Family Sponsorship
Family Sponsorship
Family reunification is one of Canada’s immigration objectives under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. In fact, Canadian immigration policy and legislation has historically evolved around the premise of supporting families of both newcomers and established Canadians, to be reunited. The rationale behind is that family plays an essential role in new Canadians’ settlement process; bringing positive integration and successful lives in Canada.
A lot of times, the process of determining who qualifies as a family member for the purpose of immigration can be tricky. For example, even though you consider a brother or a sister to be your family member, that is not always the case in Canadian immigration. There are actually very few scenarios where a sponsor may bring a sibling to Canada. Having said that, careful attention must be given when assessing the eligibility of the sponsored applicant. In addition, some family members such as spouses, partners and children, have priority processing compared to other family class members such as parents and grandparents. Let’s begin by examining the applicant and sponsor’s eligibility in more detail.
Family Sponsorship
Who qualifies as an applicant? The Family Sponsorship Program comprises spouses, partners, dependent children, adopted children, parents, grandparents, orphaned relatives and “lonely Canadians”. Despite the applicant’s category under this program, a good tip for building a solid application is to focus on proving the genuinity of the relationship. Many times, it is easy to get lost in all the details of an application, but it is always important to bring your attention back to the fundamentals, which is proving that the relationship has been entered in good faith.
As explained before, there are many types of relationships that could make an applicant qualify as part of the Family Sponsorship Program. It is important to then ask yourself which are your options and perhaps which category under Family Sponsorship would suit you. After the applicant’s eligibility is determined, it is equally important to then identify the sponsor’s eligibility. Think about the Family Sponsorship Program as two sides of the same coin, you cannot have an eligible applicant without having an eligible sponsor.
When it comes to sponsors, it is only permanent residents and Canadian residents who could qualify to bring a family member to Canada. The potential sponsor has to be minimum 18 years of age and reside in Canada. In addition, the sponsor needs to be willing to take the legal obligation to reimburse any benefit provided to their sponsored family member when they become permanent residents. This legal obligation is called an “undertaking” and it will bond the sponsor to a certain number of years depending on the type of application. For example, if sponsoring a parent, the undertaking is of 20 years. Meanwhile, if the sponsored person is a spouse, the undertaking is only 3 years.
In brief, there are various types of family relationships that could qualify under the Family Sponsorship Program. However, it is key to evaluate eligibility and admissibility requirements for the applicant and his or her sponsor at the same time. The nature of each family relationship will determine processing times, if proof of income is required, which accompanying members get to be added to the application, among others.
Regards,
SmartImmigrant (Family Sponsorship )
