The Canadian government is reportedly planning a major overhaul of its visa system for people who come to the country after being sponsored by their Canada-based spouses.
According to reports, the government wants to introduce a temporary permanent residence, called “conditional permanent residence”, for those coming to join their spouses. The temporary residence will be valid for two years.
Conditional Permanent Residence
In other words, the spouse will have only a temporary permit for two years, and the full permanent residence will be granted only after two years of living with the spouse who sponsored. It is not yet clear what rights they will have under the temporary system. The Permanent Residence Permit gives the holder the right to work and seek free medical assistance.
If there is a separation within that time frame, then the sponsoree might lose the visa, and might be deported.
The government is also planning to bar those who came to Canada as a sponsoreee from sponsoring another person for another five years.
The move follows a series of town hall meetings Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC), the federal department that deals with immigration related matters, had in major cities such as Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal, and an online consultation process in which more than 3000 people sent in their comments.
The meetings and the process followed a number of high profile cases where Canadian citizens and residents complained that they fell victim to marriage fraudsters, where they got into marriages with people whose sole purpose was to immigrate to Canada, and not to live together.
It is not yet clear how or when the new rules will take effect, but if they do, then it would also mean that Canada is bringing its immigration process related to spousal sponsorship in line with other major immigration counties such as Australia and Britain.
There are some concerns from human rights and women’s groups which argue that the new rule will greatly affect victims of domestic abuse as the fear of losing the right to live might hinder such victims seeking justice.
The public has 30 days to comment on the federal proposal.
The new rule comes in the wake of another move by the government to change the way spousal sponsorships are handled.
Until now, if a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident marries outside of the country, and sponsors his or her spouse, the immigration officer has to prove two conditions to reject the application: that the marriage was not genuine, and that it was conducted for the sole purpose of ensuring the immigration of the sponsoree to Canada.
The Two Conditions
However, sources say what the CIC wants is to give the discretion to visa officers to reject the application if they could prove just one of the two conditions.
Related articles
- Changes to Canadian Spousal Sponsorship System (smartcanadian.ca)
- Canada Acts Against Immigration Marriage Fraud
Totally preposterous! If the people got cheated by their spouses wanting to come to Canada they could always go and knock the doors of the court. Let the court decide if they were cheated!