IM5540E Sponsor Questionnaire, Question 16

[elmatador]

Hello All,

I am looking to sponsor my wife. As I was filling the forms the following question came up in IM5540E:

Question 16:
Have you ever submitted a sponsorship application for another person before?

This is bit of an odd situation. About 4 years ago, a co-worker of mine was in a desperate need to sponsor one of his relatives from a war stricken part of the world. He was applying under the "Groups of Five - Sponsoring Refugees" program. Anyway, I agreed to help him out by being one of the five people and provided all my relevant details to him (i.e. passport info, employment info,etc.) and signed off on the papers. The only problem is that he left the job and moved to another province. When I briefly chatted with him prior to him moving he said he never ended up filing the application at that time as he was unable to find 5 people. It has been almost 4 years now and I have lost touch with him and cannot find any information to get a hold of him. I am unsure if he ended up submitting the application....whether it was processed....rejected?? No clue what so ever.

I want to ensure that I answer this question accurately, i.e. if he has submitted the application I would obviously answer it as "YES". Is there anyway that CIC can help me to see if an application was submitted or not? I only have the Group Name and the refugee's name and DOB. If the application was submitted does CIC contact all five people in the group? Or just the group lead? My co-worker was the group lead. I just hope CIC can help me with this. I wonder if they can retrieve information from the database with my name and tell me the status and if the application was ever submitted.

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[zardoz]

Personally, I would say "No" to that question as you have been told that it was never filed. However you could also add a separate sheet of paper with the details so that CIC can check.

 

[MrSputnik]

Personally, I would say "No" to that question as you have been told that it was never filed. However you could also add a separate sheet of paper with the details so that CIC can check.

I would also recommend to add an additional sheet of paper explaining the situation you had about 4 years ago.

 

[elmatador]

Thanks for responding guys. Much appreciated. Do you think it's worth chatting with my local CIC office before hand? Do you think they would be able to look things up for me?

 

[elmatador]

Bump

 

[scrls5]

Bump

I dont think you need to chat with a CIC officer about this, as the person who will process your app will likely be a different officer.
An explanatory letter should be enough, and if they have any doubt: they will contact you ... so dont worry

 

[truesmile]

Not even so. Even if you signed, you were not the "sponsor", just a "co-signer". Wouldn't even mention it.

 

[elmatador]

Thanks for the input everyone. I managed to get a hold of the main group lead and he said he submitted the application but it was returned to him as "incomplete" and he never filed it again. Does that mean that the CIC obviously never processed it? I asked him whether they gave him some sort of file number and he said they didnt provide him with one. If nothing is linked to a file and the application returned I don't see how this would be considered as officially submitted?

Anyway, I was thinking of answer the question as "No" for the following reasons:
1. My interpretation of the Group 5 program is that I am one of the sponsors but the group lead is the main sponsor and responsible for all the other forms that are to be submitted with the application. Therefore the main representative for the application was not me but the group lead. I was merely one the co-sponsors and not the person responsible for submitting the app?
2. The application was never processed as it was returned as "incomplete" and was never resubmitted.


Please let me know your thoughts. Thanks.

 

[zardoz]

Agreed. Just answer "no" and leave it at that. No further need to elaborate.

 

[MapleLeafMom]

Yup, you are correct in your reasoning. An Incomplete file is sent back and not processed by CIC. As well, the Group of Five requires a financial commitment so you would have needed to been contacted if the file went further Good Luck on your current matter!

 

[elmatador]

Thanks to everyone for their input!