Spousal Sponsorship and income inequality

[SamBost]

Hi everyone, maybe someone can help me with this. I'm trying to give my sister some help to sponsor her spouse. To me, her story really looks like a marriage of convenience and one thing that I am concerned about is the income inequality between her and her husband. A little background: she met her now husband while travelling and he proposed to her about 2 months later. He comes from a rather economically poor nation, I believe he works a lot of "under the table jobs" outside of his country as he cannot find work in his country, and she is very well off in Canada. She has given him a lot of gifts, money, paid for everything and he has given her very, very little in comparison.

I read a lot of how they look for marriage of convenience where the sponsored person pays the sponsor, and gives gifts and such, to gain PR status. But what about the sponsor paying and gifting everything to the sponsored person? Is this a red flag? To me it reads a little like he's preying on a desperate person to gain PR. I mean, it kind of sounds like those marriage fraud videos from the CIC to me.

Does anyone have any insight or experience similar to this? Am I correct in my understanding of how that could be interpreted? Is there a way to try and prove otherwise?

Thanks for any insight you can provide.

(side note: I have advised her to seek out a lawyer or IC, not sure if she will or not).

 

[scylla]

Hi everyone, maybe someone can help me with this. I'm trying to give my sister some help to sponsor her spouse. To me, her story really looks like a marriage of convenience and one thing that I am concerned about is the income inequality between her and her husband. A little background: she met her now husband while travelling and he proposed to her about 2 months later. He comes from a rather economically poor nation, I believe he works a lot of "under the table jobs" outside of his country as he cannot find work in his country, and she is very well off in Canada. She has given him a lot of gifts, money, paid for everything and he has given her very, very little in comparison.

I read a lot of how they look for marriage of convenience where the sponsored person pays the sponsor, and gives gifts and such, to gain PR status. But what about the sponsor paying and gifting everything to the sponsored person? Is this a red flag? To me it reads a little like he's preying on a desperate person to gain PR. I mean, it kind of sounds like those marriage fraud videos from the CIC to me.

Does anyone have any insight or experience similar to this? Am I correct in my understanding of how that could be interpreted? Is there a way to try and prove otherwise?

Thanks for any insight you can provide.

(side note: I have advised her to seek out a lawyer or IC, not sure if she will or not).

He proposed to her quite quickly. That may be another red flag they have to overcome.

Hopefully they have other things in common. Assuming so, this is what they will want to focus on in their application. Things like: similar education backgrounds, similar religions / nationalities, similar ages, same language(s).

 

[SamBost]

Thank you for your reply. The proposal is certainly another of many hurdles for them to overcome in this application. They're from different ethical backgrounds, different education levels, a small age gap, when they met they didn't speak the same langauge but he has since improved his English apparently, they were married in less than a year, he has never come to Canada to visit - these are some of the many red flags (and why I told her to see a lawyer).

But specifically for the income inequality (she has literally paid for everything), do you think this alone (not withstanding everything else) will make it seem like a marriage of convenience or they wouldn't pay too much heed in that? To me it seems that he saw a meal ticket and went for it, but I'm also a very skeptical person, so just trying to gain any additional insight which may help.

 

[scylla]

Thank you for your reply. The proposal is certainly another of many hurdles for them to overcome in this application. They're from different ethical backgrounds, different education levels, a small age gap, when they met they didn't speak the same langauge but he has since improved his English apparently, they were married in less than a year, he has never come to Canada to visit - these are some of the many red flags (and why I told her to see a lawyer).

But specifically for the income inequality (she has literally paid for everything), do you think this alone (not withstanding everything else) will make it seem like a marriage of convenience or they wouldn't pay too much heed in that? To me it seems that he saw a meal ticket and went for it, but I'm also a very skeptical person, so just trying to gain any additional insight which may help.

The income inequality alone won't make it seem like a marriage of convenience. IRCC will look at their full profile. Not just one aspect of it. Income inequality can exist for many valid reasons and doesn't by default mean it's marriage fraud.

 

[SamBost]

That makes sense. I guess I was looking at it like he doesn't have any savings or other property or anything, he doesn't have steady work in his home country and he travels and works under the table labour in another country here and there, I thought it might seem that he has quite a lot to gain in marrying this rich girl who will support him and he will gain PR status (which, as far as I can tell, he would be otherwise inelgible for under any other program).

 

[scylla]

That makes sense. I guess I was looking at it like he doesn't have any savings or other property or anything, he doesn't have steady work in his home country and he travels and works under the table labour in another country here and there, I thought it might seem that he has quite a lot to gain in marrying this rich girl who will support him and he will gain PR status (which, as far as I can tell, he would be otherwise inelgible for under any other program).

It's hard to generalize without knowing the details. However short answer is that IRCC will look at a number of elements of the relationship to determine if the relationship is genuine, not just economics.

 

[SamBost]

Of course, that is understandable. It's very complicated process. It's all very one-sided - like they have a lot of her professing her undying love and doing things and little from him it seems.
I guess I was just trying to understand how much value or emphasis would be placed on this factor. Like for a common language, they say they communicate in English in the forms and they may not question it further (regardless of what the truth is) - apart from a possible phone interview. So would they question why she is paying for everything and gifting everything or not really. I know if he was paying for everything and giving monetary gifts, in the context of the application it could be seen as him trying to essentially buy his way to PR through sponsorship. Not sure if they care the other way around.

 

[canuck78]

Of course, that is understandable. It's very complicated process. It's all very one-sided - like they have a lot of her professing her undying love and doing things and little from him it seems.
I guess I was just trying to understand how much value or emphasis would be placed on this factor. Like for a common language, they say they communicate in English in the forms and they may not question it further (regardless of what the truth is) - apart from a possible phone interview. So would they question why she is paying for everything and gifting everything or not really. I know if he was paying for everything and giving monetary gifts, in the context of the application it could be seen as him trying to essentially buy his way to PR through sponsorship. Not sure if they care the other way around.

If you have concerns would encourage your sister to delay sponsorship or even suggest moving to his home country. Unfortunately we see both success stories and stories where the spouse leaves soon after receiving PR. There is no longer much recourse if it is a marriage of convenience after someone gets their PR card unless there is very strong evidence that there was no relationship.