Declined sponsor for social welfare need ur help guys

[mn096104]

hi everyone,
My husband and i applied outlanding sponsorship in March, 2014. My husband is my sponsor, unfortunately he got declined. The reason is CIC says he is receving social welfare and therefore he cant be eligit for sponsor. The thing is he only received social welfare fron 2013 Nov to 2014 Jan. Then he started his current job. There are two things about this case we got cunfused, first he hasnt received any social welfare since Jan 2014, why CIC said he is. Second how long he has to be off the social welfare receiving list would make CIC think he is eligit for being a sponsor.
We are thinking about our next step, we plan to call CIC call center to ask about this social welfare issue, then got proof of he is off the list and he is working on his financial situation to be able to sponsor me. also we are considering to seek for laywer's help...if u have any recommendationms please help.
please reply with anything helpful. this means a lot to us thank you

 

[Gumper]

hi everyone,
My husband and i applied outlanding sponsorship in March, 2014. My husband is my sponsor, unfortunately he got declined. The reason is CIC says he is receving social welfare and therefore he cant be eligit for sponsor. The thing is he only received social welfare fron 2013 Nov to 2014 Jan. Then he started his current job. There are two things about this case we got cunfused, first he hasnt received any social welfare since Jan 2014, why CIC said he is. Second how long he has to be off the social welfare receiving list would make CIC think he is eligit for being a sponsor.
We are thinking about our next step, we plan to call CIC call center to ask about this social welfare issue, then got proof of he is off the list and he is working on his financial situation to be able to sponsor me. also we are considering to seek for laywer's help...if u have any recommendationms please help. please reply with anything helpful. this means a lot to us thank you

I think you're right to call the CIC Help Centre with your question about time required to re-apply (and showing a better financial scenario). What did your husband put in your application this time for financial proof -- could he get an Option C printout for 2013 showing any employment income? Did he indicate he was collecting welfare or did CIC find out on their own? It's too bad he had to go on welfare for just 3 months and essentially compromise your application, good to hear he seems to be on the road to a better situation now!

 

[mn096104]

He didnt get option C when we applied, and CIC found out his social welfare issue, we thought they may see he stopped receiving since Jan this year, but obviously there is something wrong. He asked for option C mid march, i guess it still on it's way. We saw people's post saying CIC prefer certain time off the list for social welfare.... that gives us headache.....

I think you're right to call the CIC Help Centre with your question about time required to re-apply (and showing a better financial scenario). What did your husband put in your application this time for financial proof -- could he get an Option C printout for 2013 showing any employment income? Did he indicate he was collecting welfare or did CIC find out on their own? It's too bad he had to go on welfare for just 3 months and essentially compromise your application, good to hear he seems to be on the road to a better situation now!

 

[Koifish76]

Sorry to hear about this. I can't imagine how dissapointing it is. However, now that he does have a job and the rest of the application is nearly done, just take a breather, gather some info, put together a foolproof financial plan with pay stubs and bank account total, where you will live, your monthly expenses, etc. Show that there is no outstanding debt or loans if you can. Then re-apply!

 

[Avadava]

I believe CIC looks back 1 year. So basically if in the past year your sponsor received welfare, that would make him ineligible to sponsor.

If he's already been refused as a sponsor, all you can do is reapply. You will be reimbursed with the fees you paid (minus $75 for processing the sponsor's part). Gather all the documents and make sure this time to include an Option C print-out from 2013 or the most recent year he was employed. If your husband has been working since January, include pay stubs from his current job too. Write a separate sheet of paper and explain the situation. Explain why he went on welfare, for how long, where is working now, where he worked before, etc. Also, make sure he includes some plan on how he will be able to support you financially once you become a PR.

Calling CIC won't help you much and as for hiring a lawyer, you would waste more money than needs be. My suggestion would be to just gather more evidence of his current employment and everything I mentioned above and reapply.

 

[mikeymyke]

I had a lot of forum members criticize me for saying that you had to be off welfare for a year before applying, but I feel that is truly the case. They thought u just had to be immediately off welfare and you will be fine. I had already spoke with two CIC agents on the phone about this and they all said they look into a sponsor's twelve month history for welfare

 

[chakrab]

lying on the form and hiding that he didn't get any social welfare was a huge mistake. he may be scrutinized thoroughly even for the next application to check if he has left anything else out.

 

[Rob_TO]

I believe CIC looks back 1 year. So basically if in the past year your sponsor received welfare, that would make him ineligible to sponsor.

That is not quite true. If you read the actual OP manual around this issue, they only state you can't currently be on welfare at the time of application.

However, I imagine that records are not updated so quickly in the government, so CIC may not be able to confirm if welfare was actually completely stopped within a few months timeframe. So I think what happens is they do a past 1-year check for welfare use, and if they see any welfare over the past 1 year they then put the onus on the applicant to prove they stopped welfare completely before submitting the app.

I would advise to show ample proof to CIC that welfare was stopped. So showing bank records for date of the last deposit/cheque, correspondence to/from the welfare office that it is no longer required, confirmation from govt that payments would stop, etc etc. Perhaps if you call the welfare office, they can send an official letter that the sponsor went completely off of it as of Jan 2014. According to all written CIC rules, this would allow the sponsor to become eligible again.

 

[mn096104]

thank you guys, this seems not as bad as we thought. My husband didnt lie about the welfare, and we both thought CIC would know he has been off the receiving list since Jan, 2014. He is quite depressed for the bad news, none of us saw this coming. But we definitely will work on what u guys suggested, hopefully next time it will workout.

 

[mn096104]

So an update is my husband checked with welfare department, unfortunately they did keep his name on the receipt/receiving list even though he stopped social welfare in January, therefore he asked them to remove his name and got a paper work from them, claiming he is off the list.
We plan to re-apply maybe months later due to our current circumstance. My concern is about this social welfarem, he has 3 month receiving history and stayed 7months on the list(another 4 months without asking for social welfare), i guess such a history probably make the VO doubt his ability, therefore apart from an explaination and more financial proof, his pay stubs, our future plans, what else would be good to convince VO? Also i have a good record of working experience and financial records, i plan to prove i can be independent, would that be helpful?
Any advice guys?

 

[Koifish76]

So an update is my husband checked with welfare department, unfortunately they did keep his name on the receipt/receiving list even though he stopped social welfare in January, therefore he asked them to remove his name and got a paper work from them, claiming he is off the list.
We plan to re-apply maybe months later due to our current circumstance. My concern is about this social welfarem, he has 3 month receiving history and stayed 7months on the list(another 4 months without asking for social welfare), i guess such a history probably make the VO doubt his ability, therefore apart from an explaination and more financial proof, his pay stubs, our future plans, what else would be good to convince VO? Also i have a good record of working experience and financial records, i plan to prove i can be independent, would that be helpful?
Any advice guys?

If I were you, I would include a section devoted to just the financial questions and how you and the sponsor plan to provide and live. Remember it is the sponsor's responsibility to show they have the ability to "undertake" although it doesn't hurt if you include your job prospects and plans as well. Maybe also show that the sponsor owns a car or house or have minimal loans/ credit card. I made sure I had over $20,000 in my accounts for at least a 12 month period, but thats just me. I also included a detailed plan where will live, my job prospects and NOC, including average yearly earnings in Ontario, along with my wife's expertise and experience. We showed our monthly expected budget and also included letter from family members stating they would take care of financials in a worse case scenario.

Maybe wait a few months, gather all the proof you need, while also possibly making some changes or adding to the last application you handed in... There is always room for improving an application! Wish I could go back in time to change ours a bit. 8)

Good luck!