Sponsoring Parents and Grandparents

Super Visa: A super visa lets your parents/grandparents visit their children or grandchildren for up to 2 years at a time. It’s a multi-entry visa that provides multiple entries for a period up to 10 years.

The intent of the family class immigration program is to reunite Canadian citizens and permanent residents with close members of the family class.

By undertaking to support sponsored members of the family class, the sponsor promises that their family member will not be a burden on Canadian society for the duration of the undertaking. You can only sponsor relatives like a brother, sister, aunt or uncle in very specific situations. Your relatives can live, study and work in Canada if they become permanent residents of Canada. You can sponsor certain relatives to come to Canada if you’re at least 18 years old and are a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident of Canada. Foreign nationals may be selected as members of the family class on the basis of their relationship to a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident.

Members of the family class are not required to meet the selection criteria imposed on members of the economic class—e.g., language, education, self-sufficiency criteria.

Sponsoring Parents and Grandparents

The Parents and Grandparents Program opens once a year. It lets citizens and permanent residents of Canada sponsor their parents and grandparents to come to Canada. You must demonstrate your intent by submitting your interest online. Make sure you are eligible as a sponsor before you submit this form.

• Sponsor’s eligibility:
• Sponsors must sign an undertaking that is valid for 20 years for all persons included in the sponsorship undertaking
• Sponsors must have a total specified income for each of the three years preceding the date of the sponsorship application>

The number of sponsorships in this category per year is capped.

• An alternative to sponsorship for permanent residence is temporary residence with the Parent and Grandparent Super Visa, which allows re-entry for up to ten years.

Spousal Sponsorship Process

You can sponsor your spouse – by applying either from inside or outside of Canada. The process is relatively the same. Sponsor must be:

• a Canadian citizen, a person registered in Canada as an Indian under the Canadian Indian Act or a permanent resident,
• at least 18 years old
• living in Canada:
  • if a Canadian citizen living outside Canada, you must show that you plan to live in Canada when your sponsored relative becomes a permanent resident.
  • You can’t sponsor someone if you’re a permanent resident living outside of Canada.