Spouse Reunion

Spouse reunion is a common immigration category among Canadian family-guarantee immigrants, accounting for the vast majority (70%-80%) of household immigration quotas in annual immigration quotas.

Who Can Become A Sponsor?

You can become a sponsor if you are:

• at least 18 years old
• a Canadian citizen, a person registered in Canada as an Indian under the Canadian Indian Act or a permanent resident living in Canada:
  – If you are a Canadian citizen living outside Canada, you must show that you plan to live in Canada when your sponsored relative(s) become(s) a permanent resident.
  – You can’t sponsor someone if you are a permanent resident living outside Canada.
• able to prove that you are not receiving social assistance for reasons other than a disability, and;
• can provide for the basic needs of any person you are sponsoring (and in some limited situations, that you meet the low-income cut-off).

Who You Can Sponsor

To be eligible for permanent residence, the principal applicant and any dependants must not be inadmissible to Canada.

You can sponsor a:

• Spouse, common-law partner or conjugal partner

You can sponsor your spouse, common-law partner or conjugal partner if:

• they are at least 18 years old
• your relationship is genuine (real) and wasn’t entered into just to get permanent resident status in Canada

If your spouse or common-law partner is applying in the Spouse or Common-law Partner in Canada class, they must already co-habit (live) with you in Canada.

Important: A conjugal partner is, in relation to a sponsor, a foreign national residing outside Canada who has been in a conjugal relationship with the sponsor for at least one year. A foreign national residing inside Canada cannot be sponsored as a conjugal partner.