Sponsor your Family to Immigrate to Canada

Canada welcomes more than 100,000 immigrants through family sponsorship each year. 

IRCC welcomes about 80 per cent of these immigrants under the Spouses, Partners, and Children Program, and the remaining 20 per cent under the Parents and Grandparents Program. This comprehensive CanadaVisa page provides an overview on how to sponsor your family for immigration to Canada.

Find out if you are eligible to sponsor your family

Table of Contents

Overview of Canadian Immigration Family Sponsorship

Family reunification is one of the pillars of Canada’s immigration system. Since the end of the Second World War, Canada has sought to welcome immigrants to strengthen its economy, bring families together, and on humanitarian and compassionate grounds. The family class is the second largest category of newcomers welcomed by Canada under its Immigration Levels Plan. 

The country’s immigration system is managed by the Department of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada or IRCC for short. IRCC establishes and administers Canada’s family sponsorship program. This entails establishing program criteria, accepting and reviewing family sponsorship applications, and providing permanent and temporary resident visas.

What is Canadian family sponsorship?

There are two main aspects to sponsorship:

1) It allows your family member to immigrate to Canada and get permanent residence (PR).

2) It requires you, as an individual, to make a commitment to provide for basic needs and to support that person financially.

Can I be a sponsor?

To sponsor a family member, you are required to meet several requirements such as being:

  • a Canadian citizen or permanent resident of Canada
  • 18 years of age or older
  • able to support the sponsored person for several years

Who can I sponsor?

  • Spouses and common-law partners
  • Dependent children
  • Parents and grandparents

There are exceptions to this rule, however, and it may be possible to sponsor a non-immediate family member (for example, a sister, niece, or uncle) if: 

  • you do not have any other immediate family members you could sponsor, or
  • you have legally adopted them and they meet the definition of a dependent child.

What are the income requirements to sponsor?

As a sponsor, you are required to sign a Sponsorship Agreement with your sponsored family member. This is a commitment by you to provide financial support for the basic needs (food, clothing, shelter, and health needs not covered by public health services) of the person you are sponsoring.

For some types of sponsorships, you will also have to meet or exceed the Low Income Cut-off (LICO), for instance if:

  • you are sponsoring a spouse or partner who has a dependent child and that dependent child has one or more children of their own, or
  • you are sponsoring a dependent child who has one or more dependent children of their own, or
  • you are sponsoring a parent or grandparent.

If you reside in Quebec, you will have to meet Quebec’s sponsorship requirements and your income will be assessed by the Quebec immigration ministry.