Visas for families – family sponsorship
With a family visa a citizen or permanent resident of Canada can sponsor a relative for immigration. The sponsor must be at least 18 years old and be willing to sign a contract called the Undertaking to Assist a Member of the Family Class. This indicates that he accepts financial responsibility for the relative until that relative is settled and self-supporting. This is a legal agreement signed by both the sponsor and the relative. Legal action can be taken if the terms of the agreement are not fulfilled. The sponsor must prove ability to provide by producing copies of records such as pay stubs, income tax returns, proof of income from other sources such as rental income, and other documents. The sponsor must reveal his monetary commitments in the form of bills, payments on his home, personal loans and such. The sponsor must also prove his own citizenship or residency.
Those who can be sponsored under a family visa include:
- spouses, common-law partners, and conjugal partners who are 16 years old or above
- parents
- grandparents
- dependent children and children who are adopted
- brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, grandchildren if orphaned, who are under 18 years old, unmarried, and not in a common-law partnership
- one relative who is more distantly related if there are no other relatives to sponsor
Common-law partners
To qualify as a common-law partner, a couple must have been in a conjugal relationship for at least one year. This applies to opposite sex couples and same sex couples. A conjugal partner is one who has been in a conjugal relationship for at least one year, but who has not cohabitated with the other partner. There are criteria to be met here regarding the intention of a permanent relationship in the conjugal classification. Joint bank accounts, mutual insurance policies, and other examples of interdependency are expected.
Children
The criteria for dependency for children are as follows:
- under 22 years old and has no spouse or common-law partner
- became a full-time student before turning 22 years old and has been dependent financially on parents since then
- has been dependent on a parent financially before the age of 22 due to a physical or mental disability
There are many separate procedures that must be followed to bring family into the country, but these procedures ensure that the immigrating members will be an asset to Canada and will contribute in a useful way to the society and to Canada's healthy economy.