Today we’re addressing one of the most common questions we get about Spousal Sponsorships: “How do we provide proof of our marriage?”. Video below:

Transcript:

“Hi, I am Jennifer Roggemann. One of the favourite questions all my spousal sponsorships ask me is “How do I prove my marriage is real?”. This sounds really funny because it IS real, but how do we prove this to the third party? People usually say “Hey, I have a marriage certificate.” or “I have a house deed and both of our names are on it.”, “I have a phone number that we both use for our bills.” That’s all good. They are objective evidence you can show and include in your application. But, I think the most important thing is authenticity. What I mean by that is, are you actually showing what’s most important in your marriage? Over the last twenty-odd years I have met many many couples and I can tell you one thing; There were no couples that were the same. What I mean by that is every couple has a unique feature about their marriage; there’s a reason they are together. It could be a reason like “We are passionately in love.”. But there are times that they are complementary to each other, share grief together, or go through some trial of a sort, like a natural disaster, serious illness like cancer or they go through some family event. Something that is really big to them, like the loss of a parent. I find that those give you a framework as to how you can show your marriage to Immigration Canada, to how real it is. So, it’s not checking all those little boxes on the checklist on the application form. It’s really about telling them in detail what your marriage looks like. I always say “The detail makes the difference.” in immigration and spousal sponsorship applications. It is a critical factor. But more than anything, you need to show it’s been more than anything you need to show your authenticity. I hope this helps! Thanks.”