My spouse and I are separated for the last 3 months. Working through marital dispute. I am a Canadian citizen sponsoring my husband inland. He also has a work permit application which I don’t have visibility over. I was wondering if I can withdraw my sponsorship of him. If so how? I consulted with an immigration lawyer who said I could not withdraw the application because a. It’s not my application (the husband is the primary applicant) b. I need to be divorced to inform the IRCC. Is this factually correct?
Withdraw sponsorship of spouse
- Thread starter Ravs85
- Start date
You are sponsoring him so absolutely you can do it, and do not need to be divorced. Here is the form.
https://ircc.canada.ca/english/helpcentre/answer.asp?qnum=732&top=14
https://ircc.canada.ca/english/helpcentre/answer.asp?qnum=732&top=14
You have to follow the link shared above as soon as possible. If your ex become Permanent Resident, you won't be able to revoke his status.
You can absolutely withdraw. It's in fact your right to withdraw at any time and for any reason.
I'm not sure why they lawyer/consultant said this. Either he lied which is very bad - or he's so incompetent that he doesn't know the actual answer, which is also very bad.
Yes, this last statement by @scylla . This is very bad. Of course it's your right to withdraw the application because YOU are the one who would have to be financially responsible for him for the next 3 years. If your marriage is in fact broken down, don't delay to withdraw, otherwise he will receive his PR and you'll be on the hook for his financial support.
It would actually be misrepresentation not to inform IRCC that you are no longer in a relationship. As soon as you separated you should gave informed IRCC but since you haven’t you should do so it asap. I have read some cases where lawyers sadly considered the sponsored spouse’s interest (which would be malpractice) not the Canadian’s and try to discourage spouse from withdrawing the sponsorship.
I agree overall - there are three different points here (IMO):
1) It is possible it's not a spousal sponsorship - in which case the actual move would be to remove the partner as a dependent spouse from the app.
2) On the more innocuous side, 'application' is a bit ambiguous - in reality it's basically a joint application, but in some contexts, may be considered two - application to sponsor and application to become PR. Plus the term 'applicant.' It's probably true that the sponsor can't withdraw the /applicant's/ application [to become a PR].
But if one is thinking of it this way, it should be perfectly obvious that the application to sponsor CAN (and hsould) be withdrawn /by the sponsor./
[That will effectively kill the sponsorship / spousal application of course - if in fact it was a spousal sponsorship.]
3) You bring up a very good point, that everyone should always keep in mind that lawyers work for the person that hired them. That does NOT mean the lawyer can lie to another party (I think - not a lawyer myself). But they may not always formulate things in the way that's in the best interests of the other party.
The more probable answer may be rank incompetence - but either way, the OP should be cautious about this advice.
And yes - withdraw the applicaton to sponsor ASAP.
Think that lawyers from some community groups are more sensitive to other issues surrounding sponsorship applications and may be privy to arrangements that have been made to secure a marriage. They often also don’t want to be known as an ineffective lawyer in the community friends since referral business is a large part of how they secure new clients. Although by law sponsorship needs to be withdrawn and there shouldn’t be any payment arrangements between families for things like dowries, to secure marriage/sponsorship, etc. realistically we all know this is very common.
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