Family Spousal Sponsorships

Sponsoring your spouse, partner or dependent children to become permanent residents of Canada is possible if you are eligible.

In order to do so, you must be able to:

• Provide financial support to them
• Ensure that they do not require government assistance

What are the eligibility criteria for sponsoring a spouse, partner, or child?

Sponsoring your spouse, partner, or dependent child is possible if:

• Are at least 18 years old
• You are a Canadian citizen, permanent resident, or Indian registered in Canada under the Canadian Indian Act
  • You must prove you plan to reside in Canada when the person you wish to sponsor becomes a permanent resident if you are a Canadian citizen living outside the country.
  • If you are a permanent resident living outside of Canada, you cannot sponsor someone.
• Proof that you are not receiving social assistance for a disability-related reason
• You are able to provide for the basic needs of any person you wish to sponsor

Income requirement
Generally, you don’t have to meet an income requirement to sponsor your spouse, partner, or dependent child. If the following conditions apply, you must demonstrate that you have sufficient income to meet the income requirements:

• It may be that you are sponsoring a dependent child who has one or more dependent children of his or her own, or
• If your spouse or partner has a dependent child, and their dependent child has one or more other children

Who can you sponsor?
Sponsorship is possible for your spouse, common-law partner, conjugal partner, or dependent children.

Your spouse
There is no restriction on your spouse’s gender, but he or she must be:

• Having a legal marriage to you
• Minimum age of 18 is required

Your common-law partner

• isn’t legally married to you
• It can either be male or female
• Has at least 18 years of age
• Has lived with you for at least 12 consecutive months, meaning you’ve lived together continuously for a year without any long periods apart
  • Any time spent away from each other should have been
    • short
    • temporary

The relationship ends if either you or your common-law partner terminates it.

Your conjugal partner

• Isn’t legally married to you or has a common-law relationship with you
• It can either be male or female
• is at least 18 years old
• has been in a relationship with you for at least 1 year
• lives outside Canada
• can’t live with you in their country of residence or marry you because of significant legal and immigration reasons such as
  • their marital status (for example, they’re still married to someone else in a country where divorce isn’t possible)
  • their sexual orientation (for example, you are in a same-sex relationship, and same-sex relationships are not accepted, or same-sex marriage is illegal where they live),
  • persecution (for example, your relationship is between different religious groups which is not accepted and they may be punished legally or socially)

You’ll need to give proof that you could not live together or get married in your conjugal partner’s country (for example, proof of refused long-term stays in each other’s country).

Dependent children
Children qualify as dependants if they meet both of these requirements:

• they’re under 22 years old
• they don’t have a spouse or common-law partner

Children 22 years old or older qualify as dependants if they meet both of these requirements:

• they are unable to financially support themselves because of a mental or physical condition
• they have depended on their parents for financial support since before the age of 22

With the exception of age, your dependent child must continue to meet these requirements until we finish processing your application.

If they qualify as a dependent child, you can sponsor

• your own child
  • If you’re a Canadian citizen, your child may also be a Canadian citizen, even if they weren’t born in Canada. You can’t sponsor your child for permanent residence if they’re Canadian citizens already. 
  • If you’re sponsoring just your child, without sponsoring your spouse or partner, you’ll name your child as the principal applicant in the application. You’ll have to show that the other parent or legal guardian agrees to your child immigrating to Canada. 
  • If the child you want to sponsor has a child of their own (your grandchild), you’ll include your grandchild as a dependant in the application.
  • If you want to sponsor your adopted child or an orphaned family member, follow the instructions to sponsor your adopted child or orphaned family member instead.

• your spouse or partner and their child
  • If you’re sponsoring your spouse or partner and a child (either their own child or a child you’ve had together), you’ll name your spouse or partner as the principal applicant and the child as the dependant in the application.
  • If the child you want to sponsor has a child of their own, you’ll include the grandchild as a dependant in the application.

Eligibility of the people you’re sponsoring
To show they meet the eligibility requirements, your spouse, partner, dependent child and their dependent children (if applicable) must provide:

• all required forms and documents with their application
• any additional information we request during processing, including
  • medical exams
  • biometrics