Marriage Fraud and Marriages of Convenience

Are you a Canadian citizen or permanent resident?

Have you met someone from another country on the internet or while travelling?

Some people think marriage to a Canadian citizen will be their ticket to Canada. You should think carefully before marrying someone and sponsoring them to come to Canada, especially if:

• you’ve just met
• they want to get married quickly
• they’ve been married or in a common-law relationship many times before
• they haven’t shared very much information about their background or family

If you sponsor your spouse, you must give them financial support for 3 years even if the marriage or relationship fails. Sponsorship is a legal contract with the Government of Canada. You must meet its terms.

If your spouse uses social assistance, you’ll have to repay the money. Also, you can’t sponsor anyone else until you repay the debt.

It’s a crime for a foreign national to marry a Canadian citizen or permanent resident only to gain entry to Canada.

Please note that some information in this video is out of date and is in the process of being updated. Specifically, sponsored spouses or partners of Canadian citizens or permanent residents do not need to live with their sponsor to keep their permanent resident status. The Government of Canada removed the condition requiring spouses and partners to live with their sponsor for 2 years in April 2017.

Marriages of convenience

In some cases, sponsors and foreign applicants set up a “marriage of convenience.” This is a marriage or common-law relationship whose sole purpose is to let the sponsored spouse or partner immigrate to Canada.

Our officers are trained to recognize real immigration applications. They know how to detect false marriages. They have many ways to spot marriage fraud, including:

• document checks
• visits to people’s homes and
• interviews with both sponsors and applicants

Canadian citizens or permanent residents who are in a marriage of convenience for immigration reasons may be charged with a crime.

Sponsors

Don’t be tempted by offers of money or other rewards to marry a person just so they can immigrate to Canada. If you do this, you may face serious criminal charges. You’ll also still have to meet the terms of the sponsorship.

Don’t feel you must help somebody by being part of a marriage of convenience, no matter what the reason. It’s not worth the risks.

Visa applicants

Don’t get involved in a false marriage. We’ll refuse your visa and may ban you from travel to Canada for 5 years. This will stay on your immigration record forever.

We know that even genuine marriages can fail. But, if you enter into a marriage of convenience to come to Canada as an immigrant, we may:

• take legal action against you
• not allow you to enter Canada for 5 years and
• deport you from Canada

If you’re in an abusive relationship

You have the right to seek help. If you married a Canadian citizen or permanent resident who is abusive, you don’t need to live with them to keep permanent resident status anymore.

Notice – Government of Canada Eliminates Conditional Permanent Residence

Ottawa, April 28, 2017— The Government of Canada has removed the condition that applied to some sponsored spouses or partners of Canadian citizens and permanent residents to live with their sponsor in order to keep their permanent resident status.

Under the old regulation, you had to live with your sponsor for two years if, at the time you applied:

• Your relationship was less than two years; and
• You had no children in common.

The condition was introduced as a means to deter people from seeking to immigrate to Canada through non-genuine relationships. By removing the condition, the Government recognizes that, while cases of marriage fraud exist, the majority of relationships are genuine and most spousal sponsorship applications are made in good faith.

Eliminating conditional permanent residence upholds the Government’s commitment to family reunification and supports gender equality and combating gender violence. As a result of the requirement for the sponsored spouse or partner to live with their sponsor, an imbalance between the sponsor and the sponsored spouse or partner could have been created, potentially making the sponsored spouse or partner more vulnerable.

What happens now

Effective today, conditional permanent residence no longer applies to anyone, whether:

• you were sponsored by your spouse or partner for permanent residence, or
• you were sponsored by someone who had conditional permanent residence (i.e. child or parent).

You don’t need to do anything. We just want you to know.

If you receive your Confirmation of Permanent Residence on or after April 18, 2017 and it indicates that you “must cohabit in a conjugal relationship with your sponsor or partner for a continuous period of 2 years after the day on which you became a PR”, this requirement no longer applies to you.

If you were under investigation for not complying with the requirement to live with your spouse or partner, you are no longer under investigation.