Sponsoring your relatives in Canada

Sponsoring your relatives

Canada allows certain individuals to sponsor their relatives to immigrate to Canada under the Family Class if they meet the following conditions:

  • at least 18 years old
  • Canadian citizen or
  • a person registered in Canada as an Indian under the Canadian Indian Act or
  • permanent resident of Canada

To sponsor a relative to come to Canada as a permanent resident, the sponsor must be able to support them financially and be able to provide for their basic needs like food, clothing and shelter when they arrive in Canada. During the period of time till the sponsor is financially responsible (period of undertaking), if the sponsored relative takes social assistance, the sponsor is responsible to pay back to the government.

You must live in Canada to sponsor eligible relatives unless you:

  • are a Canadian citizen who lives abroad and
  • plan to return to Canada when your relatives immigrate and are sponsoring your:
    • spouse or
    • common-law or conjugal partner or
    • dependent children who have no dependent children

A sponsor becomes ineligible to apply if any of the following applies:

  • are in prison or convicted of a criminal offence or sexual abuse
  • have not paid your alimony or child support payments
  • have declared bankruptcy and haven’t been released from it yet
  • got social assistance for reasons other than being disabled
  • didn’t pay back an immigration loan, made late payments or missed payments
  • sponsored another relative in the past and didn’t meet the terms of the sponsorship agreement were convicted of a violent crime, any offence against a relative or any sexual offence, depending on the type of offence, how long ago, whether a record suspension was issued
  • you are sponsoring someone before a certain time period has passed. For example, you cannot sponsor another spouse if a 3-year period has not passed since you sponsored the previous spouse (with whom you are divorced now) and they became PR
  • you were sponsored by your ex-spouse in the preceding 5 years. After divorce, you want to marry again and sponsor your spouse. You cannot sponsor until the 5-year period has passed
  • a person you sponsored took social assistance during the undertaking period and you have not paid it back
  • you are in default of an immigration loan
  • you did not pay court-ordered Alimony or Child Support
  • you have declared bankruptcy which has not been discharged
  • an offence against a relative that caused physical harm
  • threatened or attempted to do any of the above offences
  • you are under a removal order

You can sponsor your parents, grandparents, spouse, common-law partner, conjugal partner, dependent child/adopted child, parents/grandparents to Canada. Some orphaned relatives like brother, sister, nephew, niece or grandchild can also be sponsored. Under certain specific conditions, you can sponsor ‘other relative’ related by blood or adoption, of any age.

Contact us if you want to know if you are eligible to sponsor a relative under family class!