The new minimum age of eligibility of spouses and partners in temporary and permanent Canadian immigration programs applications will help decrease the risk of early and forced marriage and may also serve as a disincentive for individuals under 18 to enter into marriages of convenience in order to obtain immigration status in Canada, as they will no longer be able to be sponsored as a spouse, common-law partner or conjugal partner. It may also decrease the number of potentially vulnerable young spouses or partners immigrating to Canada who are unable to prevent an early or forced marriage from occurring because they have not yet reached full maturity or do not possess the ability to act in their own best interest.

The Regulations changes include:

5. For the purposes of these Regulations, a foreign national shall not be considered

(a) the spouse or common-law partner of a person if the foreign national is under the age of 18 years;

(b) the spouse of a person if

(i) the foreign national or the person was, at the time of their marriage, the spouse of another person, or

(ii) the person has lived separate and apart from the foreign national for at least one year and is the common-law partner of another person.

117. (9) A foreign national shall not be considered a member of the family class by virtue of their relationship to a sponsor if

(a) the foreign national is the sponsor’s spouse, common-law partner or conjugal partner and is under 18 years of age;

125. (1) A foreign national shall not be considered a member of the spouse or common-law partner in Canada class by virtue of their relationship to the sponsor if

(a) the foreign national is the sponsor’s spouse or common-law partner and is under 18 years of age;

These changes came into effect on June 10, 2015.

Please Contact Us for more information on theses changes.