How Can You Sponsor Your Other Relatives for Canadian Immigration?

Every year, Canada invites over 100,000 immigrants through the Family Sponsorship Programs. The following programs are available under the Family Sponsorship:

While these are all well-known programs, many people are unaware of how they can sponsor their other relatives to Canada. However, Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) will allow you to sponsor other relatives in very special circumstances.

Who Can You Sponsor for Canadian Immigration?

Most commonly, you’ll be able to sponsor your spouse, common-law partner, dependent children, parents, and grandparents. There are 2 other types of relatives that you can also sponsor.

The IRCC allows Canadian citizens and permanent residents to sponsor your orphaned brother, sister, niece, nephew, or grandchild if the following conditions are met:

You are related to them by blood or adoption
They are under the age of 18
They are unmarried and not in a common-law or conjugal relationship

You can not sponsor your brother, sister, niece, nephew, or grandchild if:

They have a parent who is still alive
The location of their parents is unknown
They were abandoned by their parents
They are under the care of someone else while one or both parents are still alive
Their parents are in jail or detention

How Can You Sponsor Your Other Relatives for Canadian Immigration?

There are 2 steps to the application process. First, you need to sponsor your relatives. Once this application is approved, your relative will be required to submit a permanent residence application to the IRCC. You need to submit both applications at the same time to the IRCC by meeting the following requirements:

Confirm that you and your sponsored relative meet the eligibility requirements

Read the application guidelines carefully

Provide all the required documents and information in the application, for example, proof of meeting minimum necessary income requirements and financial undertakings to support your relative after they arrive in Canada

Provide accurate and correct information

Pay the required application fee

Ensure that your sponsored relative is medically and criminally admissible to Canada *See inadmissible to Canada