Family Sponsorship
Guide To Sponsor Your Spouse For Canadian Immigration
If you’re planning on getting married soon, then this is an important piece of information for you. Here, we will help with a guide on how to sponsor your spouse for Canadian immigration. Canadian citizens and permanent residence status holders can sponsor their foreign national spouse, common-law partner, or conjugal partner to settle with them in Canada and become permanent residents.
To stand eligible to sponsor your spouse, one must meet the following requirements:
- One must be 18 years or older
- One must be a Canadian citizen, a permanent resident, or registered under the Canadian Indian Act
- One must be living in Canada or a Canadian citizen
- One must not receive social assistance for reasons other than a disability
- One must offer basic needs of yourself and those of your spouse or partner
The sponsored applicant must be of the age of at least 18 years and clear all background, security, and medical checks. Also, you and your international partner must prove that you both are in an authentic relationship. In the case of the sponsorship, one must be able to prove that the couple is legally married. Otherwise, for common-law partners, one must prove that they live or have lived for a minimum of 12 consecutive months in a marriage-like relationship. Likewise, conjugal partners must prove that they are in a committed relationship for at least one year, however, are facing challenges that prevent the couple from living together.
There are two ways to select from while sponsoring a spouse or partner: outland or inland sponsorship. The outland sponsorship is for couples who are not living in Canada together, although the sponsored person resides in a foreign country while the Canadian sponsor lives in Canada. On the other hand, inland sponsorship is for couples who are living together in Canada and the foreign spouse has temporary status in Canada.
In case, if you’re a common-law partner or in a conjugal relationship, there is no mandate to be married to start the application process. If you are not in a common-law or conjugal relationship and planning to tie a knot soon, you can certainly start the spousal application process before getting married. This pace up the entire process so that once you are married, the application can be submitted to the officials to start the process to sponsor your spouse for Canadian immigration.
