Spousal Sponsorship

[arsalmano]

Hello all,

I am a Canadian Citizen since 2002 and working full-time with 2 jobs. I recently got married and trying to bring my wife to Canda from Pakistan. Last year when I tried to sponsor her I was told that there is minimum income requirement in order to sponsor your wife. Due to me traveling back and forth to see my wife, I had taken 3-4 months off in last 1.5 years to visit my wife. At that point, I thought "oh shoot I may not have enough income this year to sponsor her".

Then I decided to apply for her TRV just so she can come visit me, so I can keep working and be eligible to sponsor her. I recently applied for her TRV and it was rejected and the VO has requested some more documents. So we are working on it.

1- My question, is there a minimum income requirement for a spousal sponsor? I know there is for other family members and dependants.

2- If the TRV is rejected again, can I apply for her sponsorship, once in the process, can we then obtain her TRV? I have been told the VO is more lenient with the TRV if you have a sponsorship case filed already.

3- For sponsorship, apart from my pay stubs, companies job letter stating my income, hours and length of employment, is there anything else I need to submit with the file?

Thank you

 

[rhapsodyy]

I do not know the answer for your second question unfortunately, but for the first one, as long as you have no dependents (so there are no children involved, you are strictly sponsoring your wife), there is no minimum income requirement. In my case, I just provided a letter from my employer stating I had a job and how much I earn at that job/how many hours a week I work/how long I've worked there, and provided them with my Option C as well to show my previous income earnings, but it is not necessary to meet a certain level of income. If you're making zero money, you should explain why and how you're supporting yourself, but it will not be an issue as long as you can do that. Bear in mind you do need to make sure you're not on welfare or any sort of social assistance, and you will be responsible for making sure your wife also does not apply for any form of social assistance after she receives her PR (you need to support her enough that she does not need to apply if something happens that she does not have money anymore), but other than that you're good!

 

[arsalmano]

I do not know the answer for your second question unfortunately, but for the first one, as long as you have no dependents (so there are no children involved, you are strictly sponsoring your wife), there is no minimum income requirement. In my case, I just provided a letter from my employer stating I had a job and how much I earn at that job/how many hours a week I work/how long I've worked there, and provided them with my Option C as well to show my previous income earnings, but it is not necessary to meet a certain level of income. If you're making zero money, you should explain why and how you're supporting yourself, but it will not be an issue as long as you can do that. Bear in mind you do need to make sure you're not on welfare or any sort of social assistance, and you will be responsible for making sure your wife also does not apply for any form of social assistance after she receives her PR (you need to support her enough that she does not need to apply if something happens that she does not have money anymore), but other than that you're good!

Thank you kindly for providing your input. I was looking the document checklist and there are 2 forms (Financial Evaluation and Sponsorship Evaluation) and it says on the checklist, refer to the guide to know which one is required for you. Now my understanding is that I would be filling the Sponsorship Evaluation form since I do not need to have minimum income requirement? Please correct me if I am wrong.

For the Schedule A Background Check, it says the person being sponsored and their each family member has to fill out that form? Is that something new because in the past this was not the case.

"Original of Police Certificates" is this only for the person being sponsored or does this also have to be for all family members of the person being sponsored?

Thank you.

 

[arsalmano]

I do not know the answer for your second question unfortunately, but for the first one, as long as you have no dependents (so there are no children involved, you are strictly sponsoring your wife), there is no minimum income requirement. In my case, I just provided a letter from my employer stating I had a job and how much I earn at that job/how many hours a week I work/how long I've worked there, and provided them with my Option C as well to show my previous income earnings, but it is not necessary to meet a certain level of income. If you're making zero money, you should explain why and how you're supporting yourself, but it will not be an issue as long as you can do that. Bear in mind you do need to make sure you're not on welfare or any sort of social assistance, and you will be responsible for making sure your wife also does not apply for any form of social assistance after she receives her PR (you need to support her enough that she does not need to apply if something happens that she does not have money anymore), but other than that you're good!

I will be in Pakistan next week. So while I am there my wife and I will be gathering all the documents and prepare a case and submit it. Question is, where would we submit the application? Mississauga, Canada or Islamabad, Pakistan? It would be an outland application though.
If I know its Mississauga then I would prepare to mail out our application to Canada from Pakistan.

Thank you