Hi everyone.
My name is Jade Calver.
I own and operate Calver and Associates Canadian Immigration Services.
Today, we're going to talk about family sponsorship, including: who can I sponsor?
So, lots of people, they call, and they want to sponsor a family member, be it a niece,
a nephew, a spouse.
And you can't actually sponsor any family member.
They have to fall within specific categories of family sponsorship in Canada.
Today, I'm going to talk about who you can sponsor as a sponsor.
So, first are spouses, common-law partners, and conjugal partners.
So, there are key differences between the three.
The first are spouses, so that's a wife or a husband.
So this means you need to be legally married to the person.
You can have been married in Canada or outside of Canada.
But, if you were married outside of Canada, the marriage must also be considered legal
in Canada.
So, this is important in the cases of same-sex marriages.
So, were you married in another country where it's not legal?
Or, for example, were you married in Canada, or outside of Canada but you weren't - you
hadn't actually finalized a divorce on another marriage.
And so that means that your current marriage isn't legal.
So, you can sponsor a person who you're married to.
The next person that you can sponsor is a common-law partner.
So, common-law for the purpose of immigration purposes is 12 consecutive months of cohabitation.
So, in order to sponsor a common-law partner and in order for them to be considered your
common-law partner, you have to prove that you were living together for 12 consecutive
months.
So, it's very important in an application that you show that you were living together
for these 12 months and we do that through leases, utility bills, etc.
It's important to note too that once you establish common-law status.
So, if you established common-law status two years ago and then after that you weren't
living together, you're still actually considered common-law.
It doesn't end after the 12 month - the initial 12 month period of cohabitation.
And lastly, in terms of a partner, there's a conjugal partner.
So this is where people often confuse this with common-law partner, I find.
They'll call me and say they want to sponsor someone under the conjugal partner class thinking
that they can sponsor someone with whom they're in a relationship, with whom they haven't
lived for those 12 consecutive months.
And that's really not how it works.
Conjugal partners, if you look at the legal definition - it's really someone who, there's
some sort of impediment that's prohibiting you from living together So, for example,
if neither of you can get visas to the other person's country or if you're in a same-sex
relationship where you can't get married or live together, then you would qualify under
the conjugal partners class.
It's really rare that someone qualifies under this class of application.
Next, are parents and grandparents.
So, people under the parents and grandparents class.
So, you can sponsor your biological parent or grandparent.
It's also important to note that you can't - they really want to see that they're your
biological parent or that the parent adopted you.
So, that means that you can't sponsor a step-parent.
So, that's important to note.
Lots of people confuse that parent with a parent or step-parent.
The other people that can be sponsored are other relatives.
So, as I said earlier, people call and they want to sponsor a niece or a nephew, for example.
So there are, in terms of other relatives, immigration Canada only lets - there are only
two options under this class.
So, the first option are someone who is orphaned and so it's important to know that this person
must be under 18 and they must have some sort of biological relationship to you.
So, your niece, for example, if your niece had been orphaned (that means both her biological
parents had died), then you would be able to sponsor her.
So, it's really important that there are specific criteria, that this person be under 18, and
orphaned, and related to you in specific ways (I won't get into those today), but they're
very - you know, the constraints of that definition are very strict.
And a second, so there's another option for other relatives.
And so, lots of people, they get confused with this one as well and so they think that
they can just sponsor another relative if they live outside of Canada.
But, in fact, it needs to be - I often refer to this class as the lonely Canadian class.
So, that means that you as the Canadian sponsors, you don't have any blood relatives in Canada.
And the other person outside of Canada, it means that you don't have anyone outside of
Canada that you would be able to sponsor either.
And so it means that - it's really to reunite people where you're the only two left kind
of thing.
So, you would submit an application to sponsor that person.
That pretty much covers all of the family class sponsorship cases that - you know, classes
of people that can be sponsored.
As you can see, this really omits a lot of people.
So, nieces, nephews, uncles, aunts - so what we do and what's often not talked about.
Immigration Canada obviously doesn't talk about this - there's also, you can use the
- a clause in the immigration act (section 25), which is the humanitarian and compassionate
considerations class.
And so, when someone doesn't qualify under the existing programs, we often - so, say
for an aunt or an uncle, or a niece or a nephew - so, what we would do is essentially argue
under the humanitarian and compassionate considerations class that you as the Canadian sponsor, you
actually have a parent-like relationship with your aunt or uncle.
Perhaps, because your parents have passed away.
Or, that you have a child/parent-like relationship with a niece or a nephew and then in that
case, we would submit an application arguing that a humanitarian and compassionate consideration.
And so that's how we sponsor people who are not - those who are not described under the
constraints of the family class.
Other than that, if we can't argue any of the H&C considerations and if a family member
doesn't fit into one of the prescribed family class categories, then we look to other ways
to bring them to Canada.
So, on a temporary basis or through other permanent residency programs.
So that pretty much covers today's video on the family class and who you can sponsor.
For more information, visit our website at calverimmigrationservices.com