Spousal Sponsorship
Spousal sponsorship lawyer in Toronto
Omulique Lawyers assists Canadian citizens, permanent residents, spouses, and partners with spousal sponsorship applications in Toronto and across Canada. Our Toronto immigration lawyers handle both straightforward and complex spouse sponsorship cases, including inland and outland applications, common law sponsorship, spousal open work permits, previous refusals, and sponsorship appeals.
If you are looking for a spousal sponsorship lawyer in Canada or need assistance with Canadian spouse sponsorship, we can assess your eligibility, identify potential issues, prepare the application and supporting evidence, and represent you throughout the immigration process.
What is spousal sponsorship?
Spousal sponsorship is a Canadian permanent residence process that allows an eligible Canadian citizen or permanent resident to sponsor their spouse or partner for permanent residence in Canada.
The central issue in a Canadian spousal sponsorship application is not simply whether the couple is legally married. IRCC must also be satisfied that the relationship is genuine and that it was not entered into primarily for the purpose of acquiring any status or privilege under Canadian immigration law.
A properly prepared application should therefore establish both the applicant’s legal eligibility and the history, development, and genuineness of the relationship.
Who can sponsor a spouse or partner?
To qualify as a sponsor, you must generally be at least 18 years old and be a Canadian citizen, permanent resident, or person registered in Canada as an Indian under the Canadian Indian Act.
Canadian citizens living outside Canada may sponsor a spouse or partner if they demonstrate that they intend to return to Canada when the sponsored person becomes a permanent resident. Permanent residents generally must reside in Canada to sponsor.
A sponsor may be ineligible because of receiving social assistance other than for disability, certain criminal convictions, an undischarged bankruptcy, outstanding immigration loans or court ordered family support payments, or failure to comply with a previous sponsorship undertaking.
Restrictions may also apply if the sponsor was themselves sponsored as a spouse or partner and became a permanent resident less than five years ago, or if a previous three year spousal sponsorship undertaking remains in effect.
Who can be sponsored?
Canadian family sponsorship recognizes three principal partner categories.
Spouse: A person to whom the sponsor is legally married.
Common law partner: A partner who has lived with the sponsor in a conjugal relationship continuously for at least 12 months.
Conjugal partner: A partner living outside Canada with whom the sponsor has maintained a mutually interdependent relationship for at least one year where marriage or continuous cohabitation has not been possible because of significant legal, immigration, social, cultural, religious, or other barriers beyond the couple’s control.
Choosing the correct spousal sponsorship category is important because each category has different legal and evidentiary requirements.
Common law sponsorship in Canada
You do not need to be married to sponsor your partner for Canadian permanent residence.
For common law sponsorship in Canada, the couple normally must establish at least 12 consecutive months of cohabitation in a conjugal relationship.
Evidence may include leases, government documents, bills, insurance policies, bank records, correspondence addressed to the same residence, and other documents demonstrating that the couple actually established a household together.
Simply being in a relationship for 12 months does not make a couple common law for Canadian immigration purposes.
Can same sex couples apply for spousal sponsorship?
Yes. Canada permits same sex spousal sponsorship under the same immigration rules applicable to opposite sex couples.
A Canadian citizen or permanent resident may sponsor an eligible same sex spouse or common law partner for permanent residence.
IRCC assesses whether the relationship meets the applicable legal definition and whether it is genuine and was not entered into primarily for immigration purposes.
Inland vs outland sponsorship
Spousal sponsorship applications may be submitted under the Family Class or, where the requirements are met, the Spouse or Common Law Partner in Canada Class.
The appropriate category does not depend exclusively on whether the applicant is physically inside or outside Canada. A spouse living in Canada may, in some circumstances, be sponsored under the Family Class.
One important distinction concerns appeal rights. A refusal under the Spouse or Common Law Partner in Canada Class does not carry the same sponsorship appeal right available for eligible Family Class refusals.
The appropriate inland or outland spousal sponsorship strategy should therefore be determined based on the couple’s particular circumstances rather than automatically based on where the applicant happens to be when the application is submitted.
Can my spouse get a spousal open work permit?
A spouse, common law partner, or conjugal partner living in Canada who is being sponsored for permanent residence may be eligible for a spousal open work permit, provided the applicable IRCC requirements are met.
This may include applicants being sponsored under either the Spouse or Common Law Partner in Canada Class or the Family Class.
A spousal open work permit can allow an eligible applicant to work for most employers in Canada while their permanent residence application is being processed.
What documents are required for spousal sponsorship?
Every application requires mandatory immigration forms and supporting documentation. Depending on the circumstances, spousal sponsorship documents may include marriage certificates, passports, birth certificates, police certificates, photographs, proof of cohabitation, financial documents, employment records, travel records, communication history, joint accounts, insurance policies, beneficiary designations, letters from family and friends, and other relationship evidence.
The appropriate evidence varies significantly from one relationship to another.
Submitting hundreds of pages does not necessarily make an application stronger. The objective is to provide relevant and credible evidence that clearly establishes the relationship history and addresses any potential concerns.
How do you prove a genuine relationship to IRCC?
IRCC assesses the relationship as a whole.
Relevant proof of relationship for spousal sponsorship can include evidence of how the couple met, communication throughout the relationship, visits and travel together, cohabitation, financial interdependence, involvement with each other’s families, marriage and wedding evidence, significant events in the relationship, and plans for the future.
The evidence should be consistent with the information contained in the immigration forms and the couple’s written relationship history.
Is a marriage certificate enough for spousal sponsorship?
A marriage certificate establishes the legal marriage but does not, by itself, establish that the relationship satisfies all of the requirements for Canadian spousal sponsorship.
IRCC must also be satisfied that the relationship is genuine and was not entered into primarily for immigration purposes.
For this reason, appropriate relationship evidence for spousal sponsorship remains important even where the couple has a valid marriage certificate.
Spousal sponsorship red flags
Certain circumstances may cause IRCC to examine a spousal sponsorship application more closely.
These can include a significant age difference, short courtship, marriage shortly after meeting, limited time spent together, previous marriages, previous sponsorship applications, previous immigration applications, inconsistent information, limited knowledge about each other, language barriers, cultural differences, family opposition, or unusual financial arrangements.
None of these factors automatically means that a Canadian spousal sponsorship application will be refused.
The important issue is whether potentially problematic circumstances are properly explained and supported by credible evidence.
Common spousal sponsorship mistakes
Spousal sponsorship applications may be refused because of concerns about the genuineness of the relationship, inconsistencies in the evidence, sponsor eligibility, applicant admissibility, missing information, or failure to satisfy other legal requirements.
Common problems include inconsistent dates between forms and supporting documents, unexplained gaps in the relationship timeline, weak proof of cohabitation, generic relationship explanations, excessive screenshots without context, insufficient evidence of financial or social interdependence, missing documents, selecting the wrong sponsorship category, and failing to address obvious concerns proactively.
A well prepared application should tell one consistent story across the forms, documents, photographs, correspondence, and legal submissions.
Spousal sponsorship interview
IRCC does not interview every couple.
However, an officer may request a spousal sponsorship interview when there are concerns about the relationship or information contained in the application.
Questions can involve how the couple met, relationship milestones, family members, daily routines, previous relationships, finances, marriage arrangements, communication, living arrangements, and future plans.
Significant inconsistencies during an interview can affect the outcome of the application.
How long does spousal sponsorship take in Canada?
Spousal sponsorship processing times in Canada vary depending on the application, sponsorship category, applicant’s country of residence, background checks, document requests, interviews, and complexity of the case. THe average processing time is about 12-16 months.
Spousal sponsorship government fees
IRCC government fees are separate from our legal fees and are paid to the Government of Canada.
As of 2026, the government fees for sponsoring a spouse or partner are:
Sponsorship fee: CAD $90
Principal applicant processing fee: CAD $570
Right of Permanent Residence Fee: CAD $600
Biometrics: CAD $85, if required
The total government fees are generally CAD $1,260, or CAD $1,345 if biometrics are required.
Additional government fees may apply for accompanying dependent children. IRCC fees are subject to change.
What happens if spousal sponsorship is refused?
A spousal sponsorship refusal does not necessarily mean that the relationship cannot qualify for permanent residence.
The refusal letter and the officer’s reasons should first be reviewed to determine exactly why IRCC was not satisfied.
Depending on the circumstances, possible options can include submitting a new sponsorship application, appealing an eligible Family Class refusal to the Immigration Appeal Division, or seeking judicial review in Federal Court.
Simply resubmitting substantially the same application without addressing the reasons for refusal can result in another refusal.
Spousal sponsorship appeals
Where a right of appeal exists, the sponsor may appeal a Family Class spousal sponsorship refusal to the Immigration Appeal Division of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada.
A spousal sponsorship appeal may involve evidence concerning the genuineness of the relationship, alleged misrepresentation, sponsor eligibility, admissibility, or other issues identified by IRCC.
Applications refused under the Spouse or Common Law Partner in Canada Class do not have the same sponsorship appeal right.
Strict deadlines apply following a refusal, so available legal options should be assessed promptly.
How much does a spousal sponsorship lawyer cost?
The cost of hiring a spousal sponsorship lawyer in Toronto depends on the complexity of the application, immigration history, relationship circumstances, previous refusals, and whether additional legal submissions are required.
Our legal fees for most spousal sponsorship applications range from approximately CAD $3,000 to $4,000, plus HST and applicable disbursements.
IRCC government fees are separate.
Our spousal sponsorship services
Omulique immigration lawyers assist with the complete Canadian spousal sponsorship process.
Our work includes assessing sponsor and applicant eligibility, determining the appropriate sponsorship category, reviewing immigration history, identifying potential risk factors, preparing and reviewing IRCC forms, reviewing supporting documents, organizing relationship evidence, preparing legal submissions where appropriate, submitting the application, communicating with IRCC, and responding to requests during processing.
We can also assist with complex sponsorship matters involving previous refusals, procedural fairness letters, interviews, inadmissibility concerns, appeals, and judicial review.
Why hire a spousal sponsorship lawyer?
Spousal sponsorship applications can appear straightforward because there is no points system or competitive selection process. In practice, the outcome can depend heavily on whether the legal requirements are satisfied and how the relationship evidence and immigration history are presented.
A Canadian immigration lawyer for spousal sponsorship can identify issues before submission, ensure that the evidence corresponds with the information in the forms, address potentially problematic circumstances, and present the application in a clear and legally relevant manner.
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