Common-law Relationship

The Family Class allows Canadian citizens and permanent residents to sponsor their dependent children, parents and grandparents, and spouse or common-law/conjugal partner. Canada strongly supports keeping families together whenever possible. As such, the processing of Family Class applications is given the highest priority at Canadian Visa Offices.
 
The couple established a common-law relationship is considered as a family in Canada and if the partner is a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, he/she can suponsor his/her common-law partner.
 
If you want to apply to sponsor your common-law partner, of the opposite sex or the same sex, you have to prove you have been living with your partner for at least 12 consecutive months in a relationship like a marriage.
 
That means living together for one year without any long periods where you did not see each other. Either partner may have left the home for work or business travel, family obligations, and so on. However, that separation must have been temporary and short.
 
A common-law relationship ends when at least one partner does not intend to continue it.
 
 
The Spousal Sponsorship Category
 
The Spousal Sponsorship program is a subsection of the Family Class immigration category. Under this program, a Canadian citizen or permanent resident may sponsor a spouse or common-law partner for Canadian permanent residence.
 
Both the Canadian citizen or permanent resident (also called the ‘sponsor’) and the foreign national (the ‘sponsored person’) must be approved by Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) in order for the sponsored person to receive a visa.
 
 
Requirements for the Sponsor:
●　The sponsor must be at least 18 years of age;
●　The sponsor must be a Canadian permanent resident living in Canada or a Canadian citizen;
●　The sponsor cannot be in prison, bankrupt, under a removal order (if a permanent resident) or charged with a serious offence; and
●　The sponsor cannot have been sponsored to Canada as a spouse within the last 5 years.
 
Requirements for the Sponsored Person:
●　The sponsored person must be at least 16 years of age and
●　The sponsored person must not be too closely related by blood to the sponsor.
 
 
Family Sponsorship Fees

Application $CAD
Sponsorship application (per application) 75
Principal applicant 475
Principal applicant, if under 19 and not a spouse or common-law partner (including a dependent child of the sponsor, a child to be adopted, and an orphaned brother, sister, niece, nephew, or grandchild) 75
Spouse, common-law partner, or conjugal partner of the principal applicant or, where a transitional provision applies, a family member of the principal applicant who is 22 or older 550
A family member of the principal applicant who is under 19 and is not a spouse or common-law partner, or is 19 or older who has been unable to be financially self-supporting since before the age of 19, due to a physical or mental condition 150
Where a transitional provision applies, a family member of the principal applicant who:
●　is under 22, unmarried, and not in a common-law relationship, or
●　is 22 or older and has been unable to be financially self-supporting since before the age of 22, due to a physical or mental condition 		150

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