Filipiniana News – March 2012 RHYME & REASON Just this month, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) has issued a number of press releases introducing more significant changes to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and its implementing regulations. Changes to Address Spousal Sponsorship Fraud As a way of addressing the growing problem of spousal sponsorship fraud and marriages of convenience, CIC has imposed a five-year bar for sponsored spouses and common-law partners from submitting spousal sponsorship applications in favor of subsequent spouses or partners. The five-year period is counted from the day that the sponsored person became a permanent resident. Thus, even if the marriage or common-law relationship has broken down in less than five years from obtaining permanent residence and the sponsored person has entered into a genuine marriage, common-law or conjugal partnership with another, the former cannot sponsor the new spouse or par...