An international student's spouse, working in Saudi Arabia, was refused a Canadian visitor visa and spousal open work permit (SOWP) twice while applying from there, and the member asked whether applying from their actual home country instead might work better.
What the thread suggested — despite some heated disagreement about visitor visa odds generally:- Applying from a GCC country (as a resident, not a citizen) was described by some members as carrying lower approval odds compared to applying from your actual home/citizenship country — worth considering as a factor behind the two refusals.
- The suggestion to apply from your home country instead was the concrete, actionable recommendation, rather than continuing to reapply from the country of residence (GCC) if that residency status itself may be contributing to weaker ties/credibility in the eyes of a visa officer.
- General visitor visa approval odds are highly debated and vary enormously by individual profile — don't take blanket claims (in either direction) about approval odds at face value; your specific ties, documentation, and application history matter more than generalized statistics.
The practical takeaway: if repeated visitor visa/SOWP applications from a GCC country of residence (rather than your actual home country) have been refused, consider applying from your home/citizenship country instead, since residency-based applications from certain regions can carry different scrutiny than applications from your actual home country.