Summary of Experience Completing a Family Sponsorship without Legal Assistance
With my CoPR in the mail, my husband and I were discussing our relief and excitement. The conversation turned to numbers…hours, dollars, months. We chose to complete the application without legal assistance, having faith in ourselves and the system. Looking back, I can say a lawyer would’ve saved us the stress of looking for answers to our MANY questions but not saved me much of the work in compiling the materials. Here’s a summary of our experience that might be relevant for anyone planning to submit an application without legal assistance.
I’m a U.S. citizen married to a Canadian citizen. At the time of application, we’d been together for just about 2 years, married for 7 months. I was living in Canada with an extended visitor visa. There weren’t any red flags as far as I could tell. We had an initial consultation with a lawyer who ultimately told us we’d be fine on our own and didn’t need to waste our money on her. (Hey look, an honest lawyer…) I was able to dedicate significant time to determining which forms were needed, pulling together all of the materials, gathering necessary documents and copying where applicable, copying photos into a Word document, and completing the myriad other little pieces of the puzzle. The biggest concern by far was which forms, which questions, which versions. Oh my goodness! In addition, how much information was necessary? Too little and they may not believe the validity, too much and the VO may be overwhelmed or suspicious. We soldiered through with the help of many Google searches…and this forum.
Lessons learned? We ended up having the medical done twice because we got ahead of ourselves and the first one expired. We paid the Right of Permanent Residency fee midway through the process, which could have set us back by weeks instead of a few days. We took longer than necessary to submit simply because we second-guessed ourselves. Biggest lesson? It was worth every single minute.
Time preparing application 6 months
Approximate hours 200 hours
Approximate number of pages 400
Weight of binder at shipping 4.5 lbs
Total cost $2508.00
broken out:
Visitor extension fee ($100, $100) $200.00
Legal consultation $300.00
Notaries for affidavits $270.00
Medical $388.00
Paper, copies, miscellaneous supplies $200.00
Police clearance $75.00
PR application fees ($475, $75, $490) $1,040.00
Shipping $35.00
I split the submission into two primary sections, Sponsor and Principal Applicant, allowing the application to be easily handled as two different approval steps. I had a master Table of Contents (Toc) at the front, to allow someone to see it all at one glance, and a separate ToC for each section. I created tabs for every form and every separate type of information. From there I tried my best to only duplicate where necessary, to avoid a massive amount of paper. I occasionally made reference to “See Tab XX in Section XX” to be cautious when it seemed as if the information might be relevant. After printing the pages with photos in chronological order, I wrote a description for each photo, drawing lines when needed to specify people or places. For additional pages being added to forms, I made note within the Toc as well as inserted a header on the page indicating the form to which it applied. Again, I tried to make it as easy as possible to navigate. (Side note: I'm a copy editor by profession.)
MASTER TABLE OF CONTENTS
SPONSOR APPLICATION TABLE OF CONTENTS
BAR CODE PAGE
FORMS SECTION A
IMM 5491: DOCUMENT CHECKLIST TAB 1
IMM 1344: APPLICATION TO SPONSOR, SPONSORSHIP AGREEMENT, AND UNDERTAKING TAB 2
IMM 5481: SPONSORSHIP EVALUATION TAB 3
IMM 5476: USE OF A REPRESENTATIVE TAB 4
RECEIPT FOR PAYMENT OF FEES TAB 5
IMM 5540: SPONSOR QUESTIONNAIRE TAB 6
includes additional page
SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS SECTION B
CANADIAN PASSPORT TAB 7
DIVORCE CERTIFICATE TAB 8
OPTION-C PRINTOUT TAB 9
LETTER FROM EMPLOYER TAB 10
APPLICANT APPLICATION TABLE OF CONTENTS
BAR CODE PAGES
FORMS SECTION A
IMM 3910: SPONSORSHIP OF A SPOUSE, COMMON-LAW-PARTNER, CONJUGAL PARTNER OR DEPENDENT LIVING OUTSIDE CANADA – APPENDIX A (CHECKLIST) TAB 1
IMM 0008: GENERIC APPLICATION FORM FOR CANADA TAB 2
IMM 5669: SCHEDULE A – BACKGROUND/DECLARATION TAB 3
IMM 5406: ADDITIONAL FAMILY INFORMATION TAB 4
includes additional page
IMM 5490: SPOUSE/PARTNER QUESTIONNAIRE TAB 5
includes additional pages
IMM 5476: USE OF A REPRESENTATIVE TAB 6
SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS SECTION B
BIRTH CERTIFICATE TAB 7
DIVORCE CERTIFICATE TAB 8
MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE TAB 9
U.S. PASSPORT TAB 10
PROOF OF RELATIONSHIP TAB 11
Relationship Timeline
Facebook Messenger conversation (XXXX XXXX, 20XX, to XXXX XXXX, 20XX)
Travel Documentation and Handwritten Communication
Photos
Emails
ADDITIONAL DOCUMENTATION TAB 12
Current Visitor Record
Receipt for payment of Visa Extension fee
Beneficiary Status
Alberta Healthcare
AFFIDAVITS TAB 13
Description of submitters
XXXX XXXX
XXXX XXXX
XXXX XXXX
XXXX XXXX
XXXX XXXX
XXXX XXXX
FBI BACKGROUND CHECK TAB 14
MEDICAL EXAMINATION TAB 15
PHOTOS TAB 16
I hope this helps at least one person feel a little less stressed when looking for help. I'm happy to answer any questions or go into more detail where possible.
;D
