Introduction
Residents, citizens, or someone who is enrolled as an Indian under the Canadian Indian, act may sponsor some members of their family to immigrate to Canada under the Family Sponsorship Program.
To sponsor someone, you must be qualified and adhere to all other application conditions.
For some applications, you might need to demonstrate your ability to support the individual or people you are sponsoring financially.
This includes sponsorships from parents and grandparents.
In Canada, becoming a sponsor entails executing an undertaking, which is a legally enforceable commitment to provide financial support for a specific amount of time.
Depending on the family member you are sponsoring, the time frame varies.
The sponsor consents to meet the applicant’s fundamental needs.
There is no minimum income needed to sponsor, albeit, in some circumstances,
such as those involving a spouse, partner, or child.
Additionally, if you are a Canadian citizen residing abroad, you must demonstrate your intent to go to Canada with the person you are sponsoring or that you currently reside in Canada.
Also, if you have ever been convicted of a violent crime, a sexual offense, or a felony that caused bodily harm to a relative, you will not be qualified to sponsor.
Inclusively, the individual you are sponsoring must be eligible to enter Canada.
If they have a medical condition that puts the public’s health and safety in danger or has a criminal record outside of Canada. They may be medically or criminally inadmissible.
Who you can sponsor to come to Canada and the prerequisites for such applications are briefly described below:
SPOUSAL OR PARTNER SPONSORSHIP
The most common form of family sponsorship is where a citizen, permanent resident, or registered Indian sponsors their partner to immigrate to Canada.
Different sorts of relationships still allow you to sponsor a loved one in Canada, such as your husband, common-law partner, or conjugal partner.
All sponsored applicants must be at least 18 years old, regardless of the application.
You must demonstrate that you meet the relationship requirements for each application. For instance:
- To sponsor your spouse, you must prove that you are legally married to them.
- You must demonstrate that you have been in a conjugal relationship for a full year, with no significant stretches of time apart.
- You must demonstrate that you have been in a relationship for at least a year and that your partner, who resides outside of Canada, is unable to live with you
- Married to you due to severe legal and immigration issues in order to sponsor your conjugal partner.
- This includes issues with their marital status, such as the fact that they are still married to someone else because divorce is illegal in their country I
- Issues with their sexual orientation, such as the fact that same-sex relationships are frowned upon or even forbidden, or issues with persecution,
- Relationships between two different religious groups that are not socially or legally acceptable.
You will be needed to explain the progression of your relationship in the application forms, including how and when you met, the means of communication,
the support of friends and family, etc.
You must present at least two sets of paperwork demonstrating that you are currently residing at the same address if you are living together.
This can be your lease, a statement from a combined utility account, tax records, or photocopies of identification papers from the government.
You will need to submit evidence of communication (such as letters, text message exchanges, call logs, social media conversations, etc.)
Evidence that the sponsor visits the applicant (such as airline confirmation emails, boarding passes, passport exit/entry stamps, etc.) if you are not living together.
SPONSORING YOUR PARENTS/GRANDPARENTS
You must first submit a notification of interest in the Parents and Grandparents Program before you can sponsor your own parents or grandparents.
Every year, the application process for qualified citizens and permanent residents to sponsor their parents or grandparents’ immigration to Canada starts.
The “interest to sponsor” form, however, was last made available in 2023.
For those who did not fill out an “interest to sponsor” form between October and November 2023, a waiting period will be required.
Those who expressed interest in 2023 were added to the list of prospective sponsors.
The Canadian government then chooses a few candidates at random and sends out invitations for sponsorship applications.
The Government of Canada asked 23,100 prospective sponsors from the 2023 pool to apply for the 2022 process.
In the event that you accept the invitation to apply, you must submit your application materials by the specified deadline.
In general, regardless of their present marital status, you can sponsor your parents and grandparents.
You will need to submit additional applications with their current spouse or partner designated as a dependent if they are divorced.
If your siblings are eligible to be considered your parents’ dependent children, you may also list them on your application.
Most significantly, you must be able to support all of the applicants you wish to sponsor as well as their dependents.
This is due to the fact that you will be supporting those family members financially for 20 years as a sponsor.
INCOME REQUIREMENTS FOR SPONSORSHIP
Please refer to the figure below, which was obtained from the 2022 procedure,
For a general idea of the revenue required in the three years before the sponsorship application:
| Total # of Family Members (including the sponsor and any existing dependents) | Income from the 2021 Tax Year | Net Income from the 2020 Tax Year | Full Income from 2019 Tax Year |
| 2 | $32,898 | $32,270 | $41,007 |
| 3 | $40,444 | $39,672 | $50,414 |
| 4 | $49,106 | $48,167 | $61,209 |
| 5 | $55,694 | $54,630 | $69,423 |
| 6 | $62,814 | $61,613 | $78,296 |
| 7 | $69,934 | $68,598 | $87,172 |
| For every additional person, add: | $7,120 | $6,985 | $8,876 |
Source: coafkids.networkforgood.com
CHILD SPONSORSHIPS
If your dependent foreign-born kid or children fit the following criteria, you may sponsor them for permanent residence:
- They are Type A Dependents if they are under 22 and do not have a spouse or common-law partner.
- If a person has always relied on their parents for financial support AND they are unable to sustain themselves due to a mental or physical ailment (Type C Dependents), they are 22 years of age or older.
You can sponsor your own child or children if they meet the criteria for dependent children.
You may need to provide evidence that the child’s other parent or legal guardian has given permission for the youngster to immigrate to Canada.
If they fit the criteria outlined above, you can also sponsor the dependent children of your dependent child (i.e., your grandchildren).
You can also sponsor your spouse’s or partner’s children.
The sponsorship procedure will be different if you want to support an adopted child or an orphaned family member.
You must go through both the adoption process and the immigration process when adopting children from abroad.
There are two sorts of intercountry adoptions permitted in Canada for family sponsorship:
Those that will be finalized abroad and those that will be finalized inside the country.
No kind of international adoption, all adoptions must:
- Be legal in the child’s home country and in Canada
- Put an end to your adopted child’s legal connection to their biological parents.
- Satisfy the provincial or territorial adoption requirements in Canada.
- Be genuine
- Be in the best interests of the child
The adoption cannot be done primarily to help the child obtain permanent residency.
The orphan child must be your sibling, nephew, niece, or grandchild and must be under the age of eighteen.
UNDECLARED FAMILY SPONSORSHIP
All family members must be listed on the application for permanent residency in Canada
because the government of Canada may need to check on some of them.
Although they were not traveling to Canada, being checked implies that they must still submit
to a security/criminal check and undergo a medical examination.
This is due to the fact that, whether or not they were traveling with you to Canada if one family, member is barred from entering Canada,
It might make the entire family barred as well.
A family member who is not traveling with you becomes “undeclared” when you fail to reveal their details.
You would not be permitted to sponsor a non-accompanying family member if you neglected to have them evaluated. This bar was set for life.
The Canadian government began a trial experiment in 2019 that permits unregistered family
members to be sponsored due to worries about the lifetime bar’s unequal effects.
Only family members who would not have rendered their sponsor ineligible to move
to Canada in the first place are covered under this experimental study.
In order to qualify:
- You must be requesting sponsorship as a dependent child, common-law partner, or spouse.
- When your sponsor became a permanent resident, you weren’t investigated or declared.
- As a refugee, a dependent of a refugee/protected person, or after being sponsored as a spouse, common-law partner
- Conjugal partner, or dependent child, your sponsor became a permanent resident.
