Can I sponsor my partner if we are not married?
Short answer
In Canada, a person can be sponsored as a common-law partner if they have been cohabiting with the sponsor in a conjugal relationship for at least one year (s. 1 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations).
In detail
The Regulations define a common-law partner as a person “who is cohabiting with the person in a conjugal relationship, having so cohabited for a period of at least one year”. Marriage is therefore not the only route: cohabiting for at least twelve months in a conjugal relationship opens the same sponsorship category.
What is required is cohabitation — living together — for at least one year, and that the relationship be conjugal in nature. Both elements are established through documents and facts, not through a simple declaration.
In Quebec, sponsorship also requires signing an undertaking with the Quebec government, whose duration and obligations are set separately.
What to document
Everything that puts a date on your life together: a lease or deed in both names, bills and statements at the same address, joint accounts, insurance policies, tax returns, official correspondence, dated photos, and contact details for people who can attest to the relationship.
Put your facts in writing, free. Writing your version down early, keeping your documents dated and preparing your questions for a lawyer: the tool is there to document, never to advise.
Open the application Up to 3 files, no card · see the plans
Official sources
Related questions
- What proves my relationship is genuine for a sponsorship?
- Can I apply for permanent residence on humanitarian and compassionate grounds?
- My permanent resident card has expired have I lost my status?
- Can I make a humanitarian application while my refugee claim is being processed?
- My work permit expires soon can I keep working?
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What this page is not
This is general legal information about the law of Quebec and Canada, dated and sourced. It is not legal advice, not a strategy, and not a prediction about the outcome of a case. In Quebec, only lawyers and notaries may give legal advice (Act respecting the Barreau du Québec, ss. 128 and 133). Laws and amounts change: the official source always prevails over us.