Cost for spousal sponsorship?

[yogini]

Hi everyone,

I have been looking around in this forum to get somes idea of applying for spousal sponsorship.
My bf and I have been together for 1.5 years, and we are talking about of getting married. Since I cannot work in Canada, my bf is the sole bread-maker, we do not have much saving and it worries us that can we really "afford" to get married? I think in order to prove that our relationship is genuine, we will have to provide "proof" while submitting the application? We have photos, friends and bank account to prove that but what about getting wedding pics taken, buying wedding rings , having wedding banquet itself...... would all those cost quite a lot of money??

For those of you who have submitted all the documents or have gained PR status, could you briefly tell me how much money have you spent for the whole process of sponsoring your spouse?

Thanks!!

 

[Kedeisha]

$1040

 

[yogini]

1040 Canadian dollars? That's it???? Including wedding banquet, ceremony, wedding rings?

Thank you very much!

 

[scylla]

1040 Canadian dollars? That's it???? Including wedding banquet, ceremony, wedding rings?

Thank you very much!

$1040 is the cost for sponsoring your spouse - in other words, these are the immigration fees for filing a sponsorship application. On top of these fees, you also have to get a medical (couple of hundred dollars) and the cost of police certificates.

Anything related to holding an actual wedding would be extra.

 

[scylla]

Oh - and if you have been living together for at least a year, you can apply as common law partners and don't have to get married to apply.

 

[yogini]

Hi Scylla,

Thanks for your quick replies. However, I think i saw one of the posts saying that she "maynot apply for work permit" while they are processing the application. So, if i apply for common-law sponsorship, i would not be able to work, we still would not have much money to get married. So is spousal sponsorship still the best way to go?

Please help.

 

[scylla]

I'm sorry - I don't understand your question.

You don't have to be married to apply using the spousal sponsorship route. People who are common law can apply using the spousal sponsorship route as well. Since you have been living together for over a year - it sounds like you are common law.

There are two different ways to apply for spousal sponsorship. If you apply "inland", you will be able to work after step 1 of the processing has been completed. Step 1 currently takes 10-11 months. If you apply "outland" you will be able to work once your file has been approved and you have landed in Canada and become a permanent resident.

I would recommend you read the first post in the following thread. It contains a lot of good information that will probably be helpful:

http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/spousal-sponsorship-t46995.0.html

 

[Mrs Proper]

You don't need to have a huge wedding to prove your relationship is genuine. I don't think what yer rings look like or cost as well and wedding really matters to them. Its jus proving how genuine you two are. I dint have a big wedding only like 6 ppl came and my husband is now here.

 

[parker24]

In Ontario, here's the breakdown of the immigration cost for us:
1050 for actual application
200 for physical
80 for x-rays
20 for blood work
Total: 1350 Canadian Dollars

Wedding: Parents paid for it, and it costs about 500 dollars. Obviously it was a SMALL wedding.

You can apply for a work permit AND the sponsorship as a spouse.

 

[Kedeisha]

In Ontario, here's the breakdown of the immigration cost for us:
1050 for actual application
200 for physical
80 for x-rays
20 for blood work
Total: 1350 Canadian Dollars

Wedding: Parents paid for it, and it costs about 500 dollars. Obviously it was a SMALL wedding.

You can apply for a work permit AND the sponsorship as a spouse.

1040 for the application

medicals vary depending on the doctor as the doctors set their own fee but cannot exceed what is considered normal for those services so those fees are not right unless u are going to this specific dr and they also could have changed their fee

 

[sariss]

If you are looking at costs of weddings as well, I did mine for about $7,000. You can do it a lot cheaper if you decide to just go to town hall and do it, but I wanted to have an actual ceremony for my own reasons, and also I figured having a ceremony and reception along with pictures would help with the immigration process.

Wedding rings combined were about $2,000.
Men's tuxedo rentals were about $300
I managed to rent a great wedding dress for $700
I got the venue for free - we had the reception at the same place, on my co-workers property that she does for weddings.
My mother covered the cost ($2000) for food.
Most expensive part for me was the setup. Tent, chairs, tables, cutlery, etc etc etc. That was almost $3k.
Other costs added to it like invitations, gifts, certificate, officiant etc. We had about 80 people.

 

[Isometry]

My medical cost $400, though I think that's on the high end. You can call doctors that do medicals and ask for hat cost over the phone.

For parker34's cost, remember that you also have to add the cost of getting your birth certificates, marriage certificate, and police clearance. None of those is a lot by itself, but I got a couple copies of each (just in case) and the total cost for all that was about $200.

As far as an actual wedding, my husband and I eloped, and had a ceremony with just the commissioner and two witnesses. It was exactly what we wanted, but may not be for everyone. On the other hand, it sounds like you already qualify for common-law. Don't rush into a 'cheap' wedding if that's not what you want.

 

[Elizabeth Joe]

Depending on where you're from you need to pay to get documents translated, too.
In total we spent about $2500 for everything. Very small wedding, all documents and certificates, translations, medical, pictures, fees. But it'll depend a lot on the country.

 

[parker24]

Ah yes I forgot the fingerprints! (Have to remember so much!) They were 25 dollars in my city then another 22 dollars to express post it to WV. There were only two doctors close to us that were on the list of doctors to do the medical. The only one that spoke English clearly (As I'm hearing impaired and phones are lovely with people who have accents )

And naturally you have to add in the cost of sending everything, including the return postage for the fingerprints. My husband had his BC already since you need it for your passport. We're waiting on the marriage certificate but I was told I could use the... The word is gone but the one we signed at the ceremony as it has the licence number on it. CIC told me I could use it (Called in and asked). Also need to factor in all the printing needed and if you have a lawyer as well. It's an expensive process, but worth it in my opinion!

 

[yogini]

Thank you everyone for your useful replies.
My bf and I are decided to go for the Common-Law-Sponsorship simply because we can save up more money later, take our time to plan for a decent wedding...etc.

I LOVE this forum!!!!