Live With Your Dependent Child in Canada
It is everyone’s wish to spend their life close to their family, and especially every parent’s wish to spend their lives close enough to their children, to watch them grow and succeed into adults. The Canadian government recognizes this wish, and has created a group of family class sponsorship programs, to help family members reunite. Particularly, they recognize the dire need for parents to be able to reunite with their children, especially if they are still dependents, therefore, this program is given high priority among the family class sponsorship programs. In this article, I will discuss the process of sponsoring a child to come to Canada.
First Step: Ensure You Are an Eligible Sponsor
To be eligible to sponsor anyone to come to Canada, you must meet the requirements of an eligible sponsor. This means, you must be a permanent resident of Canada and at least 18 years of age. Also, you must be financially stable enough to support your child for the length of the undertaking you have committed to by sponsoring your child. There is no low income cut-off (LICO) level you must meet to be eligible to sponsor and dependent child, unless the dependent child also has children of their own. Though, as a sponsor, you have committed to a 10 year undertaking, or, you have agreed to support the child’s basic needs until they turn 25, whichever comes first. To be completely clear, taking on an undertaking means you have agreed to pay for your child’s basic necessities while they are in Canada. This means providing food, water, shelter, and health care which is not publicly provided such as dental and eye care. Additionally, you are responsible for ensuring the child does not receive social assistance while they are in Canada, or, receive any fines which go unpaid from Canadian government authorities. Therefore, ultimately, the financial requirement states you must be financially stable enough to support another human, though; there is no official LICO requirement.