Even though the phrase “family reunification” surrounds several groups, including spouses, parents, children, common-law partners, and more, a massive aspect of Canada’s family-class immigration is concentrated on the sponsorship of partners by Canadian nationals and permanent residents (PRs).
For a fact, family-class routes are Canada’s second most famous pattern of relocating after economic immigration. This is solidified by statistics publicized within the 2023 Annual Report to Parliament on Immigration by IRCC. Based on statistics from this account, save for a drop ascribed to COVID-19 in 2020, the number of sponsored spouses, partners, and kids accepted to Canada has increased steadily from 2018 to 2022.
On the contrary, based on the 2023 yearly report, the processing time for these sponsorships has also increased, increasing from 13 months in 2019 to 18 months in 2022.
Immigration, Refugee, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) strives to run 80 percent of requests all over the entire lines of business within service measures. Service measures are the sum of time the division has decided to be helpful to conclude an application. Service measures differ based on the kind of applications. For instance, during the writing period, an application for Express Entry possesses a service measure of 6 months. In contrast, family-class sponsorship applications for PRs can take one year.
It takes a long time for nationals and permanent residents in Canada to wait to be connected with their families, resulting in several seeking quicker alternatives to relocate their partners to Canada. Fortunately, Immigration, Refugee, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) provides candidates with two options that may assist them in bringing their partners to Canada quicker than anticipated.
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Alternative 1: Open Work Permits
To be qualified for a Spousal Open Work Permit (SOWP), partners, spouses, and marital partners who are being sponsored for PR in Canada are required to satisfy the standards below:
- Be capable of ascertaining an actual relationship with their sponsor.
- Be attached to an application for Permanent Residence, and possess an Acknowledgment of Receipt letter verifying that their permanent residence request is being processed.
- Be residing in Canada with their sponsor.
Processing Duration: Immigration, Refugee, and Citizenship Canada presently possesses a service measure of 60 days to allocate final judgments for every new work permit request. Furthermore, following the primary steps to apply for a work permit, there are additional steps to this procedure that differ based on a candidate’s particular case.
Alternative 2: Visitor Visa
Generally, qualification for a visitor visa, which is also described as a Temporary Resident Visa, first demands the candidate to satisfy the general conditions below:
- Possess an authentic travel document such as a passport.
- Have a good health condition.
- Possess no criminal or immigration-linked charges.
- Persuade an immigration official that you have connections, including employment, home, monetary properties, or family, that will make you return to your home nation and exit Canada at the end of your stay.
- Possess sufficient funds for your visit, the amount required to meet this condition. This will be modified based on the candidate’s duration in Canada and whether they will stay in a hotel or with relatives and friends.
Processing Duration: When writing this article, Immigration, Refugee, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) possesses a service standard of 14 days for processing new visitor visa requests presented outside Canada.
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Most candidates may also require a medical test and an invitation letter from a resident of Canada.
Those seeking to visit a partner who has sponsored them for PR, Immigration, Rrefugee, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) demonstrate that candidates may also require a mixture of the following documents to accompany their application.
- Evidence of relationship document: To be presented with the visa application, this document ascertains the candidate’s connection with the individual or relative requesting their presence in Canada. Approving documents may involve a marriage certificate or a Statutory declaration of Common-Law Union (IMM5409).
- An identification document: To be presented with the visa application, an authentic passport or travel papers can be utilized to ascertain your identity, whichever document will be used to travel to Canada.
- A family information document: To be presented with the visa request, this form must be filled out by every visa candidate above the age of 18.
- Using a representative form, if relevant: To be presented with the visa application, this form must be filled out any time a family member or third party applies on behalf of the main candidate.
Based on Immigration, Refugee, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), not every document mentioned or listed on the visitor visa website is needed; most are alternatives. IRCC also states that the presentation of all documents listed does not assure authorization of an application.
Partners or spouses authorized for a visitor visa may apply for an open work permit when they land in Canada. This implies that all informed, a sponsored spouse or partner could prospectively land and become qualified to get employed in Canada within about three months of initially applying for a visitor visa. Hence, it is essential to understand that Immigration, Refugee, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) does not usually satisfy service standards and may take longer than expected.
Major Things To Understand About Seeking An OWP Or A Visitor Visa
The alternatives above can be sought for partners or spouses of citizens or permanent residents of Canada after a permanent residence application has been presented for spousal sponsorship. Candidates must also obtain an AOR (Acknowledgement of Receipt), which verifies the application is in progress, before seeking either of the alternatives above.
The candidates may only gain from faster processing for a visitor visa.
Note: Based on IRCC, candidates for spousal sponsorships who are considered qualified for a visitor visa after obtaining their Acknowledgment of Receipt will instantly get quicker processing on their request.
Canada’s Dedication To Family Reunification
In May 2023, Immigration, Refugee, and Citizenship Canada made public many new standards that concentrated on boosting family-class relocation and reunification endeavors across Canada.
Furthermore, to the processing explained above, these standards also have to do with new and devoted processing instruments for spousal temporary resident visas or visitor visa candidates and a temporary public approach that permits open work permit extensions for specific qualified open work permit possessors.
Note: This approach was terminated at the end of 2023.
