i want to ask if i will be the main applicant to canada and if granted with PR, can i sponsor my husband and im the second wife? His first wife is in pakistan- no plans to migrate to canada and we will live in canada as monogamous relationship. Is there any way i can bring him with me?
Second wife sponsoring husband to canada
- Thread starter janonikko
- Start date
You cannot sponsor him as your spouse. Canada doesn't recognize your marriage since he is still married to his first wife.
No you cannot. IRCC will not recognize your marriage as legal. He will need to divorce his first wife before you are able to apply for sponsorship
He is not considered as legally married to you if he didn't divorce his first wife when he married you.
Did you live with him for 12 months continuously? If so, you will need to include him as common-law partner in your PR application.
By what mean can his first wife come here?
I don't really understand. If she sponsor him after she landed (assuming that you add him as accompanying spouse), I am sure they will ask for proof that she really did live with him for 12 months. And he cannot sponsor any spouse in the next 5 years after he landed.
This is getting complicated. I don't know how CIC will treat this if he tried to apply for the legal wife after 5 years and still being common-law with OP and yet married to the first wife. BTW. OP needs to understand that Canada only recognize one spouse. So she will have issue trying to get things like healthcare, extended insurance from work, ...etc if both wives ended up in Canada.
Maybe just find third wife here in Canada.
Basically, the second marriage will not be accepted by IRCC. Nor will it be accepted as a common-law partnership if the first wife is still in a relationship with the husband. They would only accepted as common-law if the first wife is completely separated from the husband, even if not actually divorced, and that relationship is terminated.
Thank you for your reply. His first wife will not go to Canada. They will stay in Pakistan with his kids because of culture. I will marry him as second wife because we cannot live together now if we are not married. Im going to Canada for my First arrival on April. So if i will sponsor him and We will not put in our application that he have a first wife because we will live in Canada as a konogamous relationship. His wife is not going there. It will be possible? Or he will apply for express entry to Canada without mentioning his 1st wife in his application instead he will put me as a wife? It will be possible or not?
Will they accept it if ill sponsor him as my common law partner? What if we will not mention in my application to sponsor him that he has a first wife? What are other options for us to do because hes planning that we will live in canada as a monogamous relationship. He dont have plans to bring his first wife there.
No he dont have plans to bring his first wife to Canada. We plan to live there as a monogamous relationship. But because here in middle east second wife is allowed. Actually we live outside pakistan. Pls help me what other options we can do?
No one on this forum is going to help you commit immigration fraud.
You are digging yourself into a deeper and deeper hole here. Your circumstances are too complex to be resolved by lay-persons via a forum. You need to speak to a competent CANADIAN immigration LAWYER, NOW, before you do anything else. If you are not yet landed as a Permanent Resident in Canada, you *may*, with good legal advice, be able to rescue your situation. If you land now, without sorting out the marital/common-law mess, I believe that you will find that you are going to be committing misrepresentation and/or going to be barred from sponsorship of your "partner".
For reference : https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/corporate/publications-manuals/operational-bulletins-manuals/permanent-residence/non-economic-classes/family-class-determining-spouse/legality.html
Polygamy
Polygamous marriages are not legal in Canada and are an offence under the Criminal Code of Canada.
A spouse is not a member of the family class if the spouse or sponsor was already married to another person at the time of the subsequent marriage [R117(9)(c)(i)]. This regulation prohibits a second (or third, etc.) wife from being recognized as a spouse within the family class and provides that only the first marriage may be recognized for immigration purposes.
For the first marriage to be recognized as legally valid under Canadian law, the couple must live together in a monogamous marriage in Canada. Common law imparts that a polygamous marriage can be converted into a monogamous marriage provided that the couple live together in a monogamous relationship from the time of arrival in Canada. This conversion can be done if the couple states their intention to convert their marriage to a monogamous one, followed by some factual evidence that they have complied – usually by divorcing the other spouses and/or by a remarriage in a form that is valid in Canada.
Note: The Department cannot require divorce(s) and remarriage. However, officers can ask for evidence that the parties have converted their marriage to a monogamous one and can explain what might constitute such evidence.
The decision to refuse an application must be based on the balance of all evidence, and not solely on the fact that the applicant did not obtain a divorce. The parties must understand that refusal to provide such evidence may result in the refusal of their application.
A polygamous second (or third, etc.) marriage cannot be converted to one of monogamy. If a husband wishes to sponsor a wife other than his first as his spouse, he must divorce his other wives and remarry the chosen wife in a form of marriage that is recognized as valid in Canada.
When a sponsor and applicant have been practising polygamy and there are children from several spouses, caution the sponsor and the spouse being sponsored that other spouses will not be eligible for immigration to Canada even if their respective children are sponsored. Officers must explain that separation of children from their mothers will likely be permanent, and counsel the sponsor and applicant to consider the consequences of that separation on the children. If the children nonetheless are sponsored, and if one of these children subsequently sponsors their respective mother, explain to the mother that she will have no spousal status and related legal protection in Canada and that she will not be eligible for support or other benefits that also flow from marriage under Canadian law.
The prohibition against polygamy in the Regulations, and the lack of recognition of all spouses except the first, cannot be avoided by processing a second spouse as a common-law partner. Legally, it is not possible to establish a common-law relationship that meets the definition of such in terms of conjugality, where one or both parties are still living in a pre-existing conjugal relationship. The notion of conjugality has within it the requirement of monogamy; therefore, it is only possible in law to establish a new common-law relationship after a person is either divorced or separated from the spouse or common-law partner and where they have convincingly formed the intention not to continue with that previous relationship.
An already existing marriage, uninterrupted by separation, divorce or death, is a barrier that cannot be overcome when assessing a second spouse as a common-law partner. However, where such a barrier is removed (i.e. a first wife is subsequently divorced or is deceased), a husband and second wife could choose either to remarry, or could potentially meet the definition of common-law partner (i.e. where a husband was separated from a first wife and lived with a second wife in a bona fide conjugal relationship for one year after the separation from a first wife). Because a subsequent marriage (where the first is continuing) is not valid in Canadian law, persons in such a scenario would be considered as single in law and they would have to remarry to be considered married under Canadian law.
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