If you are a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident, Canada family sponsorship lets you support a close relative so they can live in Canada as a permanent resident. You must meet the eligibility rules, show you can support them financially and sign a binding undertaking. Each family category has its own conditions, and every decision rests with IRCC.
Assessed as one family unit
Not required
8 to 24 months
CAD 1,260 plus CAD 85 biometrics
A job offer from a Canadian employer, or a Canadian work permit, is another way into Canada. Canadian work experience also counts towards several federal and provincial permanent residence programmes.
This group covers self-employed, business investor and entrepreneur programmes. Applicants are expected to run or invest in a Canadian business in manufacturing, services or technology, or to contribute financially to the Canadian economy.
Canada is a leading destination for international students, with strong universities and colleges and post-graduation work options.
1Assessment of your case and the right route
2Written retainer agreement and file opening
3Document preparation, certified translation and biometrics booking
4Decision, arrival and settlement support
Not automatically. A spouse or common-law partner who applies from inside Canada under the Spouse or Common-Law Partner in Canada class can apply for an open work permit, which is normally issued once the application passes the first eligibility check. Applicants outside Canada have no such entitlement and must qualify for a work permit in their own right, usually an employer-specific permit supported by an LMIA or an LMIA-exempt job offer.
Yes. Applications are refused for income below the minimum necessary income where that test applies, for a relationship an officer does not accept as genuine, for incomplete forms, or for medical, criminal or security inadmissibility. Submitting false financial documents is misrepresentation and normally carries a five-year bar under section 40 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. A refused family class sponsor usually has a right of appeal to the Immigration Appeal Division; judicial review at the Federal Court is work for a Canadian lawyer rather than a consultant.
Yes. Once they hold permanent residence, they can apply for Canadian citizenship after being physically present in Canada for at least 1,095 days in the five years before applying, provided they have filed the required tax returns and meet the language and knowledge requirements for their age group.
Quebec runs its own selection. As well as meeting the federal requirements, the sponsor signs a separate undertaking with the Quebec ministry (MIFI), which sets its own income scale and its own undertaking periods. Quebec must issue a Certificat de selection du Quebec before permanent residence can be granted.
Have your situation reviewed before you file. A careful check of your status, your income and your relationship evidence shows where the weak points are and what an officer will look for. No representative can promise an outcome, but a well-prepared file avoids the errors that lead to avoidable refusals and repeat fees.
Family sponsorship lets eligible Canadian citizens, permanent residents and people registered under the Indian Act support a close relative to come to Canada as a permanent resident. It is not an invitation letter. It is a formal application in which you take on a legal and financial undertaking, and in which IRCC assesses both you and your relative. The guide below sets out the Canada family sponsorship requirements as they stand in 2026.
To sponsor a close family member, you must meet all of the following:
Permanent residents must be living in Canada when they apply and when the decision is made. A Canadian citizen living abroad may sponsor a spouse, partner or dependent child, but has to show they will live in Canada once that person becomes a permanent resident. You also have to show you can cover the sponsored person’s living costs on top of your own, which is why people receiving social assistance for a reason other than disability cannot act as a sponsor.
You cannot apply as a sponsor if any of the following applies to you:
Sponsorship starts with the sponsor. You apply to IRCC for approval to support your relative, and the relative’s permanent residence application is normally filed at the same time. Your relative will need police certificates, an immigration medical examination and biometrics. Only certain relatives qualify, and they are listed below.
You can sponsor a legally married spouse, a common-law partner you have lived with continuously for at least 12 months, or a conjugal partner with whom you have been in a committed relationship for at least a year but could not live together or marry. The 12-month rule applies to common-law partners only, not to a married spouse. You must show IRCC that:
You can sponsor your own or your partner’s dependent children, biological or adopted, provided the child is under 22 and has no spouse or common-law partner.
Note: a child aged 22 or over qualifies only if they have depended substantially on a parent’s financial support since before the age of 22 and cannot support themselves because of a physical or mental condition.
Important update: IRCC is not accepting new parent and grandparent sponsorship applications. Until further notice the interest to sponsor form is closed and no new invitations are being issued; only applications already in the system are being processed. The pause does not affect spouse, partner or dependent child sponsorship, which remain open. If you want your parents to spend time in Canada meanwhile, the super visa is the practical option: a multiple-entry visa valid for up to 10 years, allowing a stay of up to 5 years per entry and an extension of up to 2 further years from inside Canada.
When the programme is open you can sponsor your parents or grandparents, provided that:
Other relatives, such as a brother, sister, nephew or niece, sit outside the usual family class. They can only be sponsored in one narrow case, where:
Related reading: while parent sponsorship is paused the super visa is the practical route, and its income rule has just been relaxed: the new super visa income rules
Alongside a route to Canada, family sponsorship offers the following.
Income is one of the main tests in Canada family sponsorship. A sponsor bringing parents or grandparents must show they can cover their living costs, which means meeting the minimum necessary income (MNI) that IRCC sets for the size of the household. For the parents and grandparents programme the threshold is the low income cut-off plus 30 per cent, and it has to be met in each of the three tax years before the application.
You prove this with the Notice of Assessment issued by the Canada Revenue Agency for those three years, and by signing the undertaking. The undertaking commits you to supporting the sponsored person for between three and 20 years, depending on the relationship, while still covering your own household. Quebec applies its own income scale.
Note: there is no minimum necessary income test when you sponsor a spouse, partner or dependent child, unless that child has dependent children of their own. You must still show that you are not receiving social assistance and that you can meet the undertaking.
The undertaking is a binding contract with the Government of Canada. For parents and grandparents it runs for 20 years, and it commits you to paying for:
Once signed, the undertaking stands even if the relationship breaks down, if you divorce, if your income falls or if you become bankrupt. If the sponsored person claims social assistance while the undertaking is running, the province can recover that money from you. The table below sets out how long the undertaking lasts outside Quebec; in Quebec the undertaking is signed with MIFI and runs for different periods, including 10 years for a parent or grandparent:
| Family relationship | Length of financial undertaking |
|---|---|
| Spouse or common-law partner | 3 years |
| Child under 22 | 10 years or until age 25, whichever comes first |
| Dependent child aged 22 or over | 3 years |
| Parents or grandparents | 20 years |
If you are eligible, start by gathering your documents, particularly the financial ones, and completing the forms. The relationship evidence has to be strong enough to leave no doubt about the family tie, because gaps in the documents and unexplained circumstances are a common reason for refusal.
Next, file the sponsorship and permanent residence applications together. If you are planning to sponsor parents or grandparents, note that intake is currently closed and nothing can be filed until IRCC announces a new round.
Once IRCC receives the application it assesses the sponsor first, then the applicant. An officer may ask for further documents, an interview or a new medical, and the decision is communicated in writing. Timelines depend on the office handling the file.
Processing time depends on the relationship and on where the application is handled:
| Family relationship | Approximate processing time |
|---|---|
| Spouse or common-law partner | 10 to 12 months |
| Dependent child | 8 to 10 months |
| Parents or grandparents | 20 to 24 months |
Note: these figures are IRCC estimates. They move with application volumes, the country the applicant is in and how complete the file is when it arrives.
| Fee type | Fee in Canadian dollars |
|---|---|
| Sponsorship application fee | CAD 90 |
| Right of Permanent Residence Fee, adult | CAD 600 |
| Processing fee for the sponsored person | CAD 570 |
| Dependent child under 22 | CAD 180 |
| Biometrics | CAD 85 |
The points below apply to parent and grandparent files. They add the IRCC form numbers, two fee details, the filing sequence and the Quebec processing figure that the sections above describe only in general terms.
The sponsor completes:
The parent or grandparent being sponsored completes:
When IRCC announces a registration period, the sequence is:
For parents and grandparents, the processing time for files destined for Quebec is 48 months, double the figure for the other provinces.
Sponsorship is limited to your own parents or grandparents. Parents of a spouse must be sponsored separately, after the spouse gains permanent residence.
Can divorced grandparents still be sponsored? Yes. Divorced grandparents must submit separate applications.
If divorced parents remarry, can the new spouse also be sponsored? Yes. The current spouse of a remarried parent can apply for sponsorship through the same programme.
Two questions come up often and are not answered directly in the sections above: whether a brother or sister can ever be sponsored, and what a sponsor should do if their finances change after the application has been filed. Both answers are short.
Under the regular family sponsorship programme, siblings do not qualify. There is one exception. You may sponsor a brother or sister only if they are:
All three conditions apply together. A brother or sister who is 18 or older, or who is married, does not qualify under this exception, and neither does one who is not orphaned. Otherwise, a sibling can only be considered through the narrow “other relatives” case set out earlier on this page.
One practical note on that route: applications for other relatives may require detailed documents and can take a long time, so allow for this when you plan.
Filing the application does not end your responsibilities as a sponsor. You must continue to meet your obligations while the file is being processed. If you lose your job during that time, you should provide one of the following:
Failure to meet your financial responsibilities can lead to the application being refused. Keep your proof of savings or of the new job ready so that you can provide it.
Family sponsorship is a demanding application with a long financial commitment attached, and the rules change from year to year. If you are not sure whether you meet the current requirements, speak to the Aval Visa team.
Hadi Imani is a Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant (RCIC #R522575), authorised by the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants to advise and represent clients on Canadian immigration matters.
We assess your eligibility, prepare and check the documents, complete the forms, arrange biometrics and stay with the file until a decision is issued. We cannot influence or guarantee that decision. It rests with IRCC, and with the Quebec ministry for files destined for Quebec.
