Please accept this letter as confirmation of my invitation ...

Hi,

First, let me ask you this.

So, there will be two letters.

1. The letter from you to your mother-in-law.

2. This letter from you to the Govt. Dept.

Do the Govt. Dept.'s procedural instructions ask you to write the second letter? Or just the first one?

Best wishes, Clive

Hi Clive,


Thanks for your concerns about this. I ever thought about addressing the letter to my mother-in-law. But I do not have time and energy to start it over. So I decided keeping addressing this to a visa officer. On the other hand, I searched internet and found suggestions writing a letter with the beginning like above.


So, if possible, please try to provide a

Hi,

OK.

Dear Madam or Sir: More common is 'Dear Sir or Madam', but it makes no difference

I am writing you to provide information in support of my mother-in-law's visa application. Please accept this letter as confirmation of my invitation to my mother-in-law to come to Canada for a personal family visit.



This wording is fine

Thank you very much, Clive. So I sense that when writing such letters I should avoid using "you" because it sounds like I am talking to the officer's face or something?

CliveHi,

OK.

Dear Madam or Sir: More common is 'Dear Sir or Madam', but it makes no difference

I am writing you to provide information in support of my m

Hi,

So I sense that when writing such letters I should avoid using "you" because it sounds like I am talking to the officer's face or something?

No, no, it's not that at all. It's just that the expression 'writing someone' is, in Canadian terms, a little informal. However, it seems pretty standard in American English.

You could say 'I am writing to

Ha, in the first place I did use "I am writing to you" instead of "I am writing you." Anyway, thanks a lot for your a lot of useful comments and help.