way.

Canadian Spousal Visa for Wife with Stage IV

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