• You can sponsor the person as your spouse if your marriage is a legally valid civil marriage.

Opposite and same-sex marriages:

• will be recognized for immigration purposes, where the marriage:
  1. was legally performed in Canada, or
  2. if performed outside of Canada, the marriage must be legally recognized in the country where it took place and in Canada.

You can sponsor the person as your common-law partner (same or opposite sex) as long as you’ve been living or have lived with your partner for at least 12 consecutive months in a marriage-like relationship.

 A conjugal partner is:

• a person who is living outside Canada,
• in a conjugal relationship with the sponsor for at least one year, and
• could not live with the sponsor as a couple because of reasons beyond their control (e.g. immigration barrier, religious reasons or sexual orientation).

This term applies to both opposite and same-sex couples.

You can sponsor a conjugal partner if:

• there is a significant degree of attachment between the two of you, implying not just a physical relationship but a mutually interdependent relationship, and
• you’ve been in a genuine (real) relationship for at least 12 months where marriage or cohabitation (living together) hasn’t been possible because of barriers such as sexual orientation, religious faith, etc.