Canadian to sponsor American with conjugal sponsorship

[cadgirl]

Hi!

My s/o and I called a law firm for a consultation on my s/o immigrating to Canada. They said I would be able to sponsor as a conjugal sponsor. We have been together for 2.5 years. We have tried to live together to be common law but my s/o got a paper in his passport saying my s/o had to leave in three months. We don't have enough money to follow each other around for a year, nor would we have anywhere to stay. We don't want to get married yet for personal reasons. What are our odds of me sponsoring my s/o as conjugal? I'm Canadian, my s/o is American. We have spent the last three months together and visited each other many times prior to.

And can a law firm really increase those odds?

Thanks!!!

 

[MilesAway]

As an American/Canadian couple, there aren't any legal barriers to marriage or becoming common-law, so your chances are very close to zero. A lawyer will not help these odds.

Even if you get a visitor record, you can apply to extend your stay. Many couples have done that without issue.

 

[scylla]

What MilesAway said. Conjugal is going to end in refusal. You either need to become common law or get married.

Ditch the law firm - they don't know what they're doing and are just going to end up wasting lots of your time and money.

 

[Rob_TO]

My s/o and I called a law firm for a consultation on my s/o immigrating to Canada. They said I would be able to sponsor as a conjugal sponsor.

And can a law firm really increase those odds?

You should ask the law firm in specific how many successful conjugal apps they've done for US applicants, that were approved by the visa office.

Remember the law firm gets your money whether you're rejected of not, and when the app is eventually rejected I'm sure the law firm will encourage you to do an appeal through them which will cost even more money.

 

[DanOCan]

My s/o and I called a law firm for a consultation on my s/o immigrating to Canada. They said I would be able to sponsor as a conjugal sponsor. We have been together for 2.5 years. We have tried to live together to be common law but my s/o got a paper in his passport saying my s/o had to leave in three months. We don't have enough money to follow each other around for a year, nor would we have anywhere to stay. We don't want to get married yet for personal reasons. What are our odds of me sponsoring my s/o as conjugal? I'm Canadian, my s/o is American. We have spent the last three months together and visited each other many times prior to.

I'll echo what others have said. A Canada/US conjugal partner application has almost zero chance of succeeding and if the only barrier to you being married are "personal reasons" I would drop the odds down to zero.

I speak from experience, as our first application was a conjugal partner application and it was rejected. We put together what we thought was a very well documented case. We were unable to get married because my wife was still legally married to someone else who had disappeared and was not participating in the divorce process. We had letters from the lawyers stating they were no longer able to contact him, documentation outlining his missed court dates, and saying how the divorce process could take years to complete because he had filed for bankruptcy protection which stopped all proceedings against him. We had letters from my wife's employer stating that she absolutely could not have a leave of absence to come visit me in Canada for an extended period of time. We outlined a detailed budget showing how we could not afford to maintain her residency in the US if she quit her job to come visit me for purposes of achieving common law status, never mind the "maintaining ties to the US" requirement she would need as a visitor -- hard to show you are maintaining ties when you have no home or job.

With no way for us to get married and no realistic way to achieve common law status, we tried the conjugal partner route since we felt we no longer had anything to lose, other than the non-refundable portion of the fees. We applied and waited. After several months, we were advised we did not meet the requirements for conjugal partner status and asked to submit more documentation to try and prove otherwise. We did, after consulting with a lawyer for advice on what else we could send. Our additional documents were sent in and we received an email back telling us to pay the RPRF. (We didn't pay in advance because money was tight.) We were overjoyed. We paid the fee and then a couple of weeks later were told our application was rejected. It was only a matter of pure luck that a year later her estranged husband finally reemerged and was motivated to wrap up the divorce which paved the way for us to be married so we could apply again.

Now, I am not a lawyer, but I think paying legal fees for a simple Canada/US application is a waste of money at the best of times and if that lawyer even suggests applying as conjugal partners I would run away from him/her as fast as possible. You would very likely be throwing money away at that point.

 

[Aquakitty]

I'll echo what others have said. A Canada/US conjugal partner application has almost zero chance of succeeding and if the only barrier to you being married are "personal reasons" I would drop the odds down to zero.

I speak from experience, as our first application was a conjugal partner application and it was rejected. We put together what we thought was a very well documented case. We were unable to get married because my wife was still legally married to someone else who had disappeared and was not participating in the divorce process. We had letters from the lawyers stating they were no longer able to contact him, documentation outlining his missed court dates, and saying how the divorce process could take years to complete because he had filed for bankruptcy protection which stopped all proceedings against him. We had letters from my wife's employer stating that she absolutely could not have a leave of absence to come visit me in Canada for an extended period of time. We outlined a detailed budget showing how we could not afford to maintain her residency in the US if she quit her job to come visit me for purposes of achieving common law status, never mind the "maintaining ties to the US" requirement she would need as a visitor -- hard to show you are maintaining ties when you have no home or job.

With no way for us to get married and no realistic way to achieve common law status, we tried the conjugal partner route since we felt we no longer had anything to lose, other than the non-refundable portion of the fees. We applied and waited. After several months, we were advised we did not meet the requirements for conjugal partner status and asked to submit more documentation to try and prove otherwise. We did, after consulting with a lawyer for advice on what else we could send. Our additional documents were sent in and we received an email back telling us to pay the RPRF. (We didn't pay in advance because money was tight.) We were overjoyed. We paid the fee and then a couple of weeks later were told our application was rejected. It was only a matter of pure luck that a year later her estranged husband finally reemerged and was motivated to wrap up the divorce which paved the way for us to be married so we could apply again.

Now, I am not a lawyer, but I think paying legal fees for a simple Canada/US application is a waste of money at the best of times and if that lawyer even suggests applying as conjugal partners I would run away from him/her as fast as possible. You would very likely be throwing money away at that point.

Excellent example and proof of why conjugal is hopeless for Can/US applicants (and most others)! Thanks for sharing.

To the OP, just EXTEND your partner's "paper" that he got in his passport. This is called a visitor record and it's not set in stone. You can do it online as long as you apply for it before the date on the record expires. If you aren't into marriage, you'll just have to live together for another 9 months.

 

[keesio]

You should ask the law firm in specific how many successful conjugal apps they've done for US applicants, that were approved by the visa office.

indeed!