Canada's Spouse Sponsorship Program
Canada's spouse sponsorship program was created for Canadian citizens or permanent residents that want to bring their husband/wife or common-law/conjugal partner to Canada. The sponsored person will be able to receive a Canadian permanent resident visa. They will then be able to live in Canada for an indefinite basis. The Canada spouse sponsorship is very popular amongst immigrants throughout the country because it gives them the opportunity to bring their partner and children to Canada. Also many Canadians fall in love with foreigners so Canada's wife or husband sponsorship program gives them the opportunity to sponsor their partner for permanent residency and not have to keep living apart.
The Canada spouse sponsorship program is for couples that have already got married, or couples who have lived together for a continuous period of 1 year, or people who are in a committed relationship but have been unable to live together for exceptional reasons. A Canada spouse sponsorship application must be submitted either inside or outside of Canada. First the sponsoring Canadian is assessed as a sponsor by the Canada spouse sponsorship processors, and then if approved, his/her sponsored partner is approved as sponsoree. In order to meet the requirements for the Canada spouse sponsorship program, the sponsor must not be claiming welfare, must not have any convictions for sexual or family violence, and must not have reneged on any previous sponsor agreement. In additon, the couple must be able to demonstrate to the Canada spouse sponsorship program that the relationship is genuine.
It is important to consider that personal information will be required if order to support the canada spouse sponsorship application - for example emails, letters, photographs, phone records. This may seem intrusive but because of fraudulent marriages that some enter into for immigration purposes, the government needs to see proof that the relationship is genuine. If the person being sponsored is going to be applying for permanent residency under the Canada spouse sponsorship program from inside of Canada, they should be aware that they are not allowed to leave Canada while the application is being processed. Only when they have received their permanent residency would they be allowed to leave the country. Therefore, for some couples an outside of Canada application might be better for them. Any children that the sponsored person has under the age of 22 can be included on the application for a small extra processing fee. The Canada spouse sponsorship program will make them permanent residents as well.
Processing timefor the Canada spouse sponsorship program is likely to be 6-12 months for an outside of Canada application. An inside of Canada application will generally take longer than that.
