Understanding the Digital Signature Lawfulness for Public Relations in Canada

How to eSign a document: digital signature lawfulness for Public Relations in Canada

so the pr portal to apply for spousal sponsorship has been updated yet again and like before it's not without its issues first of all there's this profile page especially this dependent section that is confusing a lot of people then there are these digital forms which now pick up information from this profile page and the name and address in this tri8 is locked the 546 not allowing native language names then there is this expiry date issue in the national ID section of the tri8 and finally for some applicants the forms seem to be stuck in this in progress State no matter what they do the good news is all these issues are fixable so get your wrench and screwdriver ready let's do some skill trade repair so assume you're starting off fresh so you'll log into this portal creating your own account using your email address and password and by you I mean the principal applicant the person who's being sponsored for permanent residence not the sponsor the sponsor does not create the account so the first thing you'll notice when you log into this portal and start the application is this profile page this is the new update this is where they ask you to add your basic information such as name date of birth address so let's say I'm the sponsor I'm sponsoring my wife for permanent residence she becomes the principal applicant she's the one who will immigrate she's the one who will become a permanent resident once this process completes so this is all her information in the profile page nothing to do with the sponsor here then there is this dependence section which has gotten everyone worried so everybody just relax deep breaths it's all good Life's good we'll figure this out together so the idea behind this page is you the principal applicant fill out your basic information and information about your dependence if any on this profile page so that way you only fill out the basic details once and all those details get filled out in these digital forms automatically for you and so if you fill out your information and the information about your dependence correctly in this profile page it's just going to save you a lot of work when you fill out these digital forms so assume my wife is the principal applicant so this is her account she fills out all this information about herself so her name exactly as it's shown on her passport then date of birth again exactly as for her passport then mailing address so this is the principal applicants address where you want to receive communication from ircc They Don't Really send anything everything is online but they still require you to provide a valid mailing address where you receive your mail so now there can be two scenarios here one the principal applicant is not using any representative completely managing the application themselves and second the principal applicant is using the sponsor as the unpaid representative so in this scenario my wife the principal applicant is completely managing the application herself I'm the sponsor but I'm not an unpaid representative there's no representative so in this case the mailing address is going to be the address where my wife wants to receive any mail and for majority of the principal applicants the mailing address is the address where they are currently living because you would want to receive your mail where you are currently living right meaning your mailing address is going to be the same as your residential address so let's say my wife was living with me in Canada and applying Inland then this mailing address is going to be her current residential address where she wants to receive any mail and then for residential address same as mailing address so this is true that's why she's going to check yes because she's currently residing in this place with me and this is also where she's receiving her mail now let's say this is an Outland application meaning family class my wife is living outside of Canada let's say she's living in India at the time so her mailing address will be her India address where she's currently living where she wants to receive her mail and again residential address will be the same as mailing address because she wants to receive all her mail at the residential address where she's currently living so in this case when the sponsor is acting as the unpaid representative the mailing address has to be of the sponsor so that ircc can correspond with the sponsor on behalf of the principal applicant so my wife is going to put my address in this mailing address section so this is my address in Canada where I'm currently living then the residential address is always going to be the Principal applicants address so let's say my wife is living with me in Canada at the time that we are doing the application so this is an inland application so her residential address becomes the same as the mailing address but let's say my wife is not living with me I'm in Canada but my wife is outside of Canada she's in India at the time so this becomes an Outland application and then she has to check no here because this is where my wife has to provide her current India residential address where she's currently living so keep in mind residential address is always going to be where the principal applicant is currently living and mailing address is going to be the address where the principal applicant wants to receive their mail in this case because the sponsor is acting as the representative mailing address is going to be of the sponsor and residential address is going to be of the principal applicant and these two addresses can be the same or they can be different from each other depending on where the principal applicant is living at the time that the application is being submitted all right now onto this dependent section so this spouse or partner keyword has created a lot of confusion this leads people to think that the PA spouse which is the sponsor has to be added here as a dependent and that is clearly wrong the sponsor who's a permanent resident or citizen of Canada does not get added in this dependent section the sponsor is not considered your dependent and the reason this spouse keyword shows up here is because this portal is also used by other stream such as the parents and grandparents program for which this spouse makes much more sense but for spousal sponsorship your sponsor is not considered your dependent so sponsor should not be added here your permanent resident or Canadian citizen children don't get added here your mom and dad brothers and sisters do not get added here as simple as that so who do you actually add here as dependents so in the context of a spousal sponsorship application your dependents are your children who are under the age of 22 who are not married nor in a common law relationship and they are not permanent residents or citizens of Canada only then you can add your children here so to understand this better let's cover four different scenarios for four four different types of applicants number one when the principal applicant has no dependent children number two when the principal applicant has a Canadian citizen or permanent resident child number three when the dependent child is under 18 years of age and number four when the dependent child is 18 years or older that way this will fully make sense and obviously you can only follow the section that applies to you so you don't have to watch the full video just jump to your section in the time stamp and you can understand how the profile section will feed your digital forms okay so this is the first scenario there are no dependent meaning me the sponsor simply sponsoring my wife who's the principal applicant no dependent children so my wife will simply fill out the basic details her name her date of birth her address and then click on Save and continue nothing to do with this dependent section here so let's see how the profile section impacts these digital forms so first up is tri8 so under the personal details tab you'll notice that the last name and first name of my wife have already been picked up from the profile page and that's why they will become non-editable here so you cannot really edit your name here if you want to make changes you again have to go back to the profile section make changes there and then those changes will reflect in this section then if I scroll down to the date of birth section this is also being picked up from the profile page same thing for the mailing address section this is already filled out and it's being picked up from the profile page which you filled out in the beginning so you're not going to be able to edit this address if you want to make changes you have to go to the profile page right here and make the changes in the address section there and that's how those changes will show up in this address section so I'll quickly go through this again this video is not about details of each of these forms I'll cover that in a later video but I want to get to this dependent section so you'll notice in this dependent section nothing shows up here and that is rightly so because there are no dependence in this application and you cannot add dependence on this page if you have dependence then you have to go back to the profile page and make the changes there and don't be confused by this line you must include your spouse or common law partner this is not applicable for spousal sponsorship they should update these instructions to add that point specifically but because this portal and this form is is being used by other streams as well such as parents and grandparents program this line is more applicable to those streams for spous of sponsorship you do not add your sponsor as the dependent you do not add your mom dad or brother sister as a dependent here this is only meant for dependent children who are true dependence since in this scenario there are no dependents That's why nothing shows up here and that's why nothing to do here simply click on complete and return to application then once you filled out this form in its entirety it's going to show as ready to submit let's move on to the next one 546 this is the family information form and now the instructions for this 5406 are also pretty confusing so it says here we need information about your family meaning parents children spouse and siblings of the principal applicant so my wife is the principal applicant so she's basically expected to provide information about her parents children spouse siblings in this form when she fills out her 546 irrespective of whether they are permanent residents or citizens of Canada or wherever they are living doesn't matter so that's part one of the instruction then the second part of the instruction states that you the principal applicant must fill out this form for yourself and on behalf of any of your family members 18 years of age or older who are not Canadian citizens or permanent residents so again for spousal sponsorship this is talking about dependent children so this means if you the principal applicant has a dependent child who's 18 or older then you must already have added them in the profile tab right here and if you have added the dependent child in the profile tab they will show up here below this PR principal applicants line but this does not apply to this scenario where my wife doesn't have any dependence so she doesn't have to worry about all this what she can do she can simply click on start or edit here and she can simply fill out this 546 for herself so section A this is for the applicant my wife's first name and last name and date of birth is already populated here from the profile page then again fill out these sections list the address under relationship spouse this is where my wife simply lists out my details the sponsor's details because I am her spouse again this is not dependent on my residency or citizens ship status so she simply lists me here same thing for my wife's mother my wife's father then section B children my wife doesn't have any children so she can simply write not applicable here then section c siblings so my wife has a brother she's simply going to provide the information about brother here doesn't matter whether he's an Indian citizen or a Canadian citizen permanent president she's simply accounting for her brother's information here and this form is done nothing else to do here my wife does not have to fill out an additional copy for me the sponsor my wife does not have to fill without any additional copies for her mom her dad or her brother she's already accounted for all of us in her version of the 5406 so then she's done she's going to click on complete and return to application and this form is also going to show as ready to submit next up is 5669 this is schedule a again also a principal applicant form my wife clicks on start and then she simply fills out this form for herself nothing to do with me the sponsor or her mom dad or her brother and because there are no dependence in this scenario my wife and I have no children there is nothing to do with dependence also in this form so just simply fill out the form for the principal applicant providing all your background information and that's it this form is done then next up is 5562 so this is the travel history form notice it doesn't have a required keyword next to it why because this is a country specific form only required to be filled out by applicants from certain countries so my wife is from India and because this was an Outland application she was in India at the time so she was required to fill this out but you may not be required to fill this out if you are either in Canada or maybe you're from a country that doesn't require this form so go to your guide 5289 under step three complete the application if you scroll down and click on document checklist and Country specific requirements if you enter your details here and your country here it's going to tell you whether you require the 5562 or not so this is section a principal applicant so my wife fills out her details here and if she has traveled then she gives the details of those trips then section B your spouse or common law partner so this is not going to apply to me because as you can see it says up top you must fill out this form for yourself and behalf of family members 18 or older who are not Canadian citizens or permanent residents I the sponsor am a permanent resident so this does not apply to me so there is nothing to be populated here my travel history meaning the sponsor's travel history who's the spouse is not required to be filled out so my wife can simply write not applicable here then section c dependent children so she's simply going to write not applicable and move along and that's how you complete these digital forms in this scenario where there are no dependent children it's just the principal applicant who's being sponsored by their spouse so for this scenario let's assume my wife and I have a Canadian citizen child he could also be a permanent resident both these will apply to this scenario so again this is the profile page my wife fills out her basic information and nothing to do here in dependence because it's a Canadian citizen child and we just talked about this Canadian citizens or permanent resident children do not get added as dependents so do not touch this dependent section not applicable in this case also so again this is generic application for canada8 my wife will fill allowed this form all these sections for herself nobody else and when she gets to the dependence section you'll notice there is nothing that shows up here rightly so why because we did not add any dependent in the profile section so nothing to do here simply click on complete and return to application and this8 is done for my wife then next up is 5406 additional family information so again nothing to do with dependence here so again section A is herself so her name and date of birth are already populated from the profile page so she provides her information there then under spouse she provides my the sponsor information then her mom's information her dad's information no matter wherever they are even if they are deceased she has to provide the information here then section B children this is where my wife will provide the information about the Canadian citizen child so she simply lists the relationship here his full name date of birth everything else address and that's it that's all she has to do to account for the Canadian citizen child section c is sibling so she provides the information about her siblings here and that's how she is done with this form then schedule a 5669 this this is my wife's form the principal applicants form she fills out all these details about her background and education for herself nothing to do with the Canadian citizen child here simply fills out this form for herself and that's it then next up is 5562 travel history so my wife the principal applicant provides all her travel history information here if she has traveled then section B spouse so doesn't apply sponsors travel history is not required so right not applicable then section c dependent children also not applicable so right not applicable because the Canadian citizen child is not considered a dependent and that's how she completes this 5562 all right so now it's getting interesting this will make things much more clear let's assume that my wife and I have a 10-year-old child who's not a Canadian citizen nor a permanent resident obviously not married or in a common law so that son is considered a true dependent why because under 22 not married or in a common law and for the context of spousal sponsorship also not a permanent resident or Canadian citizen so again this is the profile section my wife is going to click on ADD dependent here and under this question is the dependent accompanying you meaning they will also immigrate with you at this point when you are being processed you will select yes even if the sun was not accompanying let's assume that my son was not immigrating at the time because the son is considered as a true dependent he will still have to be added as a dependent you'll just have to select no here that they're not accompanying at this point so let's assume that the son is accompanying then relationship to the principal applicant meaning my son's relationship to my wife so it's child and then the name the first name and last name and the date of birth exactly as it appears on my son's passport then my wife will click on Save details and that's how the dependent is added now you'll see how this changes the rest of the digital forms so first up is tri8 generic application for Canada so my wife will first fill out all these details for herself the principal applicant but notice when she gets to the dependent section her son's information shows up here rightly why because this was rightly added in the profile tab that's why this form picked it up correctly from the profile Tab and populated it here so now this portal is telling my wife to also fill out this8 for my son because he was identified as a true dependent so my wife will simply open this and then fill out this tri8 on behalf of my son my wife already filled one out for herself and now she's filling this out for the dependent child all right so next up is additional information 5406 as soon as my wife opens this you'll notice that a separate Row for my son does not show up here even though he was added as a dependent and that is correct so you'll notice here it says You must fill out this form for yourself and on behalf of any family members who are 18 years of age or older and family members for spousal sponsorship means dependent children so we do have a dependent child who's rightly added in the profile section but he's not going to show up here why because a separate version of this form is not required for that dependent child and the reason is because that dependent child is under 18 but now if my wife opens this family information form she's simply going to fill out all these sections and when she gets to the child section section B this is where she will fill out the information about the dependent child and that will take care of it a separate version of 5406 is not required you've already accounted for that child in8 so they will be processed when your permanent residence gets processed then next up is 5669 schedule a so again very similar logic to 546 that we just saw a separate version of 5669 is not going to be required for this child who's only 10 years old why because he does not meet all these conditions here yes he's not a Canadian citizen not a permanent resident he's a the family member because for spousal sponsorship we are talking about dependence but he is under 18 and because he doesn't meet all these conditions highlighted here in this section the portal rightly identified that and did not give you an option to fill out a separate version and that's why my wife can simply click on start and fill out this schedule a for herself the dependent information is not going to show up inside this form because it's not required so she simply completes this for herself and that's it her schedule a is done then next up is travel history 5562 she fills it out for herself under Section A then section B spouse does not apply because the sponsors travel history is not required so right not applicable then section c dependent children as you can see it says dependent children 18 years or older so it does not apply in this scenario because the dependent child that we have added is under 18 he's just 10 years old so even though he's a dependent his travel history is not required because he does not meet this condition simply list not applicable and you're done all right final category let's say my wife and I have a 19 year old child he's not a permanent resident or citizen of Canada he's not married nor in a common law that makes that child a true dependent because he's under 22 and not married nor in a common law so again this is the profile page for my wife and under dependence section what we are going to do we are going to keep the name and the relationship but we are simply going to change the date of birth so let's say the child was born in 2004 1st January so let's say we have a 19 and 1 half year old child okay so click on Save and continue and now the child has been added and he's going to show up in specific place in these forms so again first up is8 generic application for Canada my wife will first fill out all these details for herself but when she gets to the dependent section she'll notice that the 19-year-old's information has been rightly picked up and another row has appeared so this form is now asking my wife to provide a separate version of trip8 meaning another version of generic application for Canada for the 19-year-old so what my wife will do is after filling out her own version of trip 08 inside this dependent section she's going to click on edit or start and she'll complete the tri8 for my 19-year-old son similar thing is going to happen for this 5406 so as soon as my wife opens this form she'll notice that this row has appeared now in the 5406 form beneath the row for my wife so this basically means that the form is asking my wife to First fill out a 546 for herself but then fill out a 5406 for the 19-year-old also meaning a separate version for my 19-year-old because this time the 19-year-old dependent meets the this criteria right here he's a family member meaning a dependent child of the principal applicant he's 18 or older so he fits this category and he's not a Canadian citizen or permanent president so first my wife completes her version of this 5406 so basically providing all her information under Section A then information about me the sponsor in the spouse section then information about her mom her dad then section B children this is where my wife will provide the information about the 19-year-old and then section c siblings is where my wife provides the information about her brothers and sisters but now she's also required to cover another version of 5406 for that dependent child who's 19yearold so she clicks on edit again and here this button this radio button on behalf will automatically get selected because this time she's not filling this out for herself she's filling this out on behalf of her 19-year-old son who's a true dependent so again section A applicant his country of birth his marital status email his address then relationship spouse so he does not have any spouse so not applicable then his mother meaning my wife the principal applicant and his father meaning me the sponsor because we are his parents then section B children so my son doesn't have a child in this scenario so just not applicable then section c siblings so if my son had brothers or sisters their information will be listed here otherwise just write not applicable so two versions of 5406 will be completed here one for the main principal applicant my wife and another one for the dependent child who was over the age of 18 again no version for Mom Dad brother sister or the sponsor this is only about the principal applicant and dependent children then similar story for 5669 so this is schedule a background declaration as you can see another row shows up here why because the child the 19-year-old child meets this criteria so my wife again fills out the 5669 version for herself first and then she fills out another version on behalf of my son who's the correct dependent added here so very similar to 5406 two versions of 5669 required in this case next up is 5562 travel history so section A this is for my wife so she'll fill out for herself then section B is spouse so this does not apply because this is not for the sponsor so not applicable then section c is the dependent child 18 or older so because there is a dependent child who's 19 years of age so he meets this criteria so my wife will provide the travel history of my 19-year-old child here another version doesn't really show up for 5562 at this point maybe they'll add that down the line but at this point if you have dependent children who are 18 or older then their travel history if they have traveled has to be provided here if he has not traveled simply list did not travel and then you can simply provide the name and you can complete the form like that all right so we just covered the big stuff now let's move on to some minor issues so once you complete all your digital forms you should get this green button with ready to submit showing here and this was an issue up until a couple of weeks ago when even after completing these digital forms in their entirety applicants were not able to see this ready to submit button they would always be stuck in this in progress State and because of that the portal won't allow them to submit the application because this button would be disabled so the good news is as of August 2023 this issue seems to have been fixed a lot of my subscribers have reached out to me and told me that they are now able to submit their forms so now when you complete your digital forms technically you should be able to see this green ready to submit button like I see right here because I've completed the 5406 but for some reason let's say it's not fixed for you and you don't see the ready to submit button first of all you should check that you've completed all these forms in their entirety but if you have done that and it still shows in progress for you then one possible solution that a couple of my subscribers have shared with me is to use another browser specifically this Firefox browser so you can simply download this if you don't have it and then open this online portal basically log into your portal through this Firefox browser and then try again it should fix the issue another common issue is with the native language script specifically with this 5 46 form so if I open this 5406 under Section A as you can see the full name is automatically populated from the profile tab so you're obviously not going to be able to add your native language name here because this is uneditable but even the profile tab is not going to allow native language script at this point as of August 21 2023 so I'll show you an example I'll use Google Translate to generate the native script for my wife's name and let's say if I try to bring that native script here and paste it it gives me a format issue so you'll have to remove the native language script from your name in the profile tab so don't worry about this you're not going to be able to add native language script in the profile tab at this point this might change so be vigilant so this is only going to be an issue with the principal applicant's name for the rest of the family spouse Mom Dad children siblings the form is still allowing you to write names in the native language so nothing to worry about this until they fix this what you can do is take a Word document and simply write the name of the principal applicant and next to that name you can write the name in the native language script and then you can save that document either as a docx or a PDF and label it 5406 native language name and you can upload it in the other category in the additional supporting document section and you should be fine another issue people have is with this expiry date in the national ID section of the tri8 form so if you don't have a national ID or you're not even sure what your national ID is then you can simply click no here and don't worry about it this is not going to make or break the case populating National ID here but let's say you have a national ID but it doesn't have an expiry date which is the case for majority of the applicants out there ircc recommends putting 3,11 as shown on this help page here so just put 3,101 and you are good to go okay so we did a lot of repair in this video and hopefully that should help you get started once you do here's an overview of 1344 the sponsorship agreement form here's how to digitally sign the 5532 and here's how to prepare and upload your photos for your spousal sponsorship all these videos are linked in the description below and see you there