Sponsorships
Family Sponsorship: Any individual who is either a Canadian Citizen or a Permanent Resident who would meet a certain criterion can sponsor their spouse or common-law partner, parents or grandparents to become Permanent Residents of Canada.
a) Spouse/partner: What’s the eligibility criterion to sponsor a spouse or a common-law partner? The sponsor must:
- Be of at least 18 years of age
- Must be a Canadian Citizen or Permanent Resident or Person registered in Canada as an Indian under the Canadian Indian Act.
- Must not be in receipt of any kind of social assistance for other than disability.
- Must be able to provide the basic needs of the person who is being sponsored. They will be financially responsible for the sponsored person for at least 3 years from the day they become permanent residents.
In majority of the cases, there is no minimum income requirement set by the Immigration to sponsor a spouse or common-law partner unless the person being sponsored has a dependent child who have 1 or more dependent child of their own.
b) Dependent Child: What’s the eligibility criterion to sponsor a dependent child? The sponsor must:
- Be of at least 18 years of age
- Must be a Canadian Citizen or Permanent Resident or Person registered in Canada as an Indian under the Canadian Indian Act.
- Must not be in receipt of any kind of social assistance for other than disability.
- Must be able to provide the basic needs of the person who is being sponsored. They will be financially responsible for the sponsored person for at least 3 years from the day they become permanent residents.
Note: In order for someone to qualify as a dependent, they must be under 22 years of age and must not have a spouse or common-law partner. If they are over 22 years of age, they should be able to demonstrate that they will be unable to financially support themselves due to either a physical or mental condition and that they have depended on their parents for finances since before the age of 22.
c) Parents/Grandparents: This program allows a Canadian Citizen or Permanent Resident to sponsor their parents or grandparents to become Permanent Residents of Canada as long as they are outside Quebec. This program operates on a lottery basis.
The citizens and permanent residents would submit an Interest to Sponsor form which would place them in a pool of candidates. IRCC would then choose random people from the pool and send them Invitations To Apply. The candidate then has 60 days to submit the full application.
d) Adoption: This process is a 2-step procedure. First there is an application for sponsorship that is submitted. Once that goes through, then the application for permanent residency for the child is submitted. The following are the requirements to sponsor an adopted chid:
- Be a Canadian citizen who is applying on behalf of the adopted child who is under the age of 18 when the application is submitted
- Must live in Canada
- Must be of at least 18 years of age.
Requirements of Intercountry Adoption: The immigration allows two different kinds of adoption process. The adoption could either:
- Be fulfilled within Canada or
- Be fulfilled outside Canada
- Note: In either case, the intercountry adoption must be considered legal in the child’s home country and where ever the sponsor would live.
- The adopted child would have to end the legal relationship between him/her and the biological parents.
- This method should not be adopted just to gain Permanent Resident status for the child.
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