Spousal or Common-law partner sponsorship question

[jhoongo]

Hi,

I have few questions for my brother who is trying to sponsor his girl friend.

His girl friend originally entered into Canada little bit less than a year ago with Working-holiday Work Permit, and met my brother shortly after.

For the last half year or so, they lived together, and he is trying to sponsor his girl friend. They lived in the same place, and shared the bank account as joint account, so they are sharing financial activities and so on.

The questions are following:

1. He is trying to officially get married with her, and get marriage certificate before applying for sponsorship, will this harm anything for the application? Will it be better to stay as common-law partner for the application? They will get married regardless, but would like to clarify which one will be easier for the sake of application.
2. If they will not get married, will he have to apply as common-law partner, if I'm not mistaken, is this correct?
3. He is currently holding PR in Canada, and his girl friend and himself hold same citizenship other than Canada and US. And they met almost a year now, and lived together for about six months, is he still eligible for sponsoring his girl friend?
4. They are not officially married from their home country, will that still matter?
5. I believe that they will need to write up a letter or something to explain how they met, and how they decided to live together, etc... does anyone have a sample letter for that?

Thanks a lot for your help in advance.

 

[Linda_s74]

They don't qualify for common law - they need to be living together for 12 months.
Both spouse and common law are looked at as the same when applying - so there isn't one that is "easier".

Its not impotant to get married in your home country but it is impotant to have both families present at the wedding (if possible).

If they would like to apply at some point (for either spousal or common law), the best thing to do is go on to the IRCC website and find the checklist for applying to make sure they can gather all the required documents and have them prepared for when they apply.

There's no guidelines for the relationship letter - tell them to write from the heart

 

[np08]

They don't qualify for common law - they need to be living together for 12 months.
Both spouse and common law are looked at as the same when applying - so there isn't one that is "easier".

Its not impotant to get married in your home country but it is impotant to have both families present at the wedding (if possible).

If they would like to apply at some point (for either spousal or common law), the best thing to do is go on to the IRCC website and find the checklist for applying to make sure they can gather all the required documents and have them prepared for when they apply.

There's no guidelines for the relationship letter - tell them to write from the heart

The part about family needing to be present at the wedding depends on their culture(s). In western cultures it's generally not a serious requirement as it's pretty normal and acceptable to have a small wedding at a courthouse or what have you, with few people and minimal fanfare. In these cases it's simple to explain why the family wasn't present or the wedding wasn't large. In some other cultures, however, it can present a real problem if the wedding doesn't follow the established cultural norms and values.

 

[jhoongo]

They don't qualify for common law - they need to be living together for 12 months.
Both spouse and common law are looked at as the same when applying - so there isn't one that is "easier".

Its not impotant to get married in your home country but it is impotant to have both families present at the wedding (if possible).

If they would like to apply at some point (for either spousal or common law), the best thing to do is go on to the IRCC website and find the checklist for applying to make sure they can gather all the required documents and have them prepared for when they apply.

There's no guidelines for the relationship letter - tell them to write from the heart

Ok, so if they don't qualify for the common-law partner, if they get official marriage certificate in Canada and one side of their families (will be ours, his girlfriend's side may not be present), will that be qualified as spousal?

Thanks!

 

[Linda_s74]

Ok, so if they don't qualify for the common-law partner, if they get official marriage certificate in Canada and one side of their families (will be ours, his girlfriend's side may not be present), will that be qualified as spousal?

Thanks!

If they get married (wherever) they can apply for spousal sponsorship. If either families are not present at the wedding I *believe* IRCC expects a letter of explanation saying why they couldn't make it (whatever their reason is). They can also plan a smaller ceremony in the home country for her family and friends if they want.
The marriage certificate *i think* takes a few weeks to get after the wedding - they *will* need it for the application.

 

[jhoongo]

If they get married (wherever) they can apply for spousal sponsorship. If either families are not present at the wedding I *believe* IRCC expects a letter of explanation saying why they couldn't make it (whatever their reason is). They can also plan a smaller ceremony in the home country for her family and friends if they want.
The marriage certificate *i think* takes a few weeks to get after the wedding - they *will* need it for the application.

Thanks for clarification