By a Spouse Visa for Canada is implied the Canadian spousal sponsorship, wherein a permanent resident or citizen of Canada might be able to sponsor their spouse or common-law partner to come to Canada as permanent residents.
On securing a sponsorship, the spouse/partner can come to Canada to live, work and settle permanently in the country.
The person sponsoring must be able to support them financially when in Canada, thereby ensuring that the sponsored person will not be needing any social assistance.
The Canadian must fulfil certain criteria before they can sponsor.
The sponsor must be at least 18 years old and be a Canadian permanent resident or citizen. They must be living within Canada. If a Canadian citizen living outside Canada plans on sponsoring someone, they must be able to demonstrate that they themselves intend living in Canada when their sponsored relative takes up Canadian permanent residency.
A permanent resident of Canada living outside of Canada cannot sponsor someone.
Generally, there is no low-income-cut-off [LICO] for spouse/partner or dependent child sponsorships.
Do keep in mind that a potential sponsor living in Quebec will have to meet a separate set of conditions.
Moreover, Quebec allows an individual to sponsor people other than their spouse/partner or dependent children. The provincial government of Quebec lets a Canadian permanent resident or citizen, that is above 18 years, sponsor their “close relatives”. Provided, however, that the potential sponsor fulfils certain conditions.
In terms of Quebec immigration, a close relative, belonging to the family class, can be either the spouse/partner, dependent children, father/mother/grandfather/grandmother, a child that the potential sponsor intends adopting, or orphaned brother/sister/niece/nephew/grandson/granddaughter, provided that specific requirements are successfully met.
If approved by Quebec as a sponsor, the individual will be given a Quebec Selection Certificate, that is, a Certificat de selection Québec.
When a Canadian decides to sponsor someone, the first step of the process is that of acquiring an application package. This will be the IMM 5525 containing the forms, instructions and checklist applicable.
The next step would be that of getting together the required documentation . Applications that are submitted without the required documents will be rejected. If a document could not be included for any reason, a detailed explanation would have to be provided for the same.
Now comes the filling up of the application and the payment of the fees. After carefully checking the application for any common mistakes, the application enters its last stage of processing with the submission for approval.
The Canadian spousal sponsorship is for outland sponsorship as well as inland sponsorship. In outland sponsorship, the person being sponsored will be living outside Canada. Inland sponsorship, on the other hand, is a term used for referring to sponsorship for a spouse/partner that is already living within Canada.
For being eligible for the Spouse or Common-Law Partner in Canada class, the person to be sponsored must have a valid and legal immigration status in Canada.
The temporary resident immigration status – as a worker, visitor, or student in Canada – of the person being sponsored will automatically be lost were they to leave Canada for any reason.
Do keep in mind that if your spouse or partner leaves Canada prior to becoming a permanent resident, they might not be allowed to return to Canada.
An overseas spousal application will have to be submitted in such a situation.
The COVID-19 pandemic situation has led to many plans running awry. Imagine a situation wherein a spouse comes to Canada as a temporary visitor, thinking of getting their status updated to that of a permanent resident in Canada later.
Unfortunately, many in the recent past were faced with the same situation. A situation where they would find themselves to be in Canada illegally, losing their temporary status while being unable to apply for PR with either their documents expiring or service disruptions.
Keeping this in view, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada [IRCC] has established a policy of providing an immigration pathway for such individuals.
Such people will not be required to leave Canada due to their lack of status. As long as their Canadian half makes an understanding of support, they can still sponsor their foreign half for Canadian sponsorship.