Family Sponsorship

A Canadian citizen or PR holder can be a sponsor: A spouse, a common-law partner or a marital partner, a dependent child, parents and grandparents, siblings, nephews or nieces, grandchildren who are orphaned, under 18 years of age and not married or not have a common law partner, another relative of any age or relationship but only under specific conditions. With this sponsorship, your relative can live, study and work in Canada. 

If necessary, there may be a sponsorship agreement between the parties that commits the sponsor to provide financial support to the relative. 

Approximately 80% of Family Sponsorship visa program immigrants are admitted through the Spouses, Partners, and Children Program by the Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), with the remaining 20% entering under the Parents and Grandparents Program. 

If the Sponsors is living outside of Canada 

Canadian citizens living outside Canada may sponsor their family members or spouse, common-law partner, or conjugal partner who have not been convicted of an offence causing bodily harm, provided they can demonstrate that they will reside in Canada after the sponsored persons become permanent residents. However, Permanent residents must live in Canada during the sponsorship process. PR holders outside Canada may not sponsor their family members from outside Canada, 

Sponsors and sponsored persons in Quebec: 

Sponsor (guarantor): You can sponsor a close relative who has not been convicted of an offence causing bodily harm if you are a Canadian citizen or permanent resident living in Quebec, you are at least 18 years of age, and you satisfy the prerequisites. 

Sponsored person (close relative): PR holders and Citizens can sponsor to:  

• their spouse, common-law partner or conjugal partner 
• their dependent child 

• their father, mother, grandfather or grandmother – Additional conditions apply 
• their orphaned brother, sister, nephew, niece, grandson or granddaughter, who is under the age of 18, and not married or in a common-law relationship 
• a child you plan to adopt (international adoption). 

Find more information