Parental Sponsorship

Family Class Immigration | Permanent Resident Canada

Canadian permanent residents and Canadian Citizens may sponsor their parents or grandparents.

What Is The Sponsorship Process?

A parental sponsorship application is a two-step process. The first step of the process entails processing by the Case Processing Centre in Mississauga, where officers assess the sponsor’s eligibility. The application is then transferred to a Canadian visa office that is responsible for applications in the parents’ country of citizenship or country of permanent residence, where officers assess the genuineness of the relationship and the admissibility of the applicant.

Do I Qualify To Sponsor A Relative?

To sponsor a parent, the sponsor must reside in Canada and must demonstrate that he/she has the financial ability to support the sponsored relative.

To prove that they are financially capable of supporting a sponsored relative the sponsor must demonstrate a level of income that meets the minimum necessary income or low-income cutoff (LICO) for a given family size, as established by Statistics Canada and as outlined in the following chart:

Where a sponsor’s income is insufficient to sponsor a parent or grandparent, they may add the income of their husband or wife or common-law partner to their application. The spouse or common-law partner in this case will have to commit themselves as a co-sponsor on the sponsorship application.

What Are My Obligations As A Sponsor?

The Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism will require the sponsor to sign a three to ten year contract with its department to ensure that the sponsor will be responsible for all the essential needs of the sponsored relative without the assistance of social welfare resources.