Express Entry applicants often find it confusing to understand how declaring a family member as “non-accompanying” affects their Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score. It is important to know how Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) treats non-accompanying spouses, partners, and children when calculating Express Entry points.
Under Express Entry, family members include a spouse or common-law partner, dependent children, and dependent children of dependent children. Whether or not these family members will be coming to Canada with the applicant, they must be declared in the application. This is because IRCC requires all family members to be declared and examined for medical and security admissibility, even if they are not accompanying the applicant to Canada.
When it comes to the CRS score, declaring a spouse or partner as “non-accompanying” has a clear impact. If an applicant has a spouse or common-law partner but declares them as non-accompanying, the applicant is assessed under the points grid used for single applicants rather than the one used for applicants with a spouse or partner. The single applicant grid generally results in a higher CRS score because it allows the applicant to receive additional points for factors such as age, education, language proficiency, and Canadian work experience. In many cases, applicants find that declaring a spouse or partner as non-accompanying helps them maximize their CRS score under the Express Entry system.
In contrast, dependent children do not affect the CRS score, regardless of whether they are accompanying the applicant or not. The Express Entry system does not award or subtract points based on the presence or absence of dependent children in the application.
There are many reasons why an applicant might declare a spouse or child as non-accompanying in their Express Entry application. Sometimes, a spouse may need to remain in the home country temporarily due to family, employment, or other personal reasons. In other situations, there may be admissibility concerns, or the timing may not align for the entire family to move together. Declaring a family member as non-accompanying allows the principal applicant to proceed with their application while preserving the possibility of sponsoring the family member in the future, provided the family member was declared and examined during the process.
It is essential for applicants to understand that all family members must be disclosed to IRCC, and they will need to complete medical examinations and background checks even if they do not plan to come to Canada at the same time. Failure to declare family members can lead to serious complications in the future, including the loss of the ability to sponsor them later or challenges to the applicant’s permanent resident status.
Misrepresentation
An issue that is increasingly arising is whether it is misrepresentation to declare that one has non-accompanying family members in an Express Entry application when they are married.
Lock-in Date
