Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) provides several avenues for family reunification in Canada. Apart from your spouse or partner, as a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, you may also sponsor your child, parents, grandparents, and other family members, under special circumstances.
Children under the age of 22 are considered dependents eligible to be sponsored, including adopted children. Children who are 22 or older but have a mental or physical condition which makes them unable to support themselves (where this has been the case since before they were 22) are also eligible.
To qualify to sponsor parents or grandparents, the sponsor must live in Canada and prove they meet specified income requirements according to the size of their family. A spouse may sign as co-sponsor to meet this threshold. The program continues to evolve; currently, the sponsor submits an expression of interest to IRCC within a specified time window (once or twice a year), and invitations to apply are issued in a lottery system.
You may sponsor an orphaned brother, sister, nephew, niece or grandchild if they are under 18 and single, both parents are deceased, and they are related to you by blood or adoption.
If you are what is informally referred to as a “lonely Canadian”, meaning that you have no immediate family members either in Canada, or who could be sponsored to Canada, you may be able to sponsor one other member of family (adult child, brother, sister, aunt, nephew, etc.) and their dependents. These applications are somewhat complicated and require close evaluation prior to submission.
Family sponsorship is a highly emotional journey. Your chances of success and how quickly the application is processed depends in part on the quality of your submission and if you have properly addressed any areas of concern to avoid delays (for instance, criminal or medical inadmissibly). With several years of experience, our firm can handle all of your immigration needs with professionalism and expertise to ensure you and your loved ones are reunited in Canada as soon as possible.
