When Marriage Goes Awry

You are convinced that you have been duped! You believe the spouse you sponsored to Canada married you only to gain entry to Canada. Shortly after their arrival, they abandoned you and went on welfare.

What can you do about it? Unfortunately, not much.

In such cases, a sponsor’s first instinct is to try to prevent our welfare authorities from extending further benefits. You feel compelled to tell welfare officials you are willing to abide by your financial obligations. However, authorities will refuse to discuss your spouse’s case because of privacy laws.

Welfare officials will not reveal the recipient’s whereabouts or any other information that was provided by them in order to claim social assistance. Without this information it will be impossible for you to try to comply with your undertaking to support your spouse.

A review of the sponsorship agreement reveals that your sponsored spouse promised to ask you “for help if [they] are having difficulty supporting themselves.” Unfortunately, this promise appears to be unenforceable by you since welfare authorities do not appear to seek verification of this prior to extending benefits.

Even though you “brought your spouse here” you cannot have them deported from Canada. The sponsorship agreement that you signed clearly states that “a sponsor cannot force Citizenship and Immigration Canada to remove [the applicant] from Canada.”

Now that your spouse is a permanent resident of Canada, they have the right to live here permanently and apply for Canadian citizenship once they have lived here for at least three years. The only way they can be deported from Canada is if they:

• a. commit or are convicted of a serious crime inside or outside of Canada;
• b. are absent from Canada for a period of more than 3 years in any five-year period and thereby fail to meet their residency obligations; or
• c. directly or indirectly made a misrepresentation or withheld a material fact relevant to their application for permanent residence.

The fact that you are convinced your spouse was insincere when they married you will be insufficient to persuade immigration authorities to seek a deportation order on the grounds of misrepresentation. As in any legal process, evidence is required. The evidence will have to relate to your spouse’s state of mind prior to arrival in Canada. The fact that they left you the day after their arrival is not proof that was their intention prior to landing.

Cancelling the sponsorship is also not possible since the fine print in the sponsorship agreement states that “Under no circumstances does … relationship breakdown … cancel the undertaking.”

Any social assistance your spouse claims in the first three years in Canada will create a corresponding debt by you to the Crown. Your application to sponsor another relative will likely be refused until you repay the money or enter into a repayment agreement with the provincial authorities in question.

Such refusals can be appealed but can be risky.

So, be careful out there!