Questions Regarding a Conjugal Sponsorship

[littlewanderer]

So here's my situation, I'm wondering if a conjugal sponsorship is the best way to proceed...

• I met my (now) boyfriend online in 2008, we were just online friends until 2011
• In mid-late 2011 we decided to pursue a romantic relationship and his first visit to the States (to see me) was in 2012
• We have visited each other several times a year since then
• There's an abundance of evidence that our relationship is genuine (e.g., photos, social media posts, tickets, having met each others' families, etc.)
• We are not married and have no immediate plans to get married for various reasons - one, we don't really believe a marriage is necessary to validate our relationship, so we're not even sure we ever want to get married and if we do, we both feel strongly that we need to live together and create a life together before getting married, and lastly, his family and my family are different religions and, quite frankly, we don't really want to deal with trying to navigate that situation to make everyone happy.
• Our barrier to immigration is financial more than anything - neither one of us could really afford to just move to another country to live without a job.

What do you think? Do we have a shot, should we seek out an immigration lawyer, are there any glaring issues you see in our situation?

(Do personal details matter? If so, I'm an American woman, he's a Canadian citizen. I have a graduate degree and we're both in our late 20s. I have an aunt and uncle in Canada as well, though I'm not close to them just because I never saw them growing up).

I appreciate the advice! We're finally both out of school and want to make a life together!

 

[danawhitaker]

So here's my situation, I'm wondering if a conjugal sponsorship is the best way to proceed...

• I met my (now) boyfriend online in 2008, we were just online friends until 2011
• In mid-late 2011 we decided to pursue a romantic relationship and his first visit to the States (to see me) was in 2012
• We have visited each other several times a year since then
• There's an abundance of evidence that our relationship is genuine (e.g., photos, social media posts, tickets, having met each others' families, etc.)
• We are not married and have no immediate plans to get married for various reasons - one, we don't really believe a marriage is necessary to validate our relationship, so we're not even sure we ever want to get married and if we do, we both feel strongly that we need to live together and create a life together before getting married, and lastly, his family and my family are different religions and, quite frankly, we don't really want to deal with trying to navigate that situation to make everyone happy.
• Our barrier to immigration is financial more than anything - neither one of us could really afford to just move to another country to live without a job.

What do you think? Do we have a shot, should we seek out an immigration lawyer, are there any glaring issues you see in our situation?

(Do personal details matter? If so, I'm an American woman, he's a Canadian citizen. I have a graduate degree and we're both in our late 20s. I have an aunt and uncle in Canada as well, though I'm not close to them just because I never saw them growing up).

I appreciate the advice! We're finally both out of school and want to make a life together!

While I fully understand the financial aspect of not being able to move to another country and try to establish common law in order to apply, I don't think you're going to have much luck going the conjugal route. There are no actual barriers to you getting married or becoming common law that will be accepted by IRCC, particularly, I suspect, coming from the U.S.

You're going to have a very hard road ahead of you if you're completely unwilling to consider marriage and common law is not an option.

The sponsorship process itself is a serious commitment. If you aren't willing to commit to marriage or attaining common law, I'm not sure that's a commitment that the person sponsoring you should be undertaking either.

 

[zardoz]

So here's my situation, I'm wondering if a conjugal sponsorship is the best way to proceed...

• I met my (now) boyfriend online in 2008, we were just online friends until 2011
• In mid-late 2011 we decided to pursue a romantic relationship and his first visit to the States (to see me) was in 2012
• We have visited each other several times a year since then
• There's an abundance of evidence that our relationship is genuine (e.g., photos, social media posts, tickets, having met each others' families, etc.)
• We are not married and have no immediate plans to get married for various reasons - one, we don't really believe a marriage is necessary to validate our relationship, so we're not even sure we ever want to get married and if we do, we both feel strongly that we need to live together and create a life together before getting married, and lastly, his family and my family are different religions and, quite frankly, we don't really want to deal with trying to navigate that situation to make everyone happy.
• Our barrier to immigration is financial more than anything - neither one of us could really afford to just move to another country to live without a job.

What do you think? Do we have a shot, should we seek out an immigration lawyer, are there any glaring issues you see in our situation?

(Do personal details matter? If so, I'm an American woman, he's a Canadian citizen. I have a graduate degree and we're both in our late 20s. I have an aunt and uncle in Canada as well, though I'm not close to them just because I never saw them growing up).

I appreciate the advice! We're finally both out of school and want to make a life together!

Forget "conjugal". You have no chance of getting approved under that category. Your choice to not marry or to live together for "financial" reasons are not a suitable "barrier".

 

[Rob_TO]

What do you think? Do we have a shot,

No, absolutely zero chance of conjugal. In general a Canadian and American will never qualify for a conjugal application.

Get married or find a way to live together 12 months to become common-law. They are your only feasible options.

 

[canadianwoman]

CIC does not consider financial reasons for not living together to be valid. Their reasoning is that if one or the other is not committed enough to the relationship to leave their job and go live with the other for 12 months, they are not sufficiently committed to the relationship for it to be considered as equivalent to married (which is what a conjugal relationship should be to be accepted: as close and committed as a married couple, but with some immigration barrier preventing the couple from getting married or living together for 12 months).
A US and Canadian couple has no immigration barrier to getting married or living together. Since you have gone to visit each other, the visa officer will clearly see that there is no barrier, and so a conjugal application has no chance of being approved.

 

[Bcboundboy]

So here's my situation, I'm wondering if a conjugal sponsorship is the best way to proceed...

• I met my (now) boyfriend online in 2008, we were just online friends until 2011
• In mid-late 2011 we decided to pursue a romantic relationship and his first visit to the States (to see me) was in 2012
• We have visited each other several times a year since then
• There's an abundance of evidence that our relationship is genuine (e.g., photos, social media posts, tickets, having met each others' families, etc.)
• We are not married and have no immediate plans to get married for various reasons - one, we don't really believe a marriage is necessary to validate our relationship, so we're not even sure we ever want to get married and if we do, we both feel strongly that we need to live together and create a life together before getting married, and lastly, his family and my family are different religions and, quite frankly, we don't really want to deal with trying to navigate that situation to make everyone happy.
• Our barrier to immigration is financial more than anything - neither one of us could really afford to just move to another country to live without a job.

What do you think? Do we have a shot, should we seek out an immigration lawyer, are there any glaring issues you see in our situation?

(Do personal details matter? If so, I'm an American woman, he's a Canadian citizen. I have a graduate degree and we're both in our late 20s. I have an aunt and uncle in Canada as well, though I'm not close to them just because I never saw them growing up).

I appreciate the advice! We're finally both out of school and want to make a life together!

Just to echo the above, really - you have no barrier to getting married and applying as a married couple. You have no real barrier to one of you living with the one other for a year as a visitor and applying as a common law couple (I know, you feel it would be financially hard - that's the price of refusing to get married).

Because you both have free and easy access to each others countries where you are allowed to be, and allowed to marry each other, you will never qualify for a conjugal sponsorship. The only thing that would happen if you seek an immigration lawyer is that some of the money you could use to support each other while qualifying would be spent on someone who couldn't get you sponsorship.