SAME-SEX COUPLES
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 of permanent resident may sponsor to Canada his same- sex conjugal partner, in case 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 conjugal relationship with the sponsor and has been in that relationship for a period of at least one year.