Family & Spousal Sponsorship

It depends on what matters most to you. An inland application, where your partner is already in Canada with status, may allow them to obtain an open work permit while the file is processed. For couples who need income during the wait, that is often decisive.

The trade-off is significant. An inland refusal carries no right of appeal to the Immigration Appeal Division, whereas an overseas family class refusal generally does. Inland applicants are also expected to remain in Canada throughout. We assess your partner's current status, how long it has left, your travel needs, and your risk tolerance before recommending one.

Officers assess genuineness under section four of the Regulations. In practice, recurring triggers include gaps in the timeline, a story that does not match the documents, inconsistent answers between partners, a very short courtship followed immediately by marriage, no evidence that families or communities know about the relationship, and no financial interdependence of any kind.

Note what is not on that list. Age differences, arranged marriages, religious and cultural differences, prior marriages, and long-distance relationships are all entirely lawful and are approved every day. What causes refusals is not the unusual fact. It is the unexplained fact. Address difficult circumstances openly in the narrative rather than hoping the officer will not notice.

If you have filed an inland application and your partner holds valid status in Canada, they may be eligible to apply for an open work permit, which allows them to work for almost any employer while the sponsorship is processed. This is one of the strongest arguments for the inland route.

If your partner is outside Canada, the sponsorship application itself gives them no right to work or study in Canada. Some couples apply for a visitor visa or a study permit in parallel, but this must be handled carefully because of dual intent. An officer must be satisfied that your partner will leave at the end of an authorised temporary stay, even while a permanent application is pending.

If you separate before a decision is made, you must tell IRCC. The relationship must be genuine and continuing at the time of the decision, and failing to disclose a breakdown can amount to misrepresentation with far more serious consequences than the refusal itself.

If you separate after your partner becomes a permanent resident, their status is not automatically affected, but your undertaking continues for its full term regardless. You remain financially responsible to the government for the full three years even if the relationship has ended. Separately, if you are experiencing family violence, there are protections and specific measures available. Speak to us or to a settlement agency in confidence.

In most years, IRCC opens a short window for potential sponsors to submit an interest to sponsor form. From that pool, invitations to apply are issued, historically by random selection, up to an annual cap. If you are not invited, you cannot apply that year.

Because the intake is capped and the window is short, preparation has to happen before it opens. You need your three years of Notices of Assessment ready, your family size calculated correctly, including everyone covered by a previous undertaking, and a co-signer identified if you need one to meet the income threshold. Where the income test cannot be met, the Super Visa is the realistic alternative and we prepare both in parallel.

They achieve different things. Sponsorship makes your parent or grandparent a permanent resident with healthcare access, the right to work, and an eventual path to citizenship. The Super Visa is a long-stay multiple-entry temporary visa. It does not confer permanent resident status, work rights, or public healthcare, and it requires private medical insurance.

What the Super Visa offers is availability. There is no lottery, no annual cap, and the income threshold applied is lower than the Parents and Grandparents requirement. For many families, it delivers most of the practical outcome years earlier. The two are not mutually exclusive, and we frequently run a Super Visa while waiting for a sponsorship intake window to open.

The undertaking is a binding contract with the government in which you promise to provide for the basic needs of the person you sponsor and to repay any social assistance they receive during the period. It is not a promise to your relative. It is a debt obligation to the Crown, and it is enforceable.

The period depends on the relationship. For a spouse or partner, it is normally three years. For a dependent child under twenty-two, it is ten years, or until the child turns twenty-five, whichever comes first. For parents and grandparents, it is twenty years. Quebec sets its own undertaking periods, which are longer in several categories. The undertaking survives divorce, separation, and any change in your financial circumstances.

A refused overseas family class application generally carries a full right of appeal to the Immigration Appeal Division, usually within thirty days. The IAD hears the case afresh, accepts new evidence, hears live testimony, and may grant relief on humanitarian and compassionate grounds even where the strict legal test is not met.

Inland spousal refusals carry no IAD appeal, but Judicial Review at the Federal Court remains available, as does a rebuilt fresh application. The right route depends on what the officer actually said, which is why we order the GCMS notes before advising. Our Refusal and Appeal page sets out each option in detail.

The initial sponsorship review is free and carries no obligation. Beyond that, you receive a written retainer with a fixed professional fee before any work begins, separate from government fees, and there are no hidden charges.

We do not guarantee approval, and you should treat any representative who does as a warning sign. Canadian law prohibits guaranteeing an immigration outcome. What we commit to is confirming your eligibility as a sponsor before you spend anything, telling you honestly how your relationship evidence is likely to be received, and saying so plainly if we believe you should strengthen the file before filing rather than after being refused.