Relationship Status vs. PR Eligibility

[Chii]

Before I start, I would like to thank everyone who helped me on my case on sponsoring my wife. She landed successfully last month and we're finally living the life we have been looking forward to.

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This post is regarding my wife's close friend, who applied to be sponsored in an outland spousal sponsorship (July 2016). For sake of simplicity let's call her "A" and her husband (who's also the sponsor) "B".

2013:
A and B got married in the States. A is a Chinese citizen and B is a Canadian.
July 2016:
B submitted the spousal sponsorship application. A finished her study in the States shortly before that, and decided to head back to China to get a temporary job while waiting for the immigration process.
July 2016 - April 2017:
A is working in the temporary job in China while fulfilling requests from CIC. B is working in Canada.
April:
A found out B is having several extramarital affairs at the same time.
May:
A got the confirmation of PR and sent the passport to visa office
June:
B is aware that A knows about his adultery and wants to divorce her. He sent a "messenger" buddy to China to attempt to deliver the divorce paper to A

And that's where it stands now. Here are the questions:

1. Under current CIC policies, is B able to withdraw the application, now that CoPR has been granted and passport has been mailed?

2. Assuming A gets the immigration visa stamped on her passport, can she still land properly, now that she can no longer live at her husband's place? Is she allowed to redirect the mailing address of her PR card to an address in a different province than her husband's?

3. Does B have any legal responsibility towards A, before and after their divorce, if A decides to reside in Canada? How about if A decides to get the PR card and only come to Canada at a later date?

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This has been a devastating experience for A, as one can imagine. Any help is greatly appreciated. I can provide some additional details if anyone wants clarification.

 

[Rsquare]

Hello,

There are several issues here and though Im writing my thoughts, please take this with a grain of salt since I am only basing this from what I heard from others.

Condition 51 is already gone, since she already has a COPR, her spouse has no bearing anymore to her application. According to a lawyer's opinion on a website, "Withdrawal requests are only accepted when a final decision has not been made." http://www.matthewjeffery.com/famil...thdraw-my-application-for-family-sponsorship/ So we can surmise that with a COPR, a final decision has been made. Also, another clause is this...if CIC does not get the request before she becomes a permanent resident (it's stated in the website), then no withdrawal is entertained. Hence, once she arrives and lands, her ex husband cant do anything and hes tied to the undertaking.

I guess the best way is to consult a lawyer and have a legal opinion on this matter. Other experts will surely chime in. Good luck to your friend. I feel for her.

 

[canadianwoman]

This has happened before. If the husband does not want to sponsor her anymore, he should have informed CIC that he wanted to withdraw the sponsorship before his wife got the visa. However, she has not landed in Canada yet, and landing in Canada is when one becomes a PR. So in the one case we have seen on here, the government's take was that the foreigner should not have come to Canada and should not have tried to land, because when you land they ask if anything has changed, and the fact that your marriage has broken down is a change. They did let the woman in to Canada, but she had to get a lawyer and go to court to argue that she should be allowed to stay.
So the husband could inform CIC that he is withdrawing the sponsorship, and then if the wife tries to land, she might be allowed in, but she will not necessarily be a PR.
On the other hand, it sounds like the husband has not informed CIC yet that he wants to withdraw the sponsorship. The wife could then come to Canada and land. They will ask her if anything has changed - if she still considers herself to be married and wants to try to work things out, she could say no. If she really is planning to get divorced, she should say yes - and really, she should not come to Canada if the marriage is over.
If she lands, the husband has to support her for three years. This in practice means that if she goes on welfare, the husband has to pay the government back. She may also be entitled to something from the marriage - she should get a family lawyer when she gets to Canada to deal with the divorce.

 

[scylla]

1. We have seen a handful of people successfully withdraw at this late a stage (i.e. after COPR was issued) and as a result, the sponsored person was unable to land and become a PR. If he wants to withdraw, he needs to contact CIC as soon as humanly possible and indicate he is withdrawing his support and why - and that he wishes the COPR to be canceled. Again, very critical that he do this NOW.
2. Yes - she can do that if he fails to take action and if CIC fails to cancel her COPR.
3. He's financially responsible for her for three years after she lands and becomes a PR. If she goes on social assistance during this time, he will have to pay this money back to the government. This can easily amount to tends of thousands of dollars. He will be legally obligated to pay this money back and will have no way to get out of this obligation.

 

[Rob_TO]

1. Under current CIC policies, is B able to withdraw the application, now that CoPR has been granted and passport has been mailed?

Yes, B can contact IRCC or CBSA at anytime, report breakdown in relationship, and try to cancel his sponsorship. In previous cases we've seen when the applicant tries to do their PR landing, CBSA will see the note of cancelled sponsorship on their file, and refuse the PR landing. Whether the applicant can then enter Canada will depend on their admissibility as a visitor.

2. Assuming A gets the immigration visa stamped on her passport, can she still land properly, now that she can no longer live at her husband's place? Is she allowed to redirect the mailing address of her PR card to an address in a different province than her husband's?

If divorce papers have already been served, then your wife's friend will be committing misrepresentation/immigration fraud is she uses her COPR to land. She is no longer in a relationship, so has zero right to become a PR under family class now regardless if the COPR/visa has already been issued. There is a clear note on the COPR documents that instructs to report any major changes to IRCC (and break-up/pending divorce is a major change).

I assume A will not know if B has reported this to IRCC/CBSA. She can try to do the landing and see what happens, but as I said this is fraud. Even if he doesn't bother to report it and she successfully lands as a PR, B can later report that the relationship had broken down and divorce papers served before the PR landing, and IRCC may end up revoking her PR status.

3. Does B have any legal responsibility towards A, before and after their divorce, if A decides to reside in Canada? How about if A decides to get the PR card and only come to Canada at a later date?

Legal responsibility from a divorce point of view, need to ask to a lawyer.

 

[spousalsponsee]

1. Under current CIC policies, is B able to withdraw the application, now that CoPR has been granted and passport has been mailed?

Yes. B should inform IRCC that the relationship is over, and that they do not wish to sponsor A anymore. A has no reason to land in Canada, as she was migrating to be with her spouse, and that relationship is over. If she attempts to land, she is committing immigration fraud, and will probably commit misrepresentation at the landing when asked if the relationship is ongoing.

If B later discovers that A has landed fraudulently, he can contact IRCC about having her stripped of PR status. This might or might not succeed, depending on how much effort they're putting into it at the time.

2. Assuming A gets the immigration visa stamped on her passport, can she still land properly, now that she can no longer live at her husband's place? Is she allowed to redirect the mailing address of her PR card to an address in a different province than her husband's?

She cannot land in order to be in a relationship which no longer exists. Nor should she want to. If she does, that is fraud.

3. Does B have any legal responsibility towards A, before and after their divorce, if A decides to reside in Canada? How about if A decides to get the PR card and only come to Canada at a later date?

B is financially responsible for A for the first three years after any landing A makes. If she claims any government benefits in that time, he will have to pay it back.

 

[spousalsponsee]

Condition 51 is already gone, since she already has a COPR, her spouse has no bearing anymore to her application. According to a lawyer's opinion on a website, "Withdrawal requests are only accepted when a final decision has not been made." http://www.matthewjeffery.com/famil...thdraw-my-application-for-family-sponsorship/ So we can surmise that with a COPR, a final decision has been made. Also, another clause is this...if CIC does not get the request before she becomes a permanent resident (it's stated in the website), then no withdrawal is entertained. Hence, once she arrives and lands, her ex husband cant do anything and hes tied to the undertaking.
.

This is not correct. The bit you are quoting only refers to getting the application fees back. The sponsorship can still be cancelled (for no refund), and should be, before A can attempt to fraudulently land. Even if she does so, she will be liable to be stripped of her PR for the rest of her life, as the relationship had clearly broken down before she arrived.

 

[Rsquare]

This is not correct. The bit you are quoting only refers to getting the application fees back. The sponsorship can still be cancelled (for no refund), and should be, before A can attempt to fraudulently land. Even if she does so, she will be liable to be stripped of her PR for the rest of her life, as the relationship had clearly broken down before she arrived.

That's why I said, take it with a grain of salt. But I disagree with you that it only refers to refunds. I had many friends who had sponsorship filed for them to go to Canada, and one of them had a similar situation (marriage broke down as COPR was released -- it was already in her possession). I just asked her. According to her, IRCC told the sponsor (her ex husband) that they cannot anymore withdraw the application since there was already a decision made (plus no refund). Unless the agent her ex-husband talked to is just new and didn't know what he was talking about? (who knows? Agents are known to be wrong). She inquired herself and even sent me the emailed response from IRCC (wth a lot of statutes being mentioned). The IRCC officer who wrote the email also said that in the absence of a withdrawal, my friend still couldn't land because condition 51 will apply (our interpretation of the very long letter). I do admit though that this is just one case out of many, and others may have a different experience. Additionally, I do admit that even without Condition 51, she (A) would have to tell CBSA that the marriage broke down (which could be another layer of issues). That's why I ended with "consult with a lawyer" since again, each case may be different.

In my friend's case, she did consult with a lawyer and agreed with IRCC that condition 51 (at that time) will apply and it would be futile to land even with a COPR at hand. Her ex-husband never withdrew the application.

 

[spousalsponsee]

That's why I said, take it with a grain of salt. But I disagree with you that it only refers to refunds.

The headline from the section you quoted is "Should you expect a refund?" The entire page ends by noting that the withdrawal must be received before a person has recieved Permanent Residency. If the sponsored person has not yet landed, they have not yet received permanent residency.

CIC help page also says that: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/sponsor/spouse-apply-after.asp

The dividing line for withdrawal is the moment they land. After that point, the sponsor is on the hook - so in this case, the sponsor should withdraw, and the person shouldn't land, and then everything's tied up nicely.

I mean, really, it shouldn't be an issue - in this case, the applicant should conclude (as your friend did) that there was no point in landing. Withdrawing is just a safety net issue for the sponsor in the failed relationship.

 

[Rsquare]

The headline from the section you quoted is "Should you expect a refund?" The entire page ends by noting that the withdrawal must be received before a person has recieved Permanent Residency. If the sponsored person has not yet landed, they have not yet received permanent residency.

CIC help page also says that: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/sponsor/spouse-apply-after.asp

The dividing line for withdrawal is the moment they land. After that point, the sponsor is on the hook - so in this case, the sponsor should withdraw, and the person shouldn't land, and then everything's tied up nicely.

I mean, really, it shouldn't be an issue - in this case, the applicant should conclude (as your friend did) that there was no point in landing. Withdrawing is just a safety net issue for the sponsor in the failed relationship.

I do not disagree with most of the points you said. Thats why I started with a "grain of salt." (and the reason why I quoted that is because that is the same lawyer my friend consulted, and that's what the lawyer told her regarding the withdrawal.) Then the ex-husband had the same response from IRCC. Essentially, what I am sharing is the experience of one person which may be not really define everyone else's experience (hence, the ending "consult with a lawyer.") Your opinion, although valid at many points, does not negate the reality that my friend's ex husband received that kind of information (that's why we consult with lawyers.) So that's why I never use the word "incorrect," but would rather use the word disagree because no one can negate another person's experience no matter how wrong they think he/she is. But you're right, this is moot and academic since regardless of the issue, landing at this point may cause long term issues. It is weird though that the husband never did withdraw, up to now.

 

[canuck_in_uk]

The dividing line for withdrawal is the moment they land. After that point, the sponsor is on the hook - so in this case, the sponsor should withdraw, and the person shouldn't land, and then everything's tied up nicely.

I mean, really, it shouldn't be an issue - in this case, the applicant should conclude (as your friend did) that there was no point in landing. Withdrawing is just a safety net issue for the sponsor in the failed relationship.

Agreed. An app can be withdrawn up until the applicant actually lands as a PR.