Does a divorce/invalid Marriage Affect sponsorship undertaking

When you decide to sponsor your spouse or partner, you have to sign an undertaking. An undertaking is a promise to support the person being sponsored and their dependent children financially for their basic needs. As a part of the process, IRCC validates a marriage for spousal sponsorships. Thus, understanding the question “Does a divorce/invalid marriage affect sponsorship undertaking?” is crucial.

Does a divorce/invalid marriage Affect sponsorship undertaking?

An undertaking is crucial to prove your commitment to sponsor a person and support their fundamental needs, which are mentioned as follows:

Food, clothing, shelter, and other everyday necessities
Eye care, dental care, and other different health needs that are not covered under public healthcare services

Moreover, prior to signing an undertaking, you need to make sure that the individual you intend to sponsor for Canadian immigration will not request the government for any financial assistance.

Also, if they get social assistance in Canada, you will be required to repay what they obtained while you were legally responsible for them.

In Canada, three years is the duration of an undertaking for sponsoring a spouse, a common law, or a conjugal partner. It begins from the day the sponsored person gains Canadian permanent resident status.

Notably, the duration of undertaking for Quebec’s residents differs from the undertaking duration compared to the rest of Canada.

More importantly, when you sign an undertaking for sponsorships, it becomes your responsibility to support the applicant financially. This is for the complete duration of the undertaking period and, notably, even if your condition changes.

Please note that the undertaking will not be canceled or ended even if any of the following situations occur:

You get a divorce or get separated, or your relationship with the sponsored person fails or ends,
If anyone, whether you or the sponsored person, shifts to another province or nation
The sponsored person obtains Canadian citizenship
If you are undergoing financial difficulties.

What Should You Do If Your Marriage Turns Out to be Fake?

When you submit a sponsorship application, IRCC assesses your relationship. That’s why understanding the question “Does a divorce/invalid marriage affect sponsorship undertaking?” is crucial.

An IRCC officer has to be satisfied that a real relationship exists. To prove a relationship to be accurate, applicants must provide a few documents as evidence.

It can be a wedding invitation, proof of mutual ownership of a house, residential address documents showing both applicant and sponsor reside in the same place, or documents showing they have a joint account, phone bills, and tax forms.

The department will refuse the application if they discover that no genuine relationship existed between the applicant and sponsor and that they purposely entered into the relationship to acquire any status or privilege in Canada.

In some cases, the applicant and sponsors enter into “marriages of convenience” with the sole aim of helping the sponsored person immigrate to Canada. Thus, IRCC officials are trained to recognize genuine immigration applications.

In addition, Canadians or PRs who are found to be in a marriage of convenience for immigration grounds may be charged with an offense.

However, there could be cases where a Canadian citizen or PR becomes a victim of marriage fraud. Typically, marriage fraud happens once the sponsorship is complete. Once the sponsored person, spouse, or common-law partner attains Canadian PR status, they end their relationship or marriage. This signifies that they used the sponsor to immigrate to Canada.

Thus, if you become a marriage fraud victim, you have to notify the immigration department and clarify your case.

Note that even if you are a victim of marriage fraud, you will still be accountable for the sponsored person’s undertaking. For sponsored persons, there will be other penalties in such cases. Also, IRCC will be in charge of dealing with the fraud.

How does IRCC deal with marriage fraud?

In case of a marriage fraud, IRCC is able to:

Indict them of a crime.
Restrict them from entering Canada for up to five years.
Take them out of Canada.
Cancel their Canadian citizen or Permanent resident status.

How to protect yourself from immigration marriage fraud?

To protect immigrants against immigration fraud, the Canadian government has issued protective guidelines. The government suggests being mindful when marrying someone and sponsoring them to immigrate to Canada. This is particularly true if