Family Class: Assessing Conjugal Relationships

This section contains policy, procedures and guidance used by IRCC staff. It is posted on the department’s website as a courtesy to stakeholders.

A conjugal relationship is one of some permanence, when individuals are interdependent – financially, socially, emotionally and physically – when they share household and related responsibilities, and when they have made a serious commitment to one another.

Conjugal does not mean “sexual relations” alone. It indicates that there is a significant degree of attachment between two partners.

See the conjugal partnership category in IRPA

In the M. v. H. decision, the Supreme Court adopts a list of factors from the decision of the Ontario Court of Appeal in Moldowich v. Penttinen that must be considered to determine whether any two individuals are actually in a conjugal relationship. They include:

• shared shelter (e.g. sleeping arrangements)
• sexual and personal behaviour (e.g. fidelity, commitment, feelings towards each other)
• services (e.g. conduct and habit with respect to the sharing of household chores)
• social activities (e.g. their attitude and conduct as a couple in the community and with their families)
• economic support (e.g. financial arrangements, ownership of property)
• children (e.g. attitude and conduct concerning children)
• societal perception of the two as a couple

Check out the coding… about 10-12 lines down, you will see something like this The plugin is merely one small .php file that you upload to your plugins folder, and then activate it in the usual way in the plugins section of your Dashboard. cialis samples However tadalafil 20mg india , instead of prevalent confusion erectile brokenness does not have any connection with age . Keep in mind, a good erection requires that your sexual cialis 40 mg organs such as brain, nerves, blood vessels, heart and brain gives the erections a path to go and sit in a driving class, which might be scheduled at an inconvenient time. Among men that are older than 60 years with diabetes, 50 to best levitra prices 60% experience ED condition.
In both conjugal partner and common-law relationships, there is not necessarily a specific point when a commitment is made, and there is no one legal document attesting to the commitment. Instead, there is the passage of one year of co-habitation, the building of intimacy and emotional ties and the accumulation of other types of evidence, such as naming one another as beneficiaries on insurance policies or estates, joint ownership of possessions, joint decision-making with consequences for one partner affecting the other, and financial support of one another (joint expenses or sharing of income, etc.). When taken together, these facts indicate that there is significant commitment and mutual interdependence in a monogamous relationship of some permanence, similar to that of a married couple.

The conjugal partnership category in IRPA

R2 defines a conjugal partner as a foreign national residing outside Canada who is in a conjugal relationship with the sponsor and has been in that relationship for a period of at least one year. Although the word “conjugal” is not defined in legislation, there are a number of factors that are used to determine whether a couple is in a conjugal relationship.

The key to assessing the conjugal partnership category is that neither common-law partner status nor marriage is possible, usually because of marital status or sexual orientation, combined with an immigration barrier. It applies only to the family class and only to a foreign national abroad who is sponsored by a Canadian citizen or permanent resident living in Canada. It does not apply to applicants in the spouse or common-law partner in Canada class.

A foreign partner may be from a country where divorce is not possible or where same-sex marriage is not recognized. Such partners may not be able to obtain long-stay visas in order to live together and meet the cohabitation requirement for common-law partners. When the option of marriage is not available, such couples could be permanently separated. In all other respects, conjugal partner couples are similar to a common-law couple or a married couple.

Assessing applications from conjugal partners

• Requirements
• Inability to cohabit due to persecution or any form of penal control
• Applicant or sponsor legally married to another person
• Prohibited – conjugal relationships
• Relationship breaks down and the sponsor wants to sponsor a previously separated spouse

Requirements

A foreign national intending to immigrate as the conjugal partner of a sponsor must provide evidence that:

• they have maintained a conjugal relationship with their sponsor for at least one year
• they are in a committed and mutually interdependent relationship of some permanence and have combined their affairs to the extent possible

Although the intention of the conjugal partner category is to accommodate Canadians and permanent residents with foreign partners who can neither marry nor live together, the inability to marry cannot be an absolute requirement, since this could have the effect of “forcing” those couples to marry who may have chosen not to. Persons who have established and maintained a conjugal relationship for one year and who do not intend to marry might be conjugal partners if they have been unable to cohabit because of an immigration impediment or other serious barrier. The key to determining whether an individual is a conjugal partner is whether they are in a conjugal relationship with their sponsor and whether there is a compelling barrier to continuous cohabitation.

Inability to cohabit due to persecution or any form of penal control

Persons in a conjugal relationship for at least one year but unable to cohabit due to persecution or any form of penal control may be considered a common-law couple [R1(2)] for the purposes of being sponsored for permanent residence as a conjugal partner. “Persecution” is intended to include “fear of persecution or any form of penal control”; it is not restricted to a couple being persecuted for the act of cohabiting itself.