Sponsorship Appeal

What you need to know about the Spousal Sponsorship Appeal process

If you submitted a spousal sponsorship application and it has been refused, you can submit an appeal at the Immigration Appeal Division. The Appeal Division will hold a hearing where you, the sponsor will appear in person and testify about your relationship. The Appeal might also have your spouse testify, either in person or by telephone conference if your spouse is outside Canada.

You and your spouse will have an opportunity to submit documentation to the Appeal Division to demonstrate the genuineness of your relationship for the Appeal Division to consider. If the Appeal is granted and the Board Member determines that the decision by the immigration officer was unreasonable, your spousal sponsorship application will be sent back to the Embassy or High Commission of Canada which processed your application and it will be re-determined by a different officer.

If your spousal sponsorship application has been refused, please contact our office and we will advise you, based on your specific case, if an Appeal is recommended.

I applied to sponsor my wife, I included a lot of documents about our relationship, but the application was refused.

What are my options? Should I appeal the refusal?

It is important to look at the quality of the documents submitted and not just the quantity of the documentation. If you are sure that the documents you submitted are good quality documents that show the development of your relationship as well as the genuineness of your relationship and you have addressed all of the officer’s concerns, then you will likely have a good grounds for an appeal.Bereavement

However, if documents are missing, unclear, or have not been translated (for example) then you may want to reconsider appealing the decision and chose to simply re-apply. Depending on where your application is being processed, the expected processing time, and the complexity of your application, it may just take less time to re-submit the application and address the officer’s concerns than applying for an appeal. Further, if a spousal sponsorship application is refused and appealed and ultimately, if the appeal is rejected, then you will most likely never be able to sponsor your spouse to Canada again. Appealing a spousal sponsorship application is a big decision to take that has to be well thought out and discussed with an expert in immigration law and appeals. Only applications which were submitted adequately and refused should be appealed. Also, once a spousal sponsorship is refused and you appeal the refusal, it can take about 2 years (sometimes more) to get a hearing date for the appeal at the Immigration Appeal Division. This is a long delay to have your spouse come to Canada and for this, appealing a refusal should be carefully considered.

As lawyers having submitted thousands of sponsorship applications, we know exactly what type of documentation and the manner in which to submit applications to increase the chances of success. Submitting a spousal sponsorship application requires great attention to detail with respect to the presentation of the application and the type of documentation to include. There are many applicants who fraudulently submit spousal sponsorships simply to inquire status in Canada – for this, Citizenship and Immigration Canada carefully scrutinizes applications to ensure that relationships are real, permanent, committed and genuine.

Many couples think that simply filling out forms and submitted the marriage certificate along with a few pictures is what is necessary to get an approval. This is a mistake. A spousal sponsorship application requires in dept preparation. Our office will not only provide you with a specific list of documents to collect and submit to us but we will also prepare a cover letter (called “submission letter”) to include with your application which will outline in detail your love story and details of the development of your relationship from the first meeting to the marriage to your future plans as a couple. This is what officers are looking to see in order to fully understand your relationship and application.

Here are some additional resources to help you should you be facing an admissibility hearing or a spousal sponsorship appeal in Canada.

When we have filed an appeal with the Immigration Appeal Division (IAD), we must wait for the registry to schedule a hearing date. It is quite common that a hearing can be scheduled 1-2 years later. It all depends on the backlog of the cases at the IAD. There are no priorities with respect to files and your case will be scheduled according to your spot in the queue. Although there are hearings almost every day at the IAD, there are hundreds of cases which need to be scheduled and only a certain number of Board Members.

If your case has not been scheduled yet, do not worry as this is quite common. Our office regularly follows up with the IAD to ensure that your file is still in the queue. Unfortunately, we cannot request expedited hearings given the already crowded system.

It is very stressful and tiring to wait for a hearing date as you and your spouse continue to be separated. Our advice to our clients is to view this process as a long-term investment for your couple and know that once the hearing has been scheduled, proper preparation and documentation will lead to the successful finalization of your appeal.

If you have an appeal in process and require information, please contact our office to schedule a consultation.