Hi, I have a friend who is facing a serious problem. I am helping her as I'm a paralegal who works in litigation / family law matters. But I don't have extensive experience in immigration law. My friend is a Mexican Citizen who was successfully sponsored by her Canadian husband and received her permanent residence last year. She and her husband have now been facing difficulties in their marriage due to alcoholism, financial issues, etc. I am helping her apply for her divorce through the courts. My concern, though, is something that her husband recently brought up to her in the process of her asking for a divorce. He mentioned to her that he had a marriage which he had annulled and which he didn't claim to IRCC at the time he sponsored her (the details of whether that marriage was actually properly annulled are suspect). So now she is worried that because she wants to divorce him, he could go back to IRCC, tell them he lied about his marriage history, and claim that they weren't legally married at the time of her sponsorship. What would happen in a case like this? She didn't lie on her application but he as the sponsor, it appears, may have. I hope she won't face problems with her PR because of this...
Husband was already married when sponsored
- Thread starter Lisa Morrison
- Start date
It all hinges on his marital status at the time of marriage to your friend.
Were they possibly common law partners, to IRCC’s definition, at the time of submitting the application?
Yes, I believe they may have been, by reading the definition the requirement is cohabitation for at least 1 year. I'm thinking she meets that requirement. Hopefully all is well. That is really good information, thanks very much.
He does know that bigamy is a crime in Canada? And that he can go to jail for five years for it?
Well, the guy isn't the best guy, hence why my friend is divorcing him. It's hard for me to say what was in his mind, or whether he's even telling the truth. He may just be saying that to scare my friend into not divorcing him. We don't really know. I'm just trying to help her cover her bases.
You may want to gently let him know about this... just as an FYI.
For your friend, as long as she was common-law, she will be OK.
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