Canada offers numerous opportunities, different social and welfare plans and a high standard of living to immigrants and residents. It is an ideal country to settle down with family and children. Canada immigration programmes also include family sponsored visas and spouse open work permit. The spouse open work permit processing time can be reduced by following proper documentation with the help of reliable immigration consultant.
These are immigrant friendly programmes and allow permanent residents and citizens to sponsor eligible family members, including spouse, dependent children, parents and grandparents to secure permanent residency in Canada.
One of the most popular Canadian immigration gateways is Spousal Sponsorship Program. The Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) receive several applications every year seeking Spouse visa and work permit. Read on to know more about spouse visa and work permit in Canada.
A sub-category of the Family Sponsorship Program, the Spousal Sponsorship Program of Canada offers Canadian permanent residents and citizens to sponsor respective spouse or common-law-partner or dependent children to secure permanent residency status in Canada.
It is important to note that the IRCC considers spouse, common-law partner or dependent children in the category of dependent of a primary applicant, who should be a permanent resident of Canada. Broadly, dependent category has two divisions -
The spouse or common-law partner of the sponsor (or primary applicant) is allowed to secure a Canadian open work permit, provided applicants are residing in Canada at the time of filing and processing of sponsorship applications. The sponsored applicant or spouse can apply for an open work permit through ‘inland spousal sponsorship gateway’ after fulfilling all eligibility criteria.
After receiving a spouse open work permit, the applicants can approach various Canadian employers to get temporary jobs in any province till the time their PR is under process.
The spousal sponsorship open work permit strictly depends on applicant’s status and processing of their PR application.
The sponsor or primary applicant should fulfil financial needs of their spouse (or common-law partner) or dependent children. The sponsors are supposed to sign an undertaking along with sponsorship application processing. This undertaking declares that spouse or common-law partner or dependent children will not require social or financial assistance from the federal government of Canada. The duration of the sponsorship agreement depends on the age of applicant, their current relationship status with sponsor or primary applicant and their current location or residence in Canada.
The province of Quebec has some more requirements for family sponsorship gateways, which are supposed to be fulfilled by the sponsor while applying for the sponsorship for their spouse or dependent children.
Generally, the processing time of visa applications for both spouses and dependents are the same.
The estimated spousal visa application processing time is about 5-6 months, provided there is proper documentation. The probable dependent child sponsorship application processing time is around nine months.
The visa application processing includes biometric process as well as evaluation of sponsor (permanent citizen of Canada).
It must be noted that the country of residence of spouse and dependent children also play a major role in processing time. The visa application processing time is less if spouse and dependent children submit applications from their current location or (original) country of residence. It makes the processing steps hassle-free and time saving.
The technology also plays a vital role these days in capturing identity and other records of spouse and dependent children. Due to lack of advanced technology, the estimated spouse and dependent (of Canadian citizens and permanent residents) visa application processing time was around two years (or 26 months).
The spouse and dependent visa is granted by the IRCC after thorough checking of applications and status of applicants. This also helps in having smooth allocation of visas to the sponsored applicants. Sponsors, who are also citizens or permanent residents of Canada, must ensure that a set of documents should be prepared in advance in ready to submit formats in order to speed up processing and avoid cancellation of applications.
Only Canadian citizen or permanent resident of Canada are allowed to sponsor their spouse or common-law partner (conjugal partner). The sponsors in such cases should meet below-mentioned eligibility criteria -
Primary applicants or sponsors, who stay in Quebec province must fulfil provincial government’s eligibility criteria for spousal sponsorship.
Sponsors must ensure that their spouses or common-law partners are not dependent on social assistance provided by the federal or provincial governments before signing an undertaking as part of immigration process. In case of spouses or common-law partners, who require social assistance or financial aid from the government, then sponsors should pay back the full amount received by the government since sponsors are legally bound to fulfill needs of their spouses or common-law partners. If sponsors are unable to pay back the full amount to the government, then they will not be permitted to sponsor another eligible family member in future till the time they pay back the entire amount to the government.
In fact, the financial support must be continued by the sponsor (primary applicants) even if their spouses or common-law partners become permanent citizens in Canada or their relationship ends or the spouse or common-law partner shifts to another country or other Canadian province for specific reasons or sponsor is facing financial concerns.
Unlike other sponsorship programs, it is not compulsory for sponsors to have a job in Canada or must have a source of minimum income. However, the IRCC required proof of sufficient funds to support spouse or common-law partner financially while signing sponsorship agreement.
The duration of this agreement or undertaking by the sponsors depends on the category of sponsorship. For instance, in case of spousal sponsorship the duration of sponsorship agreement is three years from the day the spouse or sponsored applicant receives PR status in Canada.
It applies to spouses or common-law partners living outside Canada. As per the rules of the Federal government of Canada, such applicants are allowed to stay in Canada till the time their applications have been fully processed. If sponsorship applications are under process, the said candidate should not travel outside or to other countries from Canada.
The sponsor under Family Class (Outland) sponsorship gateway must fulfil following requirements -
In case of spouse or common-law partner -
In case of dependent child -
In case of sponsored siblings or relatives
The spousal sponsorship gateway requires the following set of documents for processing of applications -
The applicant or sponsored spouse or common-law partner are not required to showcase language ability either in English or French. It is only required (as per government’s rules and standards) if the applicant or sponsored spouse is willing to secure Canadian citizenship or PR status in future.
The government processing fees sponsorship programmes is mentioned below (in Canadian dollars):
If the sponsor stays in Quebec province or is willing to live in Quebec after receiving PR status, an additional fee of $289 CAD is required besides the above-mentioned fee structure.
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