Canadian Family Sponsorship
Sponsorship has two essential components:
- It enables a member of your family to immigrate to Canada and get permanent residency (PR).
- It requires you, as an individual, to commit to meeting necessities and financially supporting that person.
Who Can Be Sponsored
- Common-law partners and spouses
- Dependent Children
There are exceptions to this regulation, and it may be allowed to sponsor a non-immediate family member (such as a niece, uncle, or sister) if the following conditions are met:
- You have no other direct family members to sponsor,
- Or they have been lawfully adopted and fit the requirements of a dependent child.
Income Requirements for Sponsoring
You must sign a Sponsorship Agreement with your sponsored family member as a sponsor. This is your promise to offer financial help for the person you are sponsoring’s necessities (food, clothes, housing, and health need not covered by public health services).
You must also reach or surpass the Low Income Cut-off (LICO) for several forms of sponsorships, such as if:
- You’re supporting a husband or partner with a dependent kid who has one or more children of their own,
- Or you’re sponsoring a dependent child who has one or more dependent children of their own,
- Or you’re sponsoring a parent or grandparent who has one or more dependent children of their own.
Family Sponsorship – Application Process
Step 1: Make sure you meet the requirement to be a sponsor.
Step 2: Make sure that the relatives you want to sponsor are eligible.
Step 3: You must apply to the Ministry of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) on the federal level. You must send your sponsorship application along with the applications for permanent residency (PR) status of your relatives or family members all at the same time. Your PR application will be examined once you have been assessed to be qualified to sponsor.
Step 4: You must pay the application fee for family sponsorship.
Step 5: Ensure your application is sent to the correct address. This information can be found in the sponsorship guide, which can be downloaded from the government website.
Spouse (Husband, Wife, Common-Law Partner) Sponsorship
You may sponsor: If you are a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, you may sponsor:
- Your partner (you are legally married)
- Partner-in-crime (you are not legally married but have been living together for at least 12 months in a conjugal relationship).
- Partner in marriage (you are not legally married or in a common-law relationship and they are living outside Canada)
To be eligible for spousal or common-law partner sponsorship, you must meet the following requirements:
- Be at least 18 years old, a permanent resident residing in Canada, or a Canadian citizen
- Demonstrate that you can meet your own and your spouse’s or partner’s fundamental requirements.
- By submitting supporting evidence, you may demonstrate that your relationship with the sponsored individual is genuine.
The sponsored individual must meet the following criteria to be eligible for spousal or common-law partner sponsorship:
- You must be at least 18 years old and not too closely related to you.
Spousal or common-law sponsorship applications can be divided into two categories:
Inland: Because the person you want to sponsor is presently in Canada, you can apply from within the country. This sort of sponsorship permits candidates to stay in Canada while their permanent residency application is being reviewed.
If you apply from within Canada, the individual you’re sponsoring can apply for an open work permit, which allows them to work for any company in Canada while their sponsorship application is being reviewed.
Spouses or partners can travel to Canada if they first apply for a Temporary Resident Visa (TRV).
Outland: The application is submitted through an embassy or consulate in an abroad country.
In this scenario, the person you are sponsoring who is currently residing outside of Canada would generally wait for permanent residency outside of the country but may visit you in Canada.
Dependent Children – Sponsorship
Your dependant children, regardless of whether natural or adopted, can be sponsored to live with you in Canada as permanent residents.
To be eligible for sponsorship, children must match the following criteria of a dependent child:
- If a kid is under the age of 22 and is not married or in a common-law partnership, he or she is considered a dependant.
- If a kid is above 22 years old and has a physical or mental disability that inhibits them from supporting themselves, they may be considered dependent.
You must meet the following requirements to be eligible for this program:
- To acquire a visa, you and your kid must be authorized by Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).
- You must show that you are related to the child you are sponsoring, through either a birth or adoption certification.