If you are in Canada as a permanent resident or a Canadian citizen, you can sponsor your spouse to immigrate to Quebec.
Remember, it is a very serious legal and financial commitment.
When sponsoring someone to come to Quebec, you are making a contract between yourself, the Government of Canada and Quebec, and the person you are sponsoring.
You, as the sponsor, are agreeing to pay for the fundamental needs (food, shelter, health-care expenses, basic clothing) of the person you are sponsoring for 3 years.
This is an unconditional agreement, that means that no matter what happens (for example, you divorce your husband, or he runs away) you are still legally obligated to pay for the person you are sponsoring for 3 years.
See http://www.immigration-quebec.gouv.qc.ca/publications/en/sponsorship/guide-sponsor.pdf for Quebec’s guide to sponsoring a spouse to immigrate to Quebec.
Who can sponsor?
- a person who is 18 years or older AND
- lives in Canada (but you need to be a permanent resident or a Canadian citizen)AND
- has been financially stable (not gone into debt) for the past 12 months and can show future financial stability
Who cannot sponsor?
- a person who is on welfare, or a person who has other financial obligations that have not been paid (e.g.if you are divorced and have no paid your alimony [the money that the court can order you to pay your spouse when you divorce])
- a person who has been convicted of sexual harassment, a violent criminal act, or who has physically abused a family member
- a person who is in jail or a rehabilitation program
- a person who is already sponsoring a spouse (to sponsor a new spouse, you need to have divorced the first one and you need to wait three years)
- if you were sponsored as someone’ spouse within the past 5 years
Who can you sponsor?
- Considering that this is only looking at situations of spousal sponsorship, you need to make sure that your marriage is recognised in Canada in order to apply to sponsor your spouse. It is therefore necessary that you have:
- an official marriage certificate
- your spouse was not already married at the time of your marriage
- both spouses were over 18 at the time of the marriage or over 16 with parental approval
For more information, please see http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/sponsor/spouse-apply-who.asp.
For a clear guide on how to sponsor someone to Quebec, see http://www.immigration-quebec.gouv.qc.ca/en/immigrate-settle/sponsors-sponsored/.
For a step-by-step guide of how the process works, please see http://www.immigration-quebec.gouv.qc.ca/publications/en/sponsorship/guide-sponsored-persons.pdf
For the forms, please see http://www.immigration-quebec.gouv.qc.ca/en/immigrate-settle/sponsors-sponsored/apply/sponsorship-application.html.