Countries like Australia and England require that a sponsored person live with their spouse for three years before being given permanent resident status, which is what a Toronto-area MP said he’d like to see implemented in Canada to help prevent marriage fraud.

Bramalea-Gore-Malton Liberal MP Gurbax Singh Malhi said that within his riding alone, he hears of between two and three instances each month of spousal sponsorship where once the spouse comes to Canada, they disappear.

The case of Ashpreet Badwal, a resident of Toronto, has been published in several different media outlets over the past few days. Badwal met her husband online, flew to India to marry him and tried to sponsor him, but was rejected on the grounds that it was suspected to be fraudulent. She appealed and won, granting her husband permanent residence. But when she went to pick him up at the airport, he never showed and called her to tell her he wasn’t meeting her.

Because Badwal sponsored her husband, she is also legally responsible for him for three years.

The MP has sent a letter to Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney asking for the husband to be deported immediately.

Immigration fraud through marriage, or marriages of convenience (MOC) , most importantly make it even more difficult for those who are trying to sponsor their loved ones to come to Canada after much time apart for legitimate reasons.

Whether these proposed changes do take place, the current reality is that Visa Officers stationed at Canadian Embassies take an increasingly strict approach to processing spousal sponsorship applications. For a successful application, it is essential to have a well documented application package and for the applicant to perform well at his or her interview overseas–otherwise you will likely find yourself in appeals court.

We  recently blogged about the Government of Canada proposing new regulations to become tougher on marriages or adoptions of “convenience” for immigration purposes. Now, Canadian immigration officials have released information saying that arranged marriages will be under increased scrutiny, primarily affecting the Hindu, Muslim and Sikh communities as well as some Chinese communities.

However, the government has assured that only fraudulent arranged marriages for immigration purposes will be targeted by the more thorough checks and legitimate immigration applications will not be affected.

Tarek Fatah, of the Muslim Canadian Congress said, “we welcome this move to enforce the policy, the Canadian citizenship is not for sale,” to the Toronto Sun after the news was announced.

The high frequency of abuse with regards to the marriage process for Canadian immigration casts a high amount of suspicion on those who are immigrating legitimately. The government intends to conduct more background checks and will have access to tools that will protect the process and the system’s integrity. Most of the people subject to the increased scrutiny will be those who arrive to immigrate right after a marriage.

Meanwhile, Citisenship and Immigration Canada has stated that annually almost 10,000 Canadians marry people from other countries who already live in Canada, and around 8 to 10 per cent of these permanent residence applications are rejected. Alternatively, over 60,000 Canadians mary overseas and file inernational spousal sponsorships,15 per cent of which are rejected.

In Canada, the spouse generally can receive landed status without conditions, whereas in the United States there is sometimes requirement for the two to live together for a minimum period of a few years for before the spouse can get permanent residence

We will see how this all plays out. The concern is that Canada Immigration will apply an unnecessarily  level of scrutiny to spousal sponsorships for arrange marriages which in some cultures is a totally legitimate process of marriage.

A small mention proposing new regulations on family relationships for immigrants was mentioned in Saturday’s Canada Gazette.

The Canada Gazette is a publication put out by the Government of Canada that contains information on notices for the public, hearings and proposed regulations among other Parliamentary happenings.

The Gazette states that Section 4 (R4) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations are already designed to “protect the integrity of the immigration system” by not allowing for marriages or relationships of convenience to be used to get around immigration laws. However, determining which relationships are for real and which ones are only for immigration purposes is difficult.

Citizenship and Immigration Canada wants to further define the family relationships used in family class immigration situations, meaning it will be far easier for immigration officials to not allow someone to immigrate into Canada if they suspect they have entered into a marriage simply for immigration purposes.

The proposed measures will also crack down on child-parent adoptive relationships, in case they are not genuine or are for immigration purposes only. These also present the same difficulties with regards to identifying relationships of convenience and will also be covered under the proposed regulations.

Leaving such decisions up to a few officials isn’t a very safe idea. People can make mistakes, but in the case of these immigration issues,  a simple unfounded suspicion can result refusals of immigration applications.

Hello Mr. Niren,

I would like your opinion on my sponsorship. My husband was refused because of my previous marriage. Canada Immigration jumped to the conclusion that my second marriage is not bona fide because of my previous marriage was brief . I have reapply with more proof that my marriage is genuine. What do you think will happen? Do you think I should have appealed the case?

Thank you

Lilian

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Having a previous marriage is not itself enough for a Visa Officer to conclude that your current marriage is not genuine resulting in a refusal. In your Sponsorship Application you must have not properly documented your relationship. When there is a refusal in such circumstances, the usual course of action would be to appeal the decision to the IAD within 30 days of notification of refusal. At the IAD you can show though additional documents and testimony, that your case has merit. If you are too late in filing the appeal, you can re-apply but make sure in your application, you address the concerns of the first refusal and try to get access to the computer notes regarding your case.

My appeal was allowed through the IAD (Immigration Adjudication Division) on 2 August 2008 and the Canadian High Commission opened my file after 3 months of the decision. They said that they did not get letter from IAD that my appeal is allowed.  I then submitted the same letter to them and they advised that they would start the processing of my file. Now all the formalities are completed and it has been more than  3 months since I submitted my passport to the Embassy. They still have not responded and when I tried to contact them, I was advised that my file was in the queue. How long is this going to take? My appeal was successful but I am still waiting?

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It looks like you may have “won the battle but not the war” . Congratulations of winning your sponsorship appeal at the IAD. But as you now realize, there is more work to be done. Once an appeal is allowed, the Visa Post has to receive notification of this from the Court and then start processing the paperwork overseas to finalize the application. This can sometimes take months and months. If you find it is taking too long, it would be advisable to retain the services of an immigration lawyer to act on your behalf to ensure that the Visa Post is in fact doing its job after being notified of the IAD decision on your case. There could also be delays due to expiry of medical or criminal background checks.

As reported by Torstar News, government documents reveal that just under 50% of spousal sponsorship applications are refused from certain regions  such as southern China, Western Africa. In other areas refusal rates are also unacceptably high.

MP Olivia Chow calls this high refusal rate “cruel and arbitrary”. I cannot agree more.  At our office, we see and handle an increasing number of spousal sponsorship refusals. Of course, some of these rejected applications are indeed justified where there is a clear “marriage of convenience” between the parties.  However, in many cases, there is no reason for such refusals. Spouses who have been separated in some cases, for many months or years are bewildered by these refusals and are faced with further delays in being united as they must appeal these decisions to the Immigration Adjudication Division (IAD).

We have found that the while there are no guarantees for sponsorship approvals, making sure your application is very well documented goes a long way towards reducing your risk of rejection. Knowing that your relationship with your spouse or partner is legitimate and genuine is not enough to ensure a positive result for your sponsorship application. Visa Officers, these days, appear to assume the worst and you have to go the extra mile in terms of preparation to overcome their  suspicions.

We have written about immigration application refusals in a previous blog here.  And if your sponsorship or any other immigration application was refused, it is important to take decisive and timely action to secure your rights to appeal.