How to Sponsor Your Parents and Grandparents

You must meet the income requirements for all the people you want to sponsor and their dependants (spouse, partner and children).

The people you sponsor must also be eligible

To show they meet the eligibility requirements, your parents and grandparents and their dependants must provide

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

Examples of who you can sponsor

See the examples below to better understand who you can sponsor.

Example 1: Sponsoring your mother and father, together as a couple

You can sponsor your parents together if they are a couple (married or in a common-law relationship). On the application, you must designate one of them (either your mother or your father) as the main applicant, called the principal applicant. The other will be designated as a dependant.

• If you designate your mother as the principal applicant, your father will be the dependant.
• If you designate your father as the principal applicant, your mother will be the dependant.

If you have brothers or sisters, you can include them in the application only if they qualify as dependent children. If they’re older than the age limit or they don’t meet all the requirements, they can’t be added to your parents’ application as dependent children. They’ll have to immigrate on their own if they want to live in Canada.

Example 2: Sponsoring your father, your stepmother and their son

You can sponsor your father, his spouse and their son (your half-brother). On the application, your father must be the main applicant, called the principal applicant, because he’s related to you. Your step mother can’t be the principal applicant. She’ll be listed as your father’s dependant. Your stepbrother can be added as a dependant only if he qualifies as a dependent child.

Example 3: Sponsoring your grandparents, your mother and your stepfather

In this situation, you’ll have to submit 2 separate sponsorship applications: 1 per couple.

On your grandparents’ application, you must designate one of them (either your grandmother or your grandfather) as the main applicant, called the principal applicant. The other will be designated as a dependant.

• If you designate your grandmother as the principal applicant, your grandfather will be the dependant.
• If you designate your grandfather as the principal applicant, your grandmother will be the dependant.

On your mother’s application, your mother must be the principal applicant, because she’s related to you. Her spouse can’t be the principal applicant. He’ll be listed as your mother’s dependant.

Who you can’t sponsor

You can’t sponsor

• your spouse’s parents and grandparents (your in-laws)
  • however, you can be a co-signer on your in-laws’ application
• someone who is inadmissible to Canada (someone who is not allowed to come to Canada)

Can I have a co-signer?

Your spouse or common-law partner may be a co-signer on the sponsorship application. Your combined gross income may help you meet the income requirements. You and your co-signer must each provide proof of income from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) for the 3 consecutive taxation years immediately preceding the date of the sponsorship application.

If you live in Quebec, see if you meet the provincial income requirements, as the Quebec ministry in charge of immigration will assess your income.

The co-signer must

• meet the same eligibility requirements as the sponsor
• agree to co-sign the undertaking
• agree to be responsible for the basic requirements of the person they want to sponsor and their family members for the validity period of the undertaking

The co-signer will be equally liable if obligations are not performed.

If your co-signer is your common-law partner, you must submit the Statutory Declaration of Common-Law Union [IMM 5409] (PDF, 0.78 MB) by uploading the document to your online application. This document must be signed by hand by the sponsor, co-signer and the administrator of the declaration.

NOTE: Siblings cannot jointly sponsor their parents’ immigration to Canada. Only a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident can sponsor their parents for immigration. However, if both siblings are Canadian citizens or permanent residents, they can each apply to sponsor their parents separately.

Submit the interest to sponsor form

We aren’t accepting any more applications for the 2022 process
For the 2022 process, we invited 23,100 potential sponsors from the remaining pool of 155,313 potential sponsors who submitted an interest to sponsor form in 2020. The deadline to apply has now passed.

If you were able to submit your interest to sponsor form in 2020
If you were able to submit the interest to sponsor form in 2020, you saw a page with a confirmation number. We asked you to write down this number so you can use it later.

We also sent you an email with the confirmation number to let you know we got your interest to sponsor form.