After the enactment of the "Civil Marriage Act", CIC adopted an interim immigration policy which did not recognize same-sex marriages which took place outside Canada. For example, a Canadian citizen, legally married in the Netherlands to his or her same-sex Dutch partner, might not sponsor his or her Dutch partner for immigration as a spouse, despite the fact that both Dutch law and Canadian law made no distinction between opposite-sex and same-sex civil marriages, and despite the fact that CIC did recognize a Dutch opposite-sex marriage.