How We Compiled Our Spousal Sponsorship Application - 2018

[mainja]

Hi all, so we finally sent in our application (outland from South Africa) this morning. I thought I might share how we compiled our application, since so many rules have changed over the years and we could not find any new organizing/compiling examples... I am going to try to add photos (hopefuly they upload) and am also outlinging our headings etc. for you.

Some background regarding our application:

(i) We are a common-law couple living together since 2012 and are both outside of Canada
(ii) We do not have any children
(iii) We are not moving to Quebec, so our checklist did not include any Quebec requirements

After the application was compiled, it weighed around 1.7 kilograms. I bubble wrapped the whole application and put a heading on top of the bubble wrap that simply reads "Application for Permanent Residency" with the sponsor's name and the applicant's name.

I had binder clips that held together 3 parts of the application:

The first part I clipped together was number 1-5 below (basically all the checklists, barcodes, payment and IMM forms).

The second part I clipped together was all the supporting documents for the sponsor, including passport, proof of intent to move to Canada (over 100 pages of proof) and source of income proof (basically lots of evidence that we are employable and have money to get onto our feet, degrees, resumes, employment opportunities, savings etc.)

The third part I clipped together was all the supporting documents for the applicant. This includes 2 PR photos that I attached at the top in a small envelope for the officer to see. In this part I also had 100 pages of our relationship proof (since we are a common-law couple, I had to include a ton of bills indicating more than one year of the same address). At the back, I placed 20 photos into an A4 envelope, each photo had details on the back that we printed out neatly and applied to the back of each photo with "DC Fix".

Throughout the supporting documents, we also had headers for each page in case a page got lost some how. The header included both the sponsor and applicant names and birth dates, as well as the type of supporting document (i.e Supporting document for Sponsor: 2. Proof that Sponsor will live in Canada)

Our application's order was exactly as follows:

1. Checklist

2. Barcodes (1344 one page, 0008 two pages)

* I also added a one page cover letter after the bar codes, explaining what class we are applying under, why we believe that we are eligible and a short explanation of evidence that we provided. Its not necessary, but meh.

3. Heading: Sponsor Forms
3.1 IMM 1344
3.2 Application Fees Receipt

4. Heading: Principal Applicant Forms
4.1 IMM 0008
4.2 IMM 5406 (we only filled out one)
4.3 IMM 5669 (added an additional sheet of international travel with a photo of my passport stamps)

5. Heading: Sponsor and Principal Applicant Forms
5.1 IMM 5532
(Additional sheets to provide our relationship time-line which is roughly 3 pages) - Answer to Question 11 Section C

6. Heading: Sponsor Supporting Documents
6.1 Sponsor Canadian Passport copy
6.2 Detailed plan of proof that Sponsor will live in Canada when applicant is approved (roughly 120 pages of proof and a "strategy plan" of everything we have done in terms of planning to move)
6.3 Documentation showing that I can support the applicant once in Canada

7. Heading: Principal Applicant Supporting Documents
7.1 Copies of most recent Passport (2018) and birth certificate
7.2 Statutory declaration of common-law relationship (although not required since we have no co-signer)
7.3 Original police clearance certificate of applicant (received 31 July 2018)
7.4 2 x photos of principal applicant (details written on back of the photos)
7.5 Proof of our relationship (roughly 100 pages where I include all documents relating to our relationship including lease agreement, bank accounts, envelope with 20 photos, relationship support letters, 2 x statutory declarations from family members and so forth)

So that was it. After we compiled the whole thing and went over our checklist and signature parts a few times, I wrapped it and sent it away. Some details I thought I'd include, as we struggled over the past two years to get solid info.

Details of supporting documents and photos to follow

HI, Thank you for share your information
1-My partner and me are starting to complete forms ( common law ) but i have a question if I choose I am unemployed as applicant is a good idea or not because normally i have my job in my country and during 12 months live in Canada with a visitor visa ( 2 times left Canada ) i couldn't work here
2- My country resident address : i could write my current address where live with my boyfriend or my country citizen and in start day is the first day I arrived in Canada or my last entrance
3-if i apply for a inland am i just add a work permit form or i should includes other picture and separate documents as birth certificate and etc...

 

[ruanp28]

HI, Thank you for share your information
1-My partner and me are starting to complete forms ( common law ) but i have a question if I choose I am unemployed as applicant is a good idea or not because normally i have my job in my country and during 12 months live in Canada with a visitor visa ( 2 times left Canada ) i couldn't work here
2- My country resident address : i could write my current address where live with my boyfriend or my country citizen and in start day is the first day I arrived in Canada or my last entrance
3-if i apply for a inland am i just add a work permit form or i should includes other picture and separate documents as birth certificate and etc...

Hi, please check your inbox

 

[siham44]

Hi, my supporting documents were usually screenshots pasted onto a Word document, so the Word document had a header with the sponsor's name and DOB, applicant's name and DOB, the section i.e sponsor's "supporting documents: relationship proof". For normal letters from fiends and families, we made a heading page before all the letters and a page explaining that we included X number of letters from friends and that the letters are on the following pages. We did number our entire application yes, but we numbered the application with a pen after printing it out.

Hello, sorry to interfere, what about the bank statements and bills etc..did you use a heading page before as well? and for the 2 pictures for PR did u use a small enveloppe ? Thank you !

 

[dshobbs87]

Thank you so much for this thread; it's been my go to reference guide for compiling our application!

 

[priyrasta]

Hi, i have been researching extensively about how to go about organising the spousal application and have a few questions which i cannot seem to find any answers to so am in need of assistance. I am Indian and just married my longtime canadian boyfriend. we have finished collating the paperwork to prove our relationship which spans 3 years so here are my questions. I am here on a visitors visa.
1. Do I need a cover letter
2. I have organised the proof of documents with tickets, bank statements wedding pictures etc.. sequentially, so does one need to explain the documentation in the cover letter also? or is that being redundant?

 

[Judith28]

Hi @ruanp28 thank you for posting this whole preparation in this forum it really a big help for many of us. I am married to a Canadian Citizen and I am Filipina.we got married here in Philippines just September 14,2019.

We are going to process my Outland Spousal Visa this month and just waiting my new passport to be release next week. I have just some concern and maybe you could help me about this.

By the way we got the checklist and this is one of the FORM for PRINCIPAL Sponsor ,Additional Family Information [IMM 5406] (PDF, 570.00 KB). my question is ;
1.Should I really fill up this form?and if yes, this form means putting my family ( parents and siblings) in this form just in case I wanna sponsor them in the future, right?

*What do you think is better, applying thru online or submit all this papers in the EMBASSY here in Manila ,Philippines?
*Should the principal Sponsor provide Bank statement, Employment of Certificate?
*Should the Sponsor attached his Bank statement as well?


I will truly appreciate if you can help me in this matter. I am really hoping to reunite with my husband very soon and wanna make this right. You can also send a reply it quinonesjoy31@gmail.com

God Bless Everyone! We will all get approval soon.Cheers!

 

[Erigh04]

Hi @ruanp28 thank you for posting this whole preparation in this forum it really a big help for many of us. I am married to a Canadian Citizen and I am Filipina.we got married here in Philippines just September 14,2019.

We are going to process my Outland Spousal Visa this month and just waiting my new passport to be release next week. I have just some concern and maybe you could help me about this.

By the way we got the checklist and this is one of the FORM for PRINCIPAL Sponsor ,Additional Family Information [IMM 5406] (PDF, 570.00 KB). my question is ;
1.Should I really fill up this form?and if yes, this form means putting my family ( parents and siblings) in this form just in case I wanna sponsor them in the future, right?

*What do you think is better, applying thru online or submit all this papers in the EMBASSY here in Manila ,Philippines?
*Should the principal Sponsor provide Bank statement, Employment of Certificate?
*Should the Sponsor attached his Bank statement as well?


I will truly appreciate if you can help me in this matter. I am really hoping to reunite with my husband very soon and wanna make this right. You can also send a reply it quinonesjoy31@gmail.com

God Bless Everyone! We will all get approval soon.Cheers!

Hello!
To answer a couple of your questions:
1. Yes, you need to submit the additional family member form.
2. You have to apply by mail, and you will be sending it to Canada, not the embassy in your country.
3 and 4. We submitted bank statements from both the sponsor and principal applicant, it's good to show that you can support yourself.

Hope that helps! Good luck

 

[ruanp28]

Hi @ruanp28 thank you for posting this whole preparation in this forum it really a big help for many of us. I am married to a Canadian Citizen and I am Filipina.we got married here in Philippines just September 14,2019.

We are going to process my Outland Spousal Visa this month and just waiting my new passport to be release next week. I have just some concern and maybe you could help me about this.

By the way we got the checklist and this is one of the FORM for PRINCIPAL Sponsor ,Additional Family Information [IMM 5406] (PDF, 570.00 KB). my question is ;
1.Should I really fill up this form?and if yes, this form means putting my family ( parents and siblings) in this form just in case I wanna sponsor them in the future, right?

*What do you think is better, applying thru online or submit all this papers in the EMBASSY here in Manila ,Philippines?
*Should the principal Sponsor provide Bank statement, Employment of Certificate?
*Should the Sponsor attached his Bank statement as well?


I will truly appreciate if you can help me in this matter. I am really hoping to reunite with my husband very soon and wanna make this right. You can also send a reply it quinonesjoy31@gmail.com

God Bless Everyone! We will all get approval soon.Cheers!

Hi there, glad I could help. To answer your questions:

1. Yes, fill it in. You simply need to provide their detail, some worry that you have to do medicals and police clearance for your family members too, but you don't. Simply fill in their detail, since you might want to sponsor them in the future AND you also don't want the visa officer to wonder why you are holding information. Just my 10 cents.

2. You will not be able to do this application online. You will submit your application by mail. I might be wrong (if the rules did not change) but if both of you are outside of Canada, you will send the sponsorship package to Sydney in Nova Scotia. We used a courier company (DHL) and it was with CIC in about a week.

3. You can both provide bank statements, it just shows that you know how to manage your finances in my opinion. That being said, there is no minimum income for family sponsorship. There have been several cases where sponsors were unemployed. As long as the sponsor has not depended on the government for financial aid if I am correct. It makes sense though, because the sponsor should be able to financially support the applicant in case the applicant cannot work. In our case, we both work full-time and we explained in our application what professions we are in, our career goals and how we do not intend to rely on tax-payers' money to care for us - we basically showed that we intend to work hard and make a success of our lives in Canada - which is what we are currently trying to accomplish. I am glad to say both myself and my fiance found jobs in our respective industries within the first 2 weeks after our arrival in Canada.

Hope it helps

 

[ruanp28]

Hi, i have been researching extensively about how to go about organising the spousal application and have a few questions which i cannot seem to find any answers to so am in need of assistance. I am Indian and just married my longtime canadian boyfriend. we have finished collating the paperwork to prove our relationship which spans 3 years so here are my questions. I am here on a visitors visa.
1. Do I need a cover letter
2. I have organised the proof of documents with tickets, bank statements wedding pictures etc.. sequentially, so does one need to explain the documentation in the cover letter also? or is that being redundant?

Hi. Sorry for the delay, have been busy this side. I used a cover letter just to give a short background on our "story", our reason for applying and also to briefly explain the different sections in our proof and why we chose to use the specific forms of proof. Is it necessary? I am sure it is not, no. But I do believe that it showed that we are committed to establish ourselves in Canada and that we are taking the application seriously. I am unclear whether it helped, but I do know from the time that our case was opened by the visa officer until the time the decision was made was less than 3 months, which is good in my opinion and I'd like to think the fact that my application was clear and concise played a positive role in the decision-making process.

 

[ruanp28]

Hi. Sorry for the delay, have been busy this side. I used a cover letter just to give a short background on our "story", our reason for applying and also to briefly explain the different sections in our proof and why we chose to use the specific forms of proof. Is it necessary? I am sure it is not, no. But I do believe that it showed that we are committed to establish ourselves in Canada and that we are taking the application seriously. I am unclear whether it helped, but I do know from the time that our case was opened by the visa officer until the time the decision was made was less than 3 months, which is good in my opinion and I'd like to think the fact that my application was clear and concise played a positive role in the decision-making process.

I must also add that I am a very analytical person and I enjoyed writing reports and research papers while in university. As a result, I enjoyed creating the cover letter and I treated my application the same as I would treat my work projects as a management consultant. I guess it is just something that comes naturally to me. So it is not a requirement, it's just how I am wired as a person

 

[ruanp28]

Thank you so much for this thread; it's been my go to reference guide for compiling our application!

Awesome to know. If you have any questions, feel free to DM me!

 

[ruanp28]

Hello, sorry to interfere, what about the bank statements and bills etc..did you use a heading page before as well? and for the 2 pictures for PR did u use a small enveloppe ? Thank you !

Hi. Headings are completely up to you. I had a financial proof heading but that was it. Under that heading, I had bank statements, asset valuation, current income and anything I could think of that is relevant to the application. As for the photos, yes, I left them in the small envelope and paper clipped the envelope to my application.

 

[ruanp28]

You should have more up vote because that is exactly what I thought when I saw that big pile. Officers don't want MORE then what they ask and normally it results in a longer treatment.

You are entitled to your opinion of course, but in my case it actually helped to be thorough and detailed. My application took 3 months, and others who have followed the same path had quick processing times too. Then again, there are people with 10-pager applications who also get processed quickly. The officer was obviously happy with my application, otherwise I would not be sitting in Canada right now.

Good luck with your application

 

[Aziiiiiiiin]

Hey guys
I have a question
Do sponsor need a police certificate due to he hasn't live to Canada since he was a child.

 

[YVR123]

Hey guys
I have a question
Do sponsor need a police certificate due to he hasn't live to Canada since he was a child.

I don't think police certificate for the sponsor is required.
Look at the document checklist again.