Live With Your Dependent Child in Canada

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.

There are a variety of reasons you could be ineligible as a sponsor. These include but are not limited to the following:

• You may have defaulted on a previous undertaking
• You may have outstanding fines, family support payments, or other financial obligations, ect.
• You may be in a jail, or prison, or on probation
• You may receive social assistance yourself (excluding disability assistance), or have declared bankruptcy
• You may have become a permanent resident or Canadian citizen in the past 5 years
• You may have sponsored someone in the past 3 years

Second Step: Preparing Your Application to Sponsor Your Child

After determining you are eligible to sponsor your child, it is important to determine whether your child is eligible to be sponsored. There are a variety of things which could disqualify someone as a principal applicant, as a dependent child. This includes but is not limited to the following:

• The child is not legally considered a dependent,
• The child is inadmissible to Canada for some reason; criminal history, complicated medical history, or having misrepresented themselves in the past

Once you are sure your child is eligible to be sponsored as a dependent child through the family class sponsorship program, it is essential to ensure you submit a complete and strong application, to give yourself the best possible chance of reuniting as a family. This will mean demonstrating that your child is dependent on you, and it is in the child’s best interests to be with their family in Canada. The Canadian government places a strong emphasis on the “best interests of the child,” following the lead of the United Nations, therefore, this applications which can demonstrate it is in the child’s best interests to be with his/her family are fairly strong. However, it is important to understand immigration officers can refuse your application for any reason they see fit. So, even if you have a strong application, an officer may have a reason to be concerned about granting your child permanent residency and your application may be refused. In these cases, the reason for refusal will be clearly communicated to both the principal applicant and the sponsor, as well as the potential next steps for families who wish to appeal the decision and have their applications reconsidered.

The Overall Application Process

It is important to understand the application process as a whole. Above, I have broken it down. Though it may seem as if there are two separate applications, in reality, the application to sponsor your dependent child contains two halves of one application, which make up a whole. The first half of the application is essentially an application to sponsor another individual. Therefore, subject to the requirements set out above, sponsor will either be deemed eligible or ineligible to sponsor their family member. With this first part of the application, there is a small $75CAD non-refundable processing fee. Then, if you are approved as a sponsor, there is a $75CAD processing fee for the second half of the application as well; where they assess the principal applicant for permanent resident status. Please note, these fees are only for a dependent child under 22. If you wish to sponsor an overage dependent child, the processing fee to assess the sponsor’s eligibility remains the same, while the fee to assess the principal applicant becomes $475CAD.

Contact Akrami and Associates

It is essential that you have taken all of the aforementioned factors and information into consideration before you attempt to apply to sponsor your dependent child and help them achieve permanent residency in Canada. If you want to apply for permanent residency in Canada, it is extremely important to note that these are difficult applications to pursue on your own. It is highly recommended that you seek out professional and experienced help before attempting to submit the application. Here, at Akrami & Associates, we work and have experience with many different immigration issues. We have helped many of our clients gain permanent residency in Canada though different programs and they are now happily living within Canada. If you believe that you may be eligible for permanent residency, please feel free to contact Akrami & Associates at our office at 416-477-2545 for more information or if you would like to book a consultation with an immigration professional for more advise.

With Akrami & Associates, there is always a way!