Conjugal Sponsorship

[Ramin F]

Hello,

I have some questions about sponsoring my partner from Russia to Canada. I am a PR and been living in Canada for almost a year. my partner and I started our relationship online, at the time (June 2017) I was in Turkey and he was in Russia. He came to visit on January 30th, 2018 and we spent 8 days together in Turkey. I flew to Canada afterward and we kept our relationship strong. we flew again to Turkey to meet on December 1st, 2018 and spent 12 days together. Now I want to sponsor him to Canada under Conjugal Sponsorship program because we couldn't live together in Turkey nor Russia because as a gay couple we would've faced many pressures in these conservative countries with now law protecting us. My questions are as below:

• Would I (The Sponsor) have to show an employment letter and proof of income?
• We did not mention we are together to our family because we are closeted, would friends letter to support our relationship be enough? should they sign it or do we need to notarize it? or just a letter would do?!?!
• Is it ok to exceed the supporting documents from 10 to 11? are they super strict?
• I used a messenger (called Telegram) to talk to my partner, we copied it into a word file. would this be acceptable or should we take screenshots?

Thank you for taking the time to read this, any help is highly appreciated.

 

[DollyM]

Has your partner tried to get a TRV to visit you in Canada?

 

[Ramin F]

Has your partner tried to get a TRV to visit you in Canada?

Yes, he did apply for TRV but got declined.

 

[Miraclejj]

Hello,

I have some questions about sponsoring my partner from Russia to Canada. I am a PR and been living in Canada for almost a year. my partner and I started our relationship online, at the time (June 2017) I was in Turkey and he was in Russia. He came to visit on January 30th, 2018 and we spent 8 days together in Turkey. I flew to Canada afterward and we kept our relationship strong. we flew again to Turkey to meet on December 1st, 2018 and spent 12 days together. Now I want to sponsor him to Canada under Conjugal Sponsorship program because we couldn't live together in Turkey nor Russia because as a gay couple we would've faced many pressures in these conservative countries with now law protecting us. My questions are as below:

• Would I (The Sponsor) have to show an employment letter and proof of income?
• We did not mention we are together to our family because we are closeted, would friends letter to support our relationship be enough? should they sign it or do we need to notarize it? or just a letter would do?!?!
• Is it ok to exceed the supporting documents from 10 to 11? are they super strict?
• I used a messenger (called Telegram) to talk to my partner, we copied it into a word file. would this be acceptable or should we take screenshots?

Thank you for taking the time to read this, any help is highly appreciated.[/QUOTE

TBH, your conjugal application will be denied. There isn't any legal barriers existed to prevent you to be common law or get married. Last I checked, although, Russia isn't an ideal country for LGBTQs to live there, but Russia decriminalized such activity between consenting adults in 1993. And it isn't a valid ground to go conjugal sponsorship, because you don't want or cannot go Russia and live there with your partner for 12 months, or go to a third country to get married, for whatever reasons, other than a legal/law issues that not allowed for such activity

 

[Ramin F]

Thank you for your reply, I have spoken to a couple of lawyers and IRCC officers. Our question was not based on whether it would be approved or denied. we simply have some questions about the ones we mentioned. but thank you for your input. However, it is not true

 

[garbimba]

Not an expert but I have a bit of experience with immigration, and if you read the whole package you may come to similar conclusions.

With that being said here is my cup of tea:

Would I (The Sponsor) have to show an employment letter and proof of income?

Yes you need to provide proof of income. A letter from your employer AND your latest notice of assessment is what I would recommend.

We did not mention we are together to our family because we are closeted, would friends letter to support our relationship be enough? should they sign it or do we need to notarize it? or just a letter would do?!?!

You can explain why your family does not know, but there are always people you can confide this to. So a letter from those people would be golden in this case.

Is it ok to exceed the supporting documents from 10 to 11? are they super strict?

Try to stick to the directions stipulated. You don't want to upset the immigration officers by making them go through more than what they ask for. If they want more, they will ask for it.

I used a messenger (called Telegram) to talk to my partner, we copied it into a word file. would this be acceptable or should we take screenshots?

I'd say screenshots are more reliable, but I don't think it matters that much. But make sure that's not the only proof of communication. Emails are great as proof and so are screenshots or pictures of phone calls, face time, whatsapp etc, etc.


Hope that helps and good luck!

 

[EstherBarros]

There are no financial requirements to sponsor a spouse, but they do ask that you send tax information. You will be signing an undertaking that basically says any debt the sponsored person contrives in Canada is your responsibility, so while there are no requirements, they do want to know how you will support yourselves in Canada.

If you have not lived together for 12 months or are married, I do not think you can sponsor someone as your spouse.

Letters of people you know, love and trust about the two of you should be enough, and also include a LOA explaining that you are closeted etc I believe such letters do have to be notarized, be it from family or friends

Do not exceed what they are asking for! They have those guidelines for a reason Just pick the most relevant information available.

I would provide screenshots, and it may seem more credible

Good luck!

 

[canuck78]

Would encourage you both to spend a bit more time in person together. You have only met for 20 days which is not a lot. There is no income report but you have to be able to show you can support yourselves.

 

[Ramin F]

Not an expert but I have a bit of experience with immigration, and if you read the whole package you may come to similar conclusions.

With that being said here is my cup of tea:




Yes you need to provide proof of income. A letter from your employer AND your latest notice of assessment is what I would recommend.



You can explain why your family does not know, but there are always people you can confide this to. So a letter from those people would be golden in this case.



Try to stick to the directions stipulated. You don't want to upset the immigration officers by making them go through more than what they ask for. If they want more, they will ask for it.



I'd say screenshots are more reliable, but I don't think it matters that much. But make sure that's not the only proof of communication. Emails are great as proof and so are screenshots or pictures of phone calls, face time, whatsapp etc, etc.


Hope that helps and good luck!

Thank you. I appreciate you taking the time to write this.

 

[Ramin F]

There are no financial requirements to sponsor a spouse, but they do ask that you send tax information. You will be signing an undertaking that basically says any debt the sponsored person contrives in Canada is your responsibility, so while there are no requirements, they do want to know how you will support yourselves in Canada.

If you have not lived together for 12 months or are married, I do not think you can sponsor someone as your spouse.

Letters of people you know, love and trust about the two of you should be enough, and also include a LOA explaining that you are closeted etc I believe such letters do have to be notarized, be it from family or friends

Do not exceed what they are asking for! They have those guidelines for a reason Just pick the most relevant information available.

I would provide screenshots, and it may seem more credible

Good luck!

under some circumstances you can, I would recommend you to do some research on Conjugal Sponsorship.
Best.

 

[Ramin F]

Would encourage you both to spend a bit more time in person together. You have only met for 20 days which is not a lot. There is no income report but you have to be able to show you can support yourselves.

Thank you for your response, but it is not easy to spend time in countries where homophobia exists and you always fear something might happen.
When he visited me in Turkey, I had to tell my landlord he is a guest from Couchsurfing.com and when we visited each other again in Turkey we had to pretend we are friends and fear something might go wrong as in Turkey a lot of people do not accept gay people.

 

[Miraclejj]

Thank you for your response, but it is not easy to spend time in countries where homophobia exists and you always fear something might happen.
When he visited me in Turkey, I had to tell my landlord he is a guest from Couchsurfing.com and when we visited each other again in Turkey we had to pretend we are friends and fear something might go wrong as in Turkey a lot of people do not accept gay people.

Maybe what I said here is not what you want to hear, but actually I am trying to help you to save your time and effort. Your only option to sponsor your partner is: 1. to spend more time together, 2. to gather as much physical evidences as possible, 3. DO NOT GO THE CONJUGAL SPONSORSHIP ROUTE, because it won't work for your situation. There isn't any legal barriers exist to prevent you to be common law or get married in a third country.

 

[Linda_s74]

Yes, he did apply for TRV but got declined.

Either way in order to apply for conjugal sponsorship you would have to show that you had tried multiple times to obtain a TRV. I don't think one refusal would count as an immigration barrier. Try to apply again

 

[Ramin F]

Hello future readers of this thread,

I applied under Conjugal Sponsorship and my partner got his passport request.

We are an LGBTQ+ that weren't able to live together because we were both living in countries that gay couple are not accepted (Turkey and Russia).

I was in Turkey and came to Canada in 2018 as a PR.

We only applied for visa once and got declined, i also applied for one year window program and got declined as well.

I'm not saying people gave me the wrong advice, but i went with my gut and all worked well.

Good luck to future LGBTQ+ people who want to apply under Conjugal Sponsorship program. And don't listen to people saying it won't get accepted.

Timeline as below:


Just got PPR

Application Received: March 8th
AOR1: April 7th
Sponsor Approval: April 25th
Medical Request: April 26th
Biometrics Request: May 1st
Medical Passed: May 4th
File Transferred to Warsaw: May 13th
AOR2: June 7th
eCAS shows 'We started processing your application...': September 5th
Ghost Update : November 27th
Decision Made/Pre-arrival letter : November 27th
PPR : December 2
Visa Ready: TBD
Arrival : TBD

 

[garbimba]

Hello future readers of this thread,

I applied under Conjugal Sponsorship and my partner got his passport request.

We are an LGBTQ+ that weren't able to live together because we were both living in countries that gay couple are not accepted (Turkey and Russia).

I was a refugee in Turkey and came to Canada in 2018 as a PR.

We only applied for visa once and got declined, i also applied for one year window program and got declined as well.

I'm not saying people gave me the wrong advice, but i went with my gut and all worked well.

Good luck to future LGBTQ+ people who want to apply under Conjugal Sponsorship program. And don't listen to people saying it won't get accepted.

Timeline as below:


Just got PPR

Application Received: March 8th
AOR1: April 7th
Sponsor Approval: April 25th
Medical Request: April 26th
Biometrics Request: May 1st
Medical Passed: May 4th
File Transferred to Warsaw: May 13th
AOR2: June 7th
eCAS shows 'We started processing your application...': September 5th
Ghost Update : November 27th
Decision Made/Pre-arrival letter : November 27th
PPR : December 2
Visa Ready: TBD
Arrival : TBD

Excellent news!

I'm glad everything worked well for you guys!