Filipiniana News – February 2008 RHYME & REASON Last month, I wrote on family sponsorship in general. In this column, I would like to deal more specifically with sponsorship of spouses/partners in particular, due to the increasing number of inquiries received on this topic. Despite the notoriously slow processing times for immigration applications, it is refreshing news when one hears of spousal sponsorship applications being approved in just a few months, as I did recently for one of my clients. It somehow reaffirms one’s faith in a system where frustrating delays are the norm rather than the exception. However, the downside of this is that some unscrupulous individuals try to take advantage of the quick processing times by entering into marriages of convenience (i.e. those entered into solely for immigration purposes) as a faster way of obtaining permanent resident status. Aside from being illegal, this could seriously lead to more pro...