The answer to that question is – No.

Recently a client who was applying for permanent residence, based on sponsorship by a Canadian, was concerned about the conditional status of the visa. His concern was that the immigration department could at any time within two years after he obtained his permanent residence take his permanent resident status away because of the two-year conditional status.

The Government is, of course, concerned about marriage fraud and marriages of convenience and that is the reason for making some visas conditional. So long a s the marriage or relationship is bona fide, there is no need to worry. In certain situations, in the past, some foreign nationals have duped the Canadian spouse and as soon as he or she had landed, the new immigrant abandoned the Canadian after obtaining residency. To counter this fraud, the government introduced changes in 2012 to make certain visas conditional.

Generally the government of Canada will only to be interested in those cases where there has been such deception or fraud. The government, through its enforcement arm of CBSA (Canada Border Services Agency) does not generally examine each and every case during the two years to determine whether the individuals are still together, but acts mainly on tips that have been received over time from parties that have been aggrieved. The conditional measure only applies to permanent residents whose applications were received on or after October 25, 2012 , the date the regulation came into force. So if the application was sent in after October 25, 2012, the permanent resident visa will be conditional for a period of two years, but the condition only applies to certain relationships.

If the individuals have been married for more than two years or have been in a common-law relationship or more than two years, or if they have children in common at the time the sponsorship application was filed, the permanent resident is not subject to the conditional status.

The conditions will apply if the:

  • couple is married for two years or less, or
  • couple dated for four years, but is married for two years or less or,
  • couple have been in a conjugal relationship for two years or less or,
  • couple have cohabited in a common-law relationship for two years or less,
  • and they do not have any children.

Once the two years has passed, CIC will make a note on the immigration file and the conditional status is removed.