Fortunately for sponsored spouses, loss of Permanent Residence status in Canada is no longer something that they will need to worry about when faced with the prospect of divorcing their Canadian partner after less than two years of marriage.
On April 28, 2017, Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada announced an end to its controversial 2-year conditional Permanent Residence provision for sponsored spouses.
The policy, which has been in place since October 2012, was instituted to curb instances of marriage fraud and deter individuals from entering into marriages of convenience to gain permanent status in Canada.
It required sponsored spouses and partners to cohabit and remain in a conjugal relationship with their sponsor for two years. If they didn't, their status could be revoked, leading to deportation.
The policy had many vocal critics, who believed that the conditional status put sponsored partners at increased risk of abuse, and led them to stay in unhealthy relationships much longer than they otherwise would have.
