Sponsoring your family
Sponsoring your family
While you may already know that Canadian citizens and permanent residents can sponsor their spouses and common law partners, these are not the only relatives who can enjoy the benefits of the sponsorship process.
If you meet the criteria, Canadian immigration law allows you to sponsor your parents, grandparents, and even some other relatives.
If your parents and grandparents live abroad, you have several options to have them come to Canada. They can apply for an eTA or a visitor visa to stay up to 6 months. They can also apply for the Super visa to stay longer. As visitors, they would not have access to employment, provincial health benefits, and old age pension. If short-term family visits don’t work for you, consider if you’re eligible to file the family sponsorship Canada application for your parents or grandparents.
To sponsor parents for Canada PR (permanent residence) means that you will be financially responsible for them for up to 20 years. This means that if they become unemployed and need to apply for welfare, the government will come to you to collect it.
The Canadian Immigration Law provides specific income requirements that can help you determine if you qualify to sponsor your extended family. However, you also need to decide for yourself if you’re ready to make such a commitment. You cannot cancel your parents’ permanent resident status just because you got into an argument, lost a job, or had more children and you can no longer support the relatives you sponsored.
You will need to meet the MNI (Minimum Necessary Income) to sponsor parents in Canada.
You will need to calculate the number of people in your family, which includes you, your children, your partner, and the people you’re sponsoring. If your parents have dependents, e.g. children under 22, you will need to include them as well. The Canadian family sponsorship income requirements are calculated for the past 3 years, and the officer can request an updated document while the application is being processed.
Even if you meet the income requirements, you cannot owe child support or alimony, receive social assistance besides disability, and you cannot be in the middle of bankruptcy proceedings.
Other sponsorship criteria include being a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident no less than 18 years of age. If you are sponsoring your extended family, you must reside in Canada.
Sponsoring your family
There are some things that may prevent you from becoming a sponsor, such as issued with paying your own immigration loan, failing to comply with a previous sponsorship agreement, or certain criminal convictions. You will not be able to sponsor anyone who is not eligible to come to Canada, such as some individuals with criminal history and serious medical conditions.
Family sponsorship Canada processing time can take up to two years or more for your application to be processed. Check the CIC family sponsorship application guide and document checklist to get the idea of the documents you will need. Check the fees to find out how much you will have to pay for the application. Don’t forget that you will also have to pay for translations, biometrics and medical exams.
If you have other relatives you want to sponsor, you might be able to do so. You can sponsor your orphaned siblings or nieces/nephews if they’re under 18, single, and have no living parents. You can also sponsor any one relative of any age if you have absolutely no relatives who are Canadian citizens or permanent residents, and you don’t have any relatives abroad that you can sponsor under any other rule. This is sometimes called a Lonely Canadian rule.
You can also sponsor your children and your spouse unless you failed to mention them when filling out your own permanent residency application. Contact our office to find out your options regarding the sponsorship of undeclared family members.
Regards,
SmartImmigrant ( Sponsoring your family)
