A Canadian Citizen/PR can sponsor their spouse or common-law partner. The application can be made while the sponsor is in Canada and your spouse/common-law is not, or when both are in Canada. Your spouse/common-law can even be sponsored if your spouse/common-law happens to lack legal immigration status in Canada. All other eligibility requirements continue to apply for both the sponsor and the applicant.

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There is no defined minimum income that needs to be met for sponsoring your spouse/common-law. However, you must be able to show how you will support your spouse/common-law partner. There are various ways to document this.

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IRCC officers are trained to carefully assess spousal/common-law partner sponsorship applications and they are able to determine whether the relationship is truly a marriage of love or just a marriage of convenience for immigration purposes. That is why it is very important to have a well prepared and documented application to submit to IRCC.

The current IRCC processing time is 12 months. This can vary depending on how complex an application might be.