Who the law lets you bring
Family sponsorship is a closed list rather than a general right to bring relatives. It is also the one part of the immigration system where nothing is scored. There is no points grid and no pool. It turns on a qualifying relationship and on whether you are eligible to sponsor.
Sponsoring a parent or grandparent is closed right now
New applications and new invitations to apply are not being accepted, and no interest to sponsor form is open. Only applications from the 2025 intake are being processed. The government has said details of the next intake will be shared when they are available, and has published no date.
That matters for planning rather than just for waiting, because the income test looks at three consecutive tax years. What to do in the meantime, and the route that is open.
- Nothing here is scored. Family sponsorship turns on the relationship and on your eligibility as a sponsor. Nobody is ranked against anyone else, and how many other people applied does not affect you.
- Most sponsorships have no income test at all. Spouses and partners without dependent children, and your own dependent children, carry no minimum income requirement. Parents, grandparents and other relatives do.
- The bars matter more than people expect. Default on a previous undertaking, default on court ordered support, default on repaying an immigration debt owed to the Crown, undischarged bankruptcy, social assistance other than for disability, a removal order, being detained in a penitentiary, jail, reformatory or prison, and certain convictions each stop a sponsorship regardless of how genuine the relationship is.
- You are signing a debt, not a sentiment. The undertaking obliges you to repay social assistance paid to the person you sponsored, and it survives divorce, their citizenship, your job loss, and either of you leaving the country.
- A refusal is not always appealable, and the route you chose affects it. The appeal to the Immigration Appeal Division runs against a refusal to issue a permanent resident visa, and it is the sponsor who appeals, within thirty days. No appeal exists where the refusal rests on inadmissibility for security, violating human or international rights, sanctions, serious criminality or organised criminality, and for this purpose serious criminality means a crime punished in Canada by at least six months of imprisonment or one of the offences the Act separately describes. A misrepresentation refusal carries no appeal unless the person is your spouse, partner or child. Because the right attaches to the refusal of a visa, whether you applied from inside or outside Canada is part of the picture, and we advise on it per file rather than in the abstract.
The routes, and which one is yours
Spouse, common law or conjugal partner
The three relationships are legally distinct, the inland and outland routes behave differently, and one exclusion catches people who did nothing wrong.
See requirements → Under 22, usuallyDependent children
Where the age is locked, what happens to a child who turns 22 mid process, over age dependants, and the two adoption routes.
See requirements →Parents and grandparents
Why it is closed, the three year income test to prepare for, the twenty year undertaking, and the route that is open today.
See requirements → NarrowOrphaned relatives and the last remaining relative
Two genuinely narrow routes, and the honest answer for a sibling or a self supporting adult child.
See requirements →| Route | Income test | Undertaking | Open now |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spouse, common law or conjugal partner | None, where they have no dependent children | 3 years | Yes |
| Dependent child | None, where the child has no children | 10 years or until age 25, whichever is first | Yes |
| Dependent child who was 22 or older when they landed | None, on the same basis | 3 years | Yes |
| Parent or grandparent | Low income cut off plus 30 per cent, in each of 3 consecutive tax years | 20 years | No |
| Orphaned brother, sister, nephew, niece or grandchild | Applies, at the low income cut off rather than that figure plus thirty per cent | 10 years | Yes |
| Child to be adopted in Canada | None. The Regulations exempt this category outright, though the application guide adds that the child must have no children of their own | 10 years or until age 25 | Yes |
| Last remaining relative | Applies | 10 years | Yes |
These are the federal undertaking periods. The undertaking usually runs from the day the person becomes a permanent resident, and it can instead run from the day they enter Canada, or from the day they obtain a temporary resident permit after applying to remain permanently. A co-signing spouse or common law partner is jointly and severally liable for the whole of it. Sponsors resident in Quebec are assessed by that province under its own undertaking and income rules, which differ, and we do not act on Quebec undertakings.
What it costs
| Fee | Amount |
|---|---|
| Sponsorship fee | $90 |
| Principal applicant, processing | $570 |
| Dependent child applying as the principal applicant | $90 |
| Accompanying spouse or partner | $660 |
| Accompanying dependent child, each | $180 |
| Right of permanent residence fee | $600 |
| Biometrics, per person | $85 |
| Biometrics, family of two or more applying together | $170 maximum |
A spouse or partner with the right of permanent residence fee comes to $1,260, or $660 without it. Each dependent child is $180. The right of permanent residence fee is refundable if the person does not become a permanent resident, and dependent children do not pay it at all. Where you are found not to qualify as a sponsor and you choose to withdraw, you are refunded the principal applicant processing fee and any right of permanent residence fee, all fees except the sponsorship fee are returned, and there is no right of appeal because there has been no decision on the permanent residence application. Choose instead to proceed and be refused, and nothing is refunded. An incomplete package is a different thing again and is simply returned unprocessed, with no place kept in the queue. These are government fees and do not include legal fees, the medical examination or police certificates.
Can you sponsor at all
Sponsor eligibility comes before the relationship, and it is where files fail for reasons that have nothing to do with the family. It returns an indication only, not an eligibility decision and not legal advice.
Your situation
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