Family Sponsorship, Canada's route to reuniting family members.
One of the categories of Canadian Immigration system is for Canadians to sponsor their loved ones to come to Canada on Permanent Resident basis.
This program is designed based on the relationship of the applicant with the Canadian resident and unlike economic categories there is no education or language eligibility requirement.
However, there are certain eligibility requirements both for the sponsor and for the applicant.
-Who can be a sponsor?
A Canadian Citizen, or a permanent resident of Canada and a person registered in Canada as an Indian can be a sponsor if he/she is at least 18 years old and able to prove that they can provide for the basic needs of the person they want to sponsor.
-Who can be sponsored?
They are certain relatives who can be sponsored to immigrate to Canada
Spouse, Partner and dependent children
Parents and Grandparents
Adopted children
Other family members in specific situations (Orphaned siblings , nephew and niece or grand children under 18 and single)
Here we will discuss the two most popular categories of sponsorship in more details.
Spousal sponsorship
Sponsor's Eligibility
In order to be able to sponsor your spouse, partner and dependent children, the sponsor should reside in Canada or show that they plan to live in Canada when the sponsored person becomes a permanent resident.
You must also be able to support your spouse and dependent children financially and make sure they don't need social assistance from Government.
In most cases there is no income requirement to sponsor spouse and dependent children.
If the Canadian person has sponsored a spouse in the past, the person should wait for 3 years to be eligible to sponsor another person in this category and if the Canadian has been sponsored before the person should wait for 5 years before applying for this program.
Spouse/Partner Eligibility
In Canadian immigration law there are three different terms for conjugal relationships.
-Spouse
-Common-law Partner
-conjugal Partner
and each of them relate to a specific type of relationship.
the Canadian can sponsor their partner (any of this 3 types) as long as the partner is 18 years and above and have been in a conjugal relationship with the sponsor.
Dependent Children Eligibility
You can sponsor your children to immigrate to Canada if they are 22 years and under and not married or in a common-law relationship
Spousal Sponsorship Application Process
In order to apply for a spousal sponsorship, the Canadian should apply to become a sponsor and the spouse and or dependent children must apply for permanent residence. You will send both applications together. the processing time for this application is about 12 months.
To learn more and to see if you are eligible for this program contact us
Parents and grandparents Sponsorship
Sponsor's Eligibility
As a Canadian you can sponsor your parents or grandparents to become permanent residents of Canada. You need to have enough fund to support them and make sure they don't need social assistance from government.
To sponsor your parents and grandparents you need to promise to financially support them for a certain length of time, this promise is called undertaking.
The undertaking for PGP sponsorship is 20 years.
In order to be eligible for this program the sponsor should have certain income requirement which is LICO* +30% for 3 previous taxation years**.
*: LICO(Low income cut-off) is the minimum required income for certain family size which is defined by the government of Canada. In PGP sponsorship the size of family includes the sponsor family and the sponsored person(s).
**: Due to COVID19 pandemic and its financial impact on Canadian families, the Immigration, Refugee and citizenship Of Canada (IRCC) put in place some facilitating measures in calculating the income requirements. So for the taxation year of 2020 the minimum required income is equal to LICO for the family size without the extra 30%.
Parents and grandparent Eligibility
Parents, grandparents and their dependent children can be sponsored to immigrate to Canada. They need to provide all the documents showing their relationship to the sponsor.
PGP Application Process
The PGP sponsorship is very popular in Canada and thousands of applicants are submitted annually. In the past few years the application process for this program has seen several changes. For 2020, there is an interest to sponsor application that opened on October 13th. and will be closed November 3rd.,2020. People who are eligible and interested in sponsoring their parents/grandparents will submit their interest to sponsor form online and the system will randomly select and invite potential sponsors to prepare and submit the complete application.
For 2020, the IRCC is planning to accept 10,000 complete application and currently the processing time for this application is 20-24 months.
To learn more and to see if you are eligible for this program contact us.