Family Sponsorships: Spouses & Common Law Partners
One of Canada’s main draw for immigrants is that there is a robust program that enables family reunification. It is almost common knowledge among immigrants that Canadian citizens and permanent residents are able to sponsor their spouse to come to Canada as a permanent resident.
But did you know that under limited situations, you can sponsor other members of the family?
This article is part one out of six articles that deals with family sponsorship. This part specifically talks about spouses and common law partners. The next articles will discuss the following in order: conjugal partners, dependents & adopted children, parents & grandparents, and the case of the “lonely Canadian.”
The Objective: Family Reunification
Section 3 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, Canada’s main piece of legislation that governs immigration law and sets policy, provides “the objectives of [the] Act with respect to immigration are […] (d) to see that families are reunited in Canada.”
This clear policy objective is given life in the Act itself and in various pieces of regulations and internal guidelines over at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).
Who Can Sponsor?
This article will not dive deep into the law by citing which provisions apply. In practice, the laws allow Canadian citizens and permanent residents to sponsor certain members of their family to Canada to come as permanent residents.
According to the regulations, a sponsor has to be at least 18 years old, and must reside in Canada.
In limited situations, Canadian citizens are allowed to sponsor some family members even if they are not residing in Canada. Canadian citizens can sponsor their spouse and common-law partner as permanent residents in Canada as long as they are able to demonstrate that they will reside in Canada once the application is approved.
In contrast, permanent residents must always reside in Canada when sponsoring.
A sponsor must not be subject to bars against sponsorship. Some of the bars include the following:
You were sponsored yourself as permanent resident, as a spouse, common-law partner, or conjugal partner to a Canadian citizen or permanent resident in the last five years
You still have an on-going undertaking for a previous sponsorship of a spouse or a common-law partner
You previously sponsored a member of the family and are in default of any undertaking through non-payment of any social assistance received
You are in default of an immigration loan or performance bond
You have not paid court-ordered child support or alimony payments
You are an undischarged bankrupt
You were convicted of sexual assault, violent crimes, physical violence against relatives resulting into injuries
When sponsoring a spouse or a common-law partner, there is no financial requirements according to the regulation. However, the sponsor is required to enter into an undertaking that they will assume responsibility of the pay-outs should the PR applicant use any social assistance. This becomes a debt payable by the sponsor to the government.
In practical terms, a sponsor must demonstrate income in Canada by producing tax documents such as a notice of assessment, as well as a letter of employment.
Who Can You Sponsor?
As mentioned above, this article will focus on spouses and common-law partners.
Spouses are defined as those who are married. Canada, being a country that champion the advancement of human rights, recognizes same-sex relationships and therefore respects the equality of marriage of same-sex couples.
There are however exclusions to the definition of spouses for the purposes of immigration and this is guided by the central principle of the marriage being valid where it took place and under Canadian law.
Some things that Canadian law does not recognize as valid marriage for the purposes of immigration:
Polygamous marriages
Marriages of convenience
Marriages by proxy – Zoom weddings, for example (except members of the Canadian Armed Forces and only when respecting specific requirements)
For those who are divorced: their divorce must have been valid before remarrying
Meeting the accepted legal definition of spouses for the purposes of sponsorship applications under the family class is one thing. Then there’s common-law unions.
While marriage offers a cloak of legal presumption of a relationship, common-law unions are based on facts alone. The rule of thumb is that couples who have conjugal relations (i.e., marriage-like relations) AND a continuous cohabitation period of at least one year would qualify under this category. For the purposes of immigration, common-law partners are treated the same way as married couples.