Understanding Spousal Sponsorship in Canada

Firstly, people need to understand what Spousal Sponsorship is. So basically, to sponsor a spouse/partner to be a resident of Canada, one needs to be a citizen/permanent resident themselves. There are other requirements like economic stability etc. that need to be met. If an individual meets these conditions, he/she may be deemed fit to sponsor the spouse. Recently the Canadian immigration department was denying a lot of Temporary Resident Visas requested by spouses of the individuals residing in Canada, as they suspected “Dual Intent“.

Spouses & Partners of people currently living in Canada can apply for a Temporary Resident Visa to visit their loved ones once in a while. Currently, the refusal rate of the TRV stands at 69% from all over the world. “Dual Intent” is one of the reasons why it happens. Spouses and common-law partners need to convince the officer that they will only stay in Canada as long as they’re authorised to do so.

The concept of Dual Intent explained:

As the name itself suggests, dual intent means having double or two intentions at the same time. In case of migrating to any country, when a person first applies for a Temporary Resident Visa also known as TRV, as a worker, student, or a visitor, the government of the country, under Section 179 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulation (IRPR), expects the individual to travel back to his own country once the period authorised for their visit has ended. Even after that, if a person is determined to stay back and apply for Permanent Residency, it is known as Dual Intent.

A Visa officer is given the responsibility to access whether or not a person is going to go back to their country once the visit visa lapses. It is an extremely complex job. While applying for a temporary visa, an individual has to provide proof of their current residence in their nation and needs to make the officer believe that their intention is not to permanently immigrate. If the officer is not satisfied or has concerns with ther applicant’s intentions, the applicant is to be informed and is allowed to explain. Even then if the officer rejects the TRV application, they need to give a written explanation as to the reason.

On 30th October 2020, the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) gave an update that there have been certain changes in the policies regarding issuing of TRV for Spouses & Partners. With this change in immigration policies, the government is more likely to accept TRV visas requests now.

In Canada, once a person has obtained the TRV after completing all the formalities they can also apply for Permanent Residency (PR).