Filing taxes correctly to sponsor my spouse

[ebgraphical]

Hi guys,

My wife and I have been living together for almost 5 years in Canada. My wife's study permit expired a while back so she does not have status.
We got married last spring and finally have all of our paperwork together so that I may start the sponsorship application.

I meet all the criteria to sponsor, My only obstacle at this point: I need to file this years taxes then get the option C form.
However, I'm worried if I put her as my spouse, claim spousal amounts, etc, that this might cause issues such as delays on either the CRA side of the CIC side.

I am finding lots of info about spouses outside of Canada, but is there anything I should know when
it comes to doing my taxes for my non-status spouse living with me in Canada?

Should I just put "married" and leave out the rest?

Thank you

 

[impatientwife]

Hi guys,

My wife and I have been living together for almost 5 years in Canada. My wife's study permit expired a while back so she does not have status.
We got married last spring and finally have all of our paperwork together so that I may start the sponsorship application.

I meet all the criteria to sponsor, My only obstacle

at this point: I need to file this years taxes then get the option C form.
However, I'm worried if I put her as my spouse, claim spousal amounts, etc, that this might cause issues such as delays on either the CRA side of the CIC side.

I am finding lots of info about spouses outside of Canada, but is there anything I should know when
it comes to doing my taxes for my non-status spouse living with me in Canada?

I don't think they require option C anymore they've update the forms double check, did you not inform cra that you're married?? You're supposed to notified the within 30 days

Should I just put "married" and leave out the rest?

Thank you

 

[Aquakitty]

Did your spouse have an income during this time?

CIC is not the issue, the CRA is as you are supposed to update them as married or common-law regardless of her status. It's probably not a big deal if she had no income, but this is technically fraud. I was in a similar situation and didn't update the CRA until my husband landed as PR, even though we lived together for years and were married for years. However in our case, the only change is they would owe us money, not the other way around. So tread carefully here.

Also impatientwife is correct. Now you need a Notice of Assessment, not an Option C. You can print this out online any time, no need to wait the 2 weeks (assuming you have a CRA account already).