Due to the pandemic, IRCC’s service standards of application processing were imbalanced and could not reach its processing standards.
With the start of the new year 2022, Immigration Minister Fraser declared that the new applications for Canada’s spousal sponsorship program will now be processed within its standard period of 12 months.
As per the reports, IRCC has managed to get back on track through the updated contemporized Canadian immigration system. With the update, the candidates for spousal and child sponsorship can track their immigration applications online with the help of the portal established by IRCC.
No matter whether spouses apply as inland or outland applicants, the 12 monthly service standard applies to all. This 12 months standard processing time includes the time required by the candidate to submit its documents and biometrics, the time for IRCC’s assessment of the sponsor and the beneficiary, and the time to make sure that candidates satisfy the eligibility conditions.
Who can qualify for spousal sponsorship
To qualify for spousal sponsorship, the person should be a Canadian citizen or Canadian PR, or he should be registered as an indigenous person as per the Canadian Indian Act. The person should be an adult of a minimum of 18 years. He has to prove that he can financially support the sponsored person, and he is not receiving any social assistance.
Conditions for the sponsored person
The sponsored person must satisfy the standards to qualify for the spousal sponsorship program.
- Spouse: He/she must be lawfully married to the sponsor in a ceremony.
- Common-law partner: The Sponsor must reside with the sponsored partner for a minimum of 1 year.
- Conjugal partner: The sponsor should have been in a relationship with the applicant for at least 12 months, who live out of Canada. The sponsor is unable to live with or marry the applicant in their country for reasons of legal or immigration issues. For instance, Sponsors must provide proof to IRCC that they couldn’t live jointly or get married in their partners’ country due to some reasons like same-sex marriage or divorce is unauthorized in their country and more like this.
To be eligible to be sponsored under the above categories, an international candidate must be an adult of 18 years.
In addition to this, the candidate should be healthy and pass the security and criminality check standards to be permitted to enter the country.
The spousal sponsorship process
It is of two different types based on the presence of the couple: inland and outland spousal sponsorship. The applicants can fill the applications under inland sponsorship if the couple resides within Canada; otherwise, outland sponsorship if the sponsored spouse is living overseas.
Inland sponsorship
The common-law spouse or overseas partner is required to have a temporary visa to stay in the country to qualify for an inland sponsorship program. It could be any student, worker, or visitor visa. In the ongoing application processing, the applicant can live in Canada and continue their studies or job in the country. In addition to this, they can also obtain a Spousal Open Work Permit to continue their work within the country.
During the ongoing sponsorship process, the applicant should remain in the country. However, if you are uncertain of your stay within the country or have a plan to travel outside the country during the process, you should go with another option – the outland sponsorship.
Outland sponsorship
The applicant living outside Canada can fill in the application under the Outland sponsorship program.
Canadian PR can fill in the application under this outland sponsorship program only when they are living in the country. At the same time, the citizen of Canada can apply for this even if they are outside the country.
However, citizens have to confirm their return to the country with their spouses once the application gets approved.
Inland couples can also fill in the applications under the outland program to ease their traveling process during their application processing or to avoid travel restrictions.
Other than married couples and common-law partners, the sponsor can also sponsor their conjugal partners under an outland sponsorship program.
Conjugal partners are the one who is in a relationship with the sponsor for a minimum of 1 year, but they cannot live with each other due to some legal and other restrictions.
How to submit the application
The applicants for spousal sponsorship have to submit two applications jointly. One application is for sponsorship and the second one is for PR.
Step 1: Contact IRCC to get an application package.
Step 2: Submit application fees. Submit it on IRCC’s website.
The application fees include the processing fees, a right of PR fee, and fees for biometrics.
Step 3: Get IRCC’s official Mail and send the completed application.
IRCC will process the application within a maximum of 1 year (the standard processing time).
