Hotel Canada - the greatest five star on the planet?
Summary:
Canada’s spousal sponsorship agreement ensures the rights of new immigrants, should their sponsors desert their responsibilities or become abusive. Currently, there is nothing in the act to protect the rights of sponsors, if they are abandoned, victimized, abused, or defrauded. Canada needs to introduce a new clause in its sponsorship agreement to ensure balance. This clause should continue to protect the rights of new immigrants, while recognizing and protecting the rights of sponsors as well. Alternatively, the government could adopt a system like the American's or Australian's: citizens can sponsor family members however they are granted conditional residency for three years, not permanent residency upon landing. At the end of this conditional period, sponsored spouses can then apply for permanent residency.
The Issue:
- According to Immigration Minister Jason Kenney - marriage of convenience is one of the most frequent forms of immigration fraud in Canada.
- At the same time, Citizenship and Immigration Canada says that family class marriage applications are the quickest and least stringent ones to process. If applications appear authentic, officers often issue visas without any further questions.
- Currently, prevention is the only measure in place to reduce the risk of this type of immigration fraud. Interviews with skilled migration integrity officers at Canadian embassies are designed to root-out would be fraudsters before entering our country. However, interviews do not happen consistently, nor are they mandatory. (In my personal case, there were no interviews.)
- Immigration claims that due to departmental backlog, investigating marriages of convenience is not a priority. Ignoring the problem costs Canadian taxpayers millions of dollars in support payments while illegal immigrants remain in Canada during lengthy hearing and appeal wait times.
Background:
- In 2008, 44,182 immigrants were sponsored by their Canadian spouses or partners and became permanent residents. Citizenship and Immigration Canada does not track how many or how long these marriages/relationships last.
- Although marriages of convenience are illegal in Canada and thousands of Canadians fall victim to it each year, once a person marries a Canadian citizen and lands in Canada, it becomes much more complicated to remove them on allegations of fraud.
- Sponsorship obligations end three years after the immigrant becomes a permanent resident. If payments from a federal, provincial or municipal assistance program are made during the validity period of the undertaking to the person being sponsored, the sponsor is considered to be in default of their obligations and may have to repay to the government concerned any benefits they received.