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Are you looking to bring your partner that you cannot wed nor live with to live with you in Canada for permanent residency? Is there a significant amount of attachment in your relationship? If the answer to these questions is yes, then you may be able to sponsor your partner to Canada under conjugal sponsorship which will be discussed further below.
A conjugal relationship is a relationship in which you are essentially committed in a relationship but you and your conjugal partner can not wed and cohabitate with you because of reasons that are beyond you and your conjugal partner`s control.
To qualify for a conjugal sponsorship, there are certain requirements that must be met. These requirements are:
You must be at least the age of majority in Canada which is 18 years of age
You either be a Canadian Citizen or a Permanent Resident of Canada
You are capable of and agree to financially supporting the person whom you are sponsoring for as well any applicable dependents and sign an undertaking
Your relationship with your conjugal partner is a very genuine relationship where for the past 12 months marriage nor cohabitation have been possible and that there is a substantial degree of attachment between the both of you
Your conjugal partner lives in a country that is outside of Canada
5 years have not elapsed since you were sponsored to Canada or since you sponsored someone else to Canada
You are living in Canada and will continue to do so once your conjugal partner comes into Canada
You are not receiving social assistance from the government for reasons other than a disability
You are not under a removal order
You are not detained or in jail
You were convicted of a serious and/or violent offence
Your relationship with your conjugal partner is genuine
Are not under an immigration loan
Pay any applicable fees
You should not apply for a conjugal sponsorship if either one of the below scenarios apply to you:
There was no qualifying circumstance for you to not have married or chose to not live together
You are either engaged or married to your partner
You and your conjugal partner are choosing not to live together or had the option to
You will also need to prove the genuineness of your relationship. In addition there are certain documentation that you must present in your application. They include police clearance certificates, medical examination, proof as to why you could not have been married and cohabitate with one another. There is more documentation required than common-law and spousal sponsorships as the conjugal application is a more complex matter.
Below is the list of forms that need to be sent with your application:
Form IMM 1344, Application to Sponsor, Sponsorship Agreement and Undertaking (sponsored person not required to sign this document in Quebec)
Form IMM 5540, Sponsor Questionnaire
Form IMM 5481, Sponsorship Evaluation
Form IMM 5476 Use of a Representative, (if you are hiring a representative for your case)
Form IMM 5491 Document Checklist
Any other applicable documentation (i.e. if you are sponsoring in Quebec, then you will need to fill out the MIDI (Ministère de l’Immigration, de la Diversité et de l’Inclusion) document package
Dependent children are those dependents that your conjugal partner will be bringing with them to Canada. They will also be under permanent residency in Canada. Dependent children can be:
Under 19 years of age (known as Type 1 dependents) or
Due to either a physical or mental condition, they are financially dependent on their parent since before they were 19 years of age (Known as Type 2 dependents)
And in both cases they are unmarried
If you agree to an undertaking, this means that you will need to provide your conjugal partners and any dependent children with the basic necessities of life and to be able to financially support them while they are in Canada.
The undertaking period for your conjugal partner and for your dependent child that is over the age of 19 when they arrive in Canada will be 3 years from the date they become a permanent resident of Canada. For dependent children over the age of 19, the undertaking period is much longer at either 10 years or till when they turn 22 years age. In these circumstances, whichever case comes up first that is when the undertaking period will be over.
For you as the sponsor, the fee will be $75 for sponsoring, $475 for your conjugal partner you are sponsoring as well as for the Type 2 dependent, and $150 for the Type 1 dependent. These processing fees are not refundable.
There is also a “Right to Permanent Residence Fee” which will be paid by your conjugal partner and is $490. Dependent children are exempt from having to pay this fee. This fee is paid when your application is approved.
There is an additional fee for processing in Quebec.
All these above prices are in Canadian currency.
For the first two years, your conjugal partner will be under conditional permanent residence which was introduced in the October of 2012. This was introduced to reduce the number of marriages of convenience. This means you and your conjugal partner will have to cohabitate with each other from the day your conjugal partner steps foot into Canada as a permanent resident of Canada for two years.
Marriages of Convenience - A marriage or a relationship that was made to achieve sponsorship in Canada
However there are exceptions in which you and your conjugal partner will not require conditional permanent residence. These exceptions are if:
You and your conjugal partner have been in a conjugal relationship for more than two years
You and your conjugal partner have children
In some cases, you may have documentation that is another language but English and French. If this is your scenario, you will require a translation of this document, an affidavit by the one who did the translation along with the original document with your application.
Make sure you complete the application fully, send in all the required documentation, with all the required proof as your application can be sent back to you which can further delay the processing times.
If you and your partner do not qualify for conjugal sponsorship, then there are routes they may be eligible for. The other Canadian Family Class routes are:
Spousal sponsorship
Common-law sponsorship
Parental sponsorship
Dependent child or other
If you live together with your partner then you can try applying for common-law sponsorship or if you are married and live with your partner, you may be eligible for spousal sponsorship.
If you have been sponsored yourself, you must wait 5 years from the date you arrived in Canada to sponsor someone else and this only applies if you sent in your conjugal application before March 2nd, 2012 as this bar was introduced on that date.
As a permanent resident of Canada, you will have many rights and freedoms that are guaranteed under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
In addition as a permanent resident of Canada you are expected to follow the laws of Canada and pay any applicable taxes to the federal and provincial government.
It is recommendable to seek the help of a legal professional. They can work with you and the sponsor to help with the documentation, questions you may have, etc. Thus, they will help to prepare a strong application to further increase the chances of obtaining a conjugal sponsorship.
At Akrami and Associates, we have helped many conjugal partners reunite with each other permanently in Canada. If you are looking for help in sponsoring your conjugal partner to Canada, feel free to give us a call today and we can answer any questions, go over conjugal sponsorship in more depth, and book a consultation with one of our legal representatives. We can help you prepare the application, gather the necessary and supporting documentation, and of course be there with you every step of the way.
We also have “Do it Yourself Immigration Kits” on conjugal sponsorship so if you would like to file the application on your own without legal representation, then these kits are for you. What these kits will provide you with is a step by step guide, how to draft the necessary and supporting documentation, what you can expect, etc. If you are looking for help, we have an elite bundle which comes with a consultation and a final review on your application by one of our immigration experts. Contact our firm for more details on these kits.
Below are our contact details:
Phone number: (416) 477-2545
Toll free number: 1-877-820-7121
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
With Akrami and Associates, there is always a way!
