Sponsorship

Reunite with your family members with our immigration services

Canadian citizens and permanent residents who have a spouse overseas or a spouse who is a temporary resident in Canada may be able to sponsor that spouse to become a permanent resident. Although there are options and exemptions to certain eligibility factors, in general our immigration consultant and lawyer advise that sponsors should be mindful of the following criteria:

-  they should be currently employed for at least 1 year and file income taxes with the Canada Revenue Agency

- Canadian citizen or permanent resident

- should not have a criminal record or be charged with offences related to family violence or domestic abuse

- should not have a previous undertaking that they have not complied with

- should not owe child support or be an undischarged bankrupt

- should wait the required duration of time prior to sponsoring if they were themselves sponsored as a spouse

- married, living in a common law relationship for 1 year that is marriage-like or a conjugal relationship

There are two options in this type of application. One option is to use our immigration service to apply inside Canada if the sponsored spouse is currently living in Canada with their sponsor. This type of application is ideal for people with legal status in Canada who may want to work in Canada while they wait for the assessment of their application for permanent residence. A consultant can help the sponsored spouse get an open work permit while they wait. The downside of this type of application is that there is no appeal right so in the unlikely event that an application is refused, the only recourse is to apply again or proceed to Judicial Review in the Federal Court. 

The second option is to use immigration service consultant to apply using the outside of Canada family sponsorship application. The sponsored spouse in this scenario may be living in their home country or in Canada. They will not be eligible for an open work permit if this type of application is used. However, they will have an appeal right in the unlikely instance that an application is refused. A disadvantage of this approach is that the individual may be called to an interview outside of Canada thereby having to leave Canada in order to attend the interview. We handle all kinds of appeals.

While most other permanent residence applications except the humanitarian and compassionate grounds application require that an individual maintain legal status in Canada, family class sponsorship is one where family unification may overcome certain inadmissibility issues. The circumstances and ones ability to justify or explain the rationale for lack of status is paramount to putting forth a strong application. A lawyer or consultant is best to handle complex cases such as overstays.

Nevertheless, certain limitation do exist. For instance, somebody who came to Canada using the identity document of another person will not qualify for inside Canada sponsorship application and/or such inadmissibility may not be cured. They would have to leave Canada and apply from outside with proper rationale. Most individuals also require a valid passport in order to do landing for permanent residence. 

There are many nuances that are specific to each individual case and professional advice in each respective manner may help to alleviate concerns and issues pertinent to the immigration process.