eSignature Lawfulness for Planning in Canada

How to eSign a document: e-signature lawfulness for Planning in Canada

all right additional family information 546 a mandatory form required to be filled out for your spousal sponsorship application so let's cover where to find it what is this for who fills this out and who you need to include in this form and who you don't some common reasons why applications get returned due to this form and finally how the dependent section works with this form so assume I'm the sponsor I could be a permanent resident or a citizen of Canada and I'm sponsoring my wife so my wife becomes the principal applicant she's the one who will immigrate and become a permanent resident when the process completes so this form 546 is my wife's form and any dependent children that she may have who are 18 years of age or older this form is not to be filled out by me the sponsor or my wife's mom dad brothers and sisters or my wife's permanent resident or Canadian citizen children and this is going to become clear as we go along this form so you'll start here this is the pr portal this is where the principal applicant my wife in this case will create the account and start the application so this is inside the application and here is your 546 there's no PDF printing or scanning for this form because it's a digital form filled right here inside the pr portal so open this you'll get to the basic introduction page which gives you instructions on who this form is for and instructions for this form can get pretty confusing because here up top there's a different set of instructions and down here is a different set of instructions and these two instructions can often confuse applicants so let's break these down and it will become clearer so the first set of instructions say that we need information about your family meaning the principal applicants family for these four groups of people meaning the principal applicants Parents Principal applicants children spouse and siblings so this simply means that when my wife starts this form she's expected to provide information about all these four groups of people here in their specific sections so for example the section A includes herself then her spouse which is me and then her mother her father then section B includes her children and section c includes her siblings so my wife will provide information about all these four groups of people here in their specific sections and this does not depend on their status or citizenship or wherever they are in the world whatever they age doesn't matter if they are dependents or not so they could be alive they could be dead they could be permanent residents or citizens of Canada or citizens of any other country doesn't matter she's simply accounting for all these four groups of people here when she's filling out her version of the 5406 and the reason ircc needs information about these people from my wife is so that once my wife becomes a permanent resident down the line if she decides to sponsor her parents or siblings then ircc should already have a record of that and that's the purpose of providing information about these four groups of people here irrespective of their status citizenship or residence so that is part one of the instructions then the second part of the the instruction says that you the principal applicant must fill out this form for yourself so we already covered that yourself portion and on behalf of any family members 18 years of age or older who are not already Canadian citizens or permanent residents so this family member in the context of a spouse's sponsorship is specifically pointing towards a dependent child so for this part of the instruction family members means dependent children so basically what this form is asking is that if my wife has a dependent child who is 18 years of age or older then another version of 5406 has to be provided on behalf of that child so this is going to get much more clearer as we go along we'll take a look at a few examples with different age groups of dependent children towards the end of the video and this will make much more sense so stick around until the end of the video to understand that but for now for this scenario I'm simply sponsoring my wife we don't have any children so she doesn't have to worry about all of these instructions here she can simply click on start or edit and then provide information about all her family members listed here up top and that's it that completes the form so opening this form you'll notice right away that this yourself radio button is checked and grayed out and this is correct this simply means that my wife is filling this form out for herself so you'll notice also that under Section A her full name and date of birth is already populated here and these fields are also grayed out because these fields are being picked up from the profile page and populate here automatically so you're not going to be able to add these fields or edit them here so if you have made a mistake then you'll have to go back to the profile page make changes there and then those changes will reflect back here so I'm referring to this profile page before you even start filling out your digital forms you will be first presented with this profile page this is where you'll have to fill out your basic details such as your name your date of birth your mailing address your residential address and if you have any dependence you will have to add those dependents here and then this information will show up under specific sections of your digital forms including 5406 and filling out this profile page especially this mailing and residential address section most importantly this dependent section can get pretty confusing when you are starting out Fresh So I've covered all that how to fill out this profile page this mailing and residential address and how to add dependence in this profile page in this video right here which is also linked in the description below so I'd highly encourage you check that video out first if you haven't already it will help you understand the dependence section better and then filling out the digital forms is going to be a much more smoother process for you all right so first up is section A so under relationship applicant so this is all the principal applicants information meaning my wife's information so our full name and date of birth like we discussed is already populated because this is picked up from the profile page then country of birth so this is my wife's country of birth it was India then for marital status this option married physically present will apply for married couples so this physically present keyword does not mean that they're asking are you present with your partner right now or not so don't confuse that this married physically present means that you were present with your partner at the time and place when you got married so for example I got married in India and my wife and I were present at the same time and same place same venue where we got married where we tied the knot so that means married physically present so for married couples this is the only option married physically present that they'll accept ircc does not recognize proxy marriages or marriages that happen online or via a zoom call so you cannot really select married not physically present unless you have very strong legal restrictions to be with your partner and you also happen to be a member of the Canadian Armed Forces which is not really going to apply to most people so for married couples only this option physically present will apply and I just explain to you what this means and obviously if you're doing a common law sponsorship then you will select this common law option so you really only have these two options available common law or married physically present depending on the type of your relationship for this spousal sponsorship stream none of the other options will apply unless you are doing a conjugal sponsorship which I would highly recommend against because it's incredibly hard to prove but if you're still doing a conjugal sponsorship then they've not really given an option for conjugal so in that case my best recommendation you can select this unknown option here and then you will have to provide additional supporting documentation then this is her email and here she lists her current residential address where she's currently living so let's say my wife is living with me in Canada at the time that she's applying for spousal sponsorship so she provides her complete Canadian address here and make sure you provide your complete address here and when I say complete address ircc is mainly looking for details such as your street number street name unit number or apartment number or house number whichever is applicable most importantly postal code city province state or District whatever is applicable in your case and then country that constitutes a complete address applications often get rejected because applicants fail to provide their complete address that's why I stressing this address part and more on that in a second then relationship spouse or common law partner so this is where my wife provides my information because I'm the spouse so my full name in English and in Native script my date of birth my country of birth my marital status so again physically present married then my email and my complete address and just a quick thing about this native script you only have to write the people's names in Native script Nothing else so simply names of your mom dad brother sister and children if applicable you will write those names in Native script as you see here and up top if you notice that the principal applicant's name is already locked here so you're not going to be able to provide the principal applicant's name in Native script for this form 5406 and that is also fine so you don't really need to worry about this if you want to be extra safe you can provide an additional supporting document a letter of explanation and lab it 546 native script for principal applicant and then you can provide the details there then you can upload it in the other category of your additional supporting documents the next up is mother so all this information is about my wife's mother so my wife's mom's full name in English and Native script her date of birth her country of birth her marital status email and complete address now if your mom doesn't have access to email or doesn't use one then you can simply provide your email meaning the principal applicants email here and that's fine they'll understand again it's very important that you include the complete address of your mom where she's living at this time so Street number or street name or house number or area number whever whatever is applicable for your country the city the state or District or Province whatever is applicable the postal code and country that constitutes a complete address and let's say if your mom has passed away then you can select this not applicable deceased option and then you can either provide her last known address or you can just write not applicable because she's deceased they'll understand but if she's living right right now then you have to provide the complete address here like I showed you now I understand for a lot of applicants whose families live in rural areas often times there are no Street numbers or street names sometimes there are not even postal codes available so in that case the problem is that you can't really provide a complete address and that might create a problem when you submit your application so what I would recommend in that case is make your best effort to provide a complete address but if you can't if there's no way then provide whatever address is possible for you whatever address you have on file and then write a detailed letter of explanation explaining why you are not able to provide a complete address as long as you can make a reasonable case the ircc officer will understand and same thing for your siblings as well if you've not been in touch with your siblings for the longest time if you've had no contact with them then you probably don't know their address so try to provide the last known address that you know complete address but if you can't then you have to explain in a letter of explanation why you're not providing providing complete address for your parents or your siblings or your children whatever is applicable then next up is father so this is my wife's dad's information so provide all this information similarly and then you can click on Save and continue the next up is children so you provide information about all your children here meaning principal applicants children doesn't matter what their citizenship or resident status is whether they are dependents whether they are permanent residents or citizens of Canada or any other country whatever their age be does not matter you have to account for them here and this includes your biological children your adopted children step children meaning children that your spouse may have had with another partner or children of your common law partner with somebody else or if your children who are adopted by others you provide information about them or if your biological children who are in custody of an ex spouse or an ex common law partner you still provide their information here and if you don't have any children you can simply write not applicable here in the first text input field under relationship and you can move move on then section c is siblings so this is where the principal applicant provides information about all her brothers and sisters including half and step siblings doesn't matter what their residence status is they could be permanent residents or citizens of Canada or any other country whatever their age does not matter you have to account for your siblings here so my wife has a brother so she listed brother under relationship his full name in English and Native script his date of birth his country of birth his marital status his email address and his complete residential address where he's currently living and if you don't have any siblings you can simply write not applicable in this first text input field under relationship and you can click on Save and continue and this completes the principal applicants version of the form there is no digital signature or electronic signature for this form 5406 so you don't have to worry about that you simply click on complete and return to application and then this form is going to show as ready to submit okay so this is a profile page with your basic information if you scri scroll down this is where you will add your dependence if you have any and then your dependence will show up in specific sections of your digital forms so as a general rule in the context of a spousal sponsorship application your dependents are your children who are under the age of 22 not married nor in a common law relationship and not permanent residents or citizens of Canada you only add dependence in this section here if they are your children who meet all these conditions otherwise you don't and yes there can be exceptions in which your child might be over the age of 22 and can still qualify as a dependent if they meet that exceptional criteria so you can read all about those exceptional conditions in this page right here which I'm going to link in the description below it's the official help page of ircc where you can learn all about dependence but as a general rule your child should meet all these three conditions to qualify as a dependent and your sponsor is not considered your dependent the principal applicants parents siblings and permanent resident or Canadian citizen children are not considered dependents so don't add these people here in the dependent section so to understand how dependent children work with this 546 form let's take four different examples of four different types of children that the principal applicant can have and let's see how they fit in in the dependent section of this 5406 form all right so let's assume my wife and I have a child who's a Canadian citizen they could also be a permanent resident the logic is going to be the same in this case so like we just discussed a Canadian citizen or permanent resident child doesn't matter what their age is is not considered a dependent so my wife is not going to add that Canadian citizen child in this section so let's go back to 5406 and see how this plays out so here's your form again there is no dependent section here so it's simply the principal applicant my wife who will complete her own version of the 5406 so again here's section A this is where she provides her information information about her spouse which is me her mom her dad and when she gets to section B this is the information about her children again like we discussed it does not matter whether your children are permanent residents or citizens of Canada or citizens of any other country whatever their age is you have to add your children here so my wife will simply provide all this information about the Canadian citizen child here and that's it this is all she has to do when the child is a Canadian citizen same logic will apply when the child is a permanent resident now when you have a Canadian citizen or permanent resident child listed in your 5406 it's also a good idea to provide supporting documents that prove the child's Canadian citizenship or permanent resident status just to Ure that ircc does not request any Medicals or Biometrics down the line for that child so when you upload your supporting documents in this section right here you can upload your child's Canadian passport or if they don't have a passport their citizenship certificate or their birth certificate whatever document proves that they are a Canadian Citizen and if your child is a permanent resident you can upload their permanent resident card or their copr document so these documents will ensure that ircc knows that this child is a Canadian citizen or permanent resident so they are not going to request any supporting documents for that child down the line and that will eliminate any possible confusion that may arise when ircc processes your application so let's assume for this scenario my wife and I have a 10-year-old daughter who's not a permanent resident or citizen of Canada obviously not married or in a common law relationship so she meets all these three conditions which are required to be classified as a true dependent she's under 22 she's not a PR or Canadian Citizen and she's not married nor in a common law and that's why she will be added as a dependent in this section so my wife will click on ADD dependent and add details about this child here so let's say the child is accompanying meaning they will immigrate with the principal applicant the relationship is child this is the name of the child and the date of birth of the child and then click on Save and continue and then let's see how this impacts the 546 so here's the introduction page of 546 and if you scroll down you'll notice that there's only one row that appears here for my wife the portal is not giving my wife any option to fill out a separate version of 546 for the dependent child so basically the portal is telling my wife simply fill out your own 5406 and that's it and that is correct why because the child does not meet this 18 years of age or older condition the child is only 10 years old so another 5406 doesn't need to be filled out for the dependent child so what my wife does in this case is simply fills out her own 5406 and provides all her information like we discussed before and when she gets to the child's section all my wife has to do is provide the information about the 10-year-old dependent child here filling out all these fields completely and that's all she has to do for this 10-year-old dependent child and don't worry you're not missing out on providing information about your dependent child because the tri8 form which is another digital form is going to ask you to provide the information about your under 18 dependent so when you get to the dependent section of the trip8 you will see a row appear here just like that and this is where you account for that dependent by the way I've made a full video covering all the sections of this Tri 08 including the dependent section it's showing up on the cards here and it's linked in the description below so you can check that out if you want to learn more about how the dependent section works for that form and just a quick note if you have a dependent child when you submit your application don't forget to also upload the birth certificate of that child in your application basically a certificate that lists the name of the mother father and the child and establishes the relationship between the child and the parents so just something to keep in mind all right so now let's assume my wife and I have a 19-year-old son who's not a permanent resident or citizen of Canada and not married nor in a common law relationship so because that son meets all these three conditions he's under 22 not a permanent resident or citizen of Canada and not married nor in a common law relationship this son is also classified as a true dependent so this son will have to be added here as a dependent in the profile page so my wife will simply add the details of the Sun here in the profile page and click on Save and continue and let's see how this changes the 5406 so here's the introduction page of the 546 and immediately you will notice that another row has appeared underneath the row of the principal applicant so here's the row for my wife the principal applicant and this time this is the row for my 19-year-old son and why did this happen because this time this son this dependent child is 18 years of age or older so because they meet this category the portal rightly identified that and put another row here so basically the portal is now asking my wife to First Complete a 546 for herself but then complete another 5406 a separate copy for this 19-year-old dependent child and that's why the two RS here so first my wife will fill out her version providing all these details about herself her mom dad like we discussed and when she gets to the child section this is where she will add all the details about the 19-year-old child here and then she adds all the details about her siblings if applicable and that's how she completes her version of the 5406 but then she also has to complete another version and this time this version is for the 19-year-old dependent child so she clicks on start or edit in the second row and this is the child's 5406 and that's why you'll notice this on behalf radio button is selected this basically means that my wife is now filling out this 5406 on behalf of her 19-year-old child so again the relationship applicant section is all about the child so his name his date of birth his country of birth marital status email and address then relationship spouse so this is not applicable so just write not applicable because the child is not married then relationship mother so this is the child's mom meaning my wife's information will come here because she's the mother then under relationship father all my information because I'm the father of the dependent child and obviously the child doesn't have any children so not applicable here then section c siblings meaning the child siblings so if my wife and I have any other children their information needs to be provided here otherwise just right not applicable and that's how my wife will complete another version another 5406 for the child so basically two versions of 546 for my wife to complete one for herself and one for the 18 plus dependent child okay final scenario let's assume my wife and I have a 23-year-old child who's not a permanent resident or Canadian Citizen and not married nor in a common law relationship so because this time the child does not meet the under 22 criteria the child will not be considered as a dependent and again there can be exceptions with this age category where your child may be over the age of 22 and still classify as a dependent so you can read all about those exceptions in this general info page which I'm going to link in the description below but as a general rule 22 or older children are not considered dependents so they will not be added in this profile page so let's see how you can account for them in 5406 so this is our introduction page for 5406 and because we did not add the 22 or older child in the profile section nothing is going to appear here so it's just going to be one row for my wife the principal applicant so what she does is simply fills out all these sections by herself and when she gets to the child section she simply lists all the information about her 22 or older child here and that's it that's all she has to do for this 22 or older category child for 546 and just because you're not adding the 22 or older category child in this dependent section doesn't mean that they cannot become a permanent resident once you the principal applicant become a permanent resident at the end of your spousal sponsorship application you can always sponsor your child so don't worry about this but you just have to respect the definition of the dependent child and the criteria that is required to be added as a dependent so that was 546 next up on the list is another mandatory digital form 5669 or background declaration here's a tutorial for that I'll see you [Music] there