Are you a victim of abusive relation? How can separation affects the immigration status?

Domestic violence has become an alarming issue all across the world. Despite several campaigns and awareness, every year lakhs of cases are reported in the countries. If you are in Canada and a victim of domestic violence or staying in an abusive relationship, immediately get out of it without a second thought. Now, what is meant by abuse or neglect? Is your concern falling under this category?

Types of neglect or abuse- That you can protest and not affect your Immigration Status

Physical abuse means any kind of contact that hurts or intermediates, for instance

1. Burning
2. Kicking
3. Slapping
4. Stabbing
5. Physical cuts
6. Pushing and hitting
7. Pinching and punching

Sexual abuse means sexual activity of touching that is completely against you will. This is considered a crime in Canada, even when conducted by your spouse your partner. For instance, an individual

1. Forces you to conduct sexual acts which are unsafe and humiliating
2. Continue any kind of sexual action despite your will
3. Acts or touches you in a sexual way without your consent
4. Physiological or emotional abuse includes the following:
5. Threatening or hurting your family members, pets and friends
6. Threatening to hurt your children or take them away from you
7. Blaming or criticizing
8. Stopping you from meeting or visiting your friends and family members
9. Breaking your personal belongings
10. Humiliating, insulting or yelling
11. Threatening or harassing
12. Name-calling, intimidating or disrespecting

When it comes to financial abuse, it includes your partner stopping your access to basic financial needs. This includes the following:

1. Taking away your money or paycheck without your permission
2. Withholding your money so that you cannot afford the bare minimum requirements for yourself or your children, like shelter, food, and medical treatments.

The controlling behavior indicates a limitation to your freedom like:

1. Not allowing you to meet with your friends and family
2. Constant monitoring your phone and internet usage
3. Forcefully making you stay back at home

Withholding your identification, passport as well as other essential documents

The term neglect indicates when your family member fails to provide you with the basic needs and care. This involves the following:

1. Failing to save you from any kind of physical harm
2. Not providing you with adequate clothing and food
3. Failing to provide you with adequate medication and health care service

Do I need to leave Canada if I am not a Canadian citizen but wish to leave my abusive partner or spouse?

This completely depends on the status of your immigration.

If you are a permanent Canadian resident, you will certainly not lose your status of immigration or be forced to leave the country after you get separated from your abusive partner. There is no need to worry even if you are abusive spouse has previously sponsored your permanent residency application.

But in case the sponsor tells the following factors to the immigration authorities, they may start with a thorough investigation:

1. You did not have provided genuine information in the immigration application
2. You were not in a genuine relationship

This can severely harm your permanent residentship status in Canada. You can go for taking legal advice if you fear this kind of issue.

In the case of conditional permanent resident status, it is no longer applicable. It is possible that you may have received the condition of permanent resident status during the time when you lived with your sponsor for 2 years, but after April 28, 2017, this has been completely eradicated and not applicable to any anyone.  Sponsored women can now obtain permanent residence status without using this condition.

If you made a joint application for permanent residency and it is under process in Canada, also termed as inland spousal sponsorship, it will be canceled. The joint application actually falls under the category of Common Law Partner in Canada. Usually, it takes quite a long time to process this application and if both of you decide to separate during this tenure, it is possible that you may be forced to leave the country. Legal help may prove to be useful in such a condition.

Where can you approach to get out of your abusive relationship as Immigrant?

There are several agencies working nowadays to cope up with the increasing cases reported on abusive services and partners. You can directly call on the support center number of one such organization and directly speak to the agent. At the same time, you can even report the same to your local police. With legal help, you always have a way to get out of your toxic relationship.