Canadian Immigration Xperts

Same Sex

Same-sex couples’ access to civil marriage was extended throughout Canada on July 20, 2005, under the Civil Marriage Act. While CIC examines the impact of the Act on its immigration programs, its policy, which recognizes the validity of civil marriages between a foreign national and his or her Canadian citizen or permanent resident same-sex partner, will continue. At this time, the policy applies only to the family class (which includes the spouse or common-law partner in-Canada class).

A Canadian citizen or permanent resident may sponsor his or her same- sex conjugal partner, if the couple is not married. The IRPA (Immigration and Refugee Protection Act) provides a definition of a "conjugal partner", who is in a relation to a Canadian sponsor, a foreign national residing outside Canada who is in a conjugal relationship with the sponsor and has been in that relationship for at least one year.