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Canada gives high importance to family reunification in its immigration policies. One of the major steps taken by Canada with regard to modernising the immigration system in the recent months was making the spousal sponsorship program return to its 12-month processing standard for new applicants. The Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada(IRCC) has also launched an online portal for spousal and child sponsorship applicants to track the status of their applications. The service standard of 12 months is same of both inland and outland applicants. This time period includes the time needed to check whether the applicant meets the eligibility requirements, to assess the sponsor and the person being sponsored as well as for the applicants to provide their biometrics.
Eligibility requirements for spousal sponsorship
To be eligible to sponsor your spouse for permanent residence in Canada, you need to meet the following eligibility requirements:
- You should be at least 18 years of age.
- You must be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident
- You must prove that you are not receiving any social assistance, unless you have a disability
- You must provide for the financial needs of the sponsored person.
Eligibility requirement to be the sponsored
Spouse: The sponsor and the person to be sponsored must be legally married.
Common-law partner: The person to be sponsored must have lived with the sponsor for at least 12 straight months.
Conjugal partner: They must have been in a relationship with the sponsor for at least one year, they must be living outside of Canada, in a country where they cannot marry because of significant legal or immigration causes. For example, a country where same-sex marriage or divorce is not allowed. However, the applicants must be able to prove before the IRCC that they cannot live together or get married in their partner’s country.
Besides meeting all the requirements, the applicants must also clear health, security and criminality screening.
Application for Canada spousal sponsorship
Application for spousal sponsorship can be submitted both inland and Outland. Canadian citizen or permanent resident can sponsor their spouse or common-law partner residing in Canada temporarily as a worker, student or visitor. This is called inland application. However, the sponsored person must remain in Canada while their application is being processed. If the spouse or common-law partners are living outside Canada, an Outland sponsorship application can be submitted.
Do you wish to know how to apply for spousal sponsorship in Canada? Talk to the Canada immigration experts of CanApprove. Contact us now!
