Who Can Sponsor their partner to Canada?
Spousal Sponsorship is the process for which you can apply for your legally married spouse, common-law partner, or conjugal relationship based partner. As officially designated categories, each type requires different documents and different level of documents for the application to be successful. Spousal sponsorship allows you to sponsor such partner to immigrate to Canada and be eligible to apply for Permanent Residence in Canada. Persons you can sponsor other than your spouse, common law partner, or conjugal partner, include your parents, grandparents, and dependent children. Different documents will also be required depending on who you are sponsoring and what your immigration and past economic and social status says.
There are different classes under which all of the following applicants above can be sponsored. As a sponsor living in Canada, you are required to be a Permanent Resident yourself or a Canadian Citizen, and the person you are sponsoring, including you, must be above 18 years of age or above. If the person you are sponsoring lives in Canada at the time of applying for sponsorship, then you must apply for sponsorship under the Canadian Class application process. If the person you are sponsoring does not live in Canada at the time of applying, then you must apply for sponsorship under the Family Class application process.
What is a Spousal Sponsorship? What can I do to prove a Spousal Relationship?
A spousal sponsorship is one where both partners are officially and legally married to one another, whether opposite se or same sex partners. Their marriage is recognised and valid according to the law of the state, province, or country of where their marriage took place as well as the laws of Canada. Recently, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC), now only legally recognises marriages that were conducted in which both parties were present at the ceremony as well as the required number of witnesses. This means marriages that are conducted through telephone, internet, fax, or proxy are no longer considered to be valid or legal by the CIC and will not be considered. An exception to this rule applies only the members of the Canadian Armed Forces. A certificate of marriage, or a marriage license, or any other equivalent document issued by the city, state, municipality, or province will provide for a sufficient documentation base for your application process to begin. Immigration officers, and Citizenship and Immigration Canada will determine the validity of your marriage license or certificate. If the authority and the officer assigned to your case determine or doubt an issue with your documentation, they may reject your application or ask you to submit supporting documentation to prove the validity of your marriage.
What is a Common Law Relationship?
A Common Law relationship is one where the parties that are involved are in a committed and genuine relationship. They have lived together for a period of at least one year and have cohabited just as a genuine two way partner based relationship. Both partners must be able to prove that they do not rely on each other just for a physical connection, but also depend on each other on a deeper level and for emotional support. Both parties must also be able to prove that they are willing to compromise and sacrifice their personal desire for the sake of a healthy relationship, i.e.: one partner quit his/her job or refused an offer because it was too far away from their current residence or wasn’t that of the liking of their partner. Since parties in a common law based relationship do not possess a marriage certificate or license, they must be able to prove their relationship based on other grounds and can do so with the support of numerous other documents. However, these documents must be relevant to the relationship, coherent between what each partner says, and be from reliable and trustworthy source. See below for supporting documents.
How can I proof Genuine Common Law Relationship
- Both partners have a join bank account
- Both partners have joint ownership of a home
- Joint residential leases
- Joint rental receipts
- Joint registration of public services
- Joint purchases of household items or others, such as a car
- Joint payments of utilities such as electricity, water, gas, and internet
- Mail or postage that is addressed to either recipients (you and your partner living with you) but under the same address
There could be more or fewer ways to prove you have a genuine common law relationship depending on your circumstances. This determination will be at the discretion of your immigration officer who will assess your case. Failure to comply with the required documentation, providing insufficient documentation, providing false documentation intentionally or on purpose, or committing document fraud is very likely to concur a rejection regarding your application and will seriously complicate matters further down the road.
What is a Conjugal Relationship?
A Conjugal Relationship is one where both partners that are involved in the relationship are committed to each other, genuinely, and depend on each other, however, they are unable to live together with each other due to reasons and factors that are beyond the control of either partner, such that if these factors were removed, these partners will be able to cohabit with each other just like other common law partners or like a spousal relationship. Factor that are commonly considered when considering conjugal relationships include difference in cultures, traditional barriers, immigration barriers, the illegality of same sex relationships in some countries, and the differences in divorce rulings. Conjugal based relationships are by far the hardest to prove successfully and will more than likely require numerous supporting documentation.
Documents you can provide to prove Genuine Conjugal Relationship
Documents, papers, and other resources that can help you in the application process include but are not limited to:
- Exchanging letters and gift cards on occasions such as birthdays, anniversaries, or special events
- Phone conversations on a daily frequent basis; this can be proved by providing phone receipts or bills that show you were in contact with your partner’s number on a regular basis.
- Buying a property together; you will have to show an official residential/property lease or mortgage payment that shows you and partner either as joint buyers or either one of you as a co-signer.
- Paying monthly remittances to one another
- Significant photos of various visits and travels together, as well as travel documents from those trips.
- Airline tickets, boarding passes, and travel itinerary
- Any joint finances such as a shared accounts, unions, trusts
- Joint use of public services such a joint fitness or gym membership
- Letters from friends and families that could indicate how long ago your relationship was established or letters that offer support
How can I proof I can’t live together with Conjugal Partner
- A copy of the legal document that prevents your partnership to be legally accepted, such as a transcript of the law that prevents divorce in the Philippines and often times re-marriage is a concern in countries such as Iran
- A letter explaining why your relationship was not culturally or legally accepted and as a result you and your partner could not live together
- Proof that either one of you could not meet each other due to immigration barriers
- Proof that the life of your partner or you were in danger if your relationship was made public or if you lived together.
Contact Akrami & Associates
Once again, all the proof listed above may or may not apply to your special circumstance. Which is why we highly recommend you to contact and seek out the assistance of an experienced law firm in dealing with such matters. We understand the importance of seeing the person you love and will provide outstanding service in making sure nothing hinders you from seeing each other again. Call us at Akrami and Associates and book a consultation today.
With Akrami & Associates there is always a way!!
