ARCHIVED – Backgrounder — Conditional Permanent Resident Status

What are marriages of convenience?

One of the goals of Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) is to help reunite families. For this reason, Canadian citizens and permanent residents can sponsor their spouse to become a Canadian permanent resident.

Some people abuse spousal sponsorship by entering into marriages of convenience, so that they can sidestep Canada’s immigration law. Marriages of convenience usually take one of two forms:

• A couple pretends to be in a genuine relationship, so that the sponsored spouse can come to or stay in Canada. In some cases, the sponsor may be given a financial or other kind of benefit in exchange for the sponsorship; or
• One of the partners enters the relationship in good faith, while the other is using the relationship only to gain permanent status in Canada. This victimizes the sponsor.

In both cases, the relationship often ends shortly after the sponsored person arrives in Canada. These relationships weaken our immigration system and make the process more difficult for genuine immigrants.

What is conditional permanent residence?

Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) has introduced amendments to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations (the Regulations) which apply to spouses, common-law or conjugal partners in a relationship of two years or less with their sponsor and who have no children in common with their sponsor at the time they submit their sponsorship application. The sponsored spouse must cohabit in a legitimate relationship with their sponsor for two years from the day on which they receive their permanent resident status in Canada. If they do not remain in the relationship, the sponsored spouse’s status could be revoked. The conditional measure only applies to permanent residents whose applications are received on or after October 25, 2012—the day that the amendments came into force.

Aside from the need to satisfy the two-year requirement, conditional permanent residence does not differ from normal permanent residence. These sponsored spouses have access to the same rights and benefits as other permanent residents. They will be allowed to work and study without a work or study permit; they will not be subject to different tuition fees in post-secondary schools; and they will have the same access to health coverage and social benefits, including social security (or income support).

If the relationship breaks down, the sponsor remains financially responsible until the end of the three-year undertaking period, irrespective of the cause of the breakdown.

Enforcement and penalties

As a result of the introduction of conditional permanent residence, additional investigations may be undertaken in cases where there is reason to believe that the condition is not being met or has not been met. CIC plans to perform random assessments of the overall level of compliance on an ongoing basis.

The measure also provides another means for enforcement action in instances of marriage fraud, including issuing removal orders to fraudulent spouses on the basis of non-compliance. This could in turn lead to their removal from Canada.

Exception for death of the sponsor

The condition ceases to apply if the sponsor dies during the two-year conditional period and the CIC officer determines, based on evidence, that the sponsored spouse remained in a legitimate relationship with the sponsor until the sponsor’s death.

Exception in cases of abuse or neglect

Given concerns about the vulnerability of spouses in abusive relationships, the proposed condition would cease to apply in instances where there is evidence of abuse (that is, physical, sexual, psychological or financial) or neglect (failure to provide the necessaries of life).

Sponsoring spouses to come to Canada — a timeline

A Glossary of Terms – archived that may be unfamiliar can be accessed by clicking on the linked words in this document.

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