Family Sponsorship Canada — Licensed RCIC
Family reunification is one of the cornerstones of Canada's immigration system. Canadian citizens, permanent residents, and Registered Indians can sponsor eligible family members to become permanent residents of Canada — allowing them to live, work, and study here permanently. The sponsorship process is more complex than most people expect, and the consequences of errors, missing documentation, or eligibility issues on either side of the application can derail a case that should be straightforward.
As a sponsor, you are making a legally binding commitment. When you sign an undertaking as part of a sponsorship application, you are promising to financially support the person you are sponsoring for a defined period — even if your circumstances change, the relationship ends, or the sponsored person receives government assistance. Understanding what you are committing to before you apply is as important as understanding whether you are eligible to sponsor.
At Magellan Immigration, we guide Canadian citizens and permanent residents through the full range of family sponsorship applications — assessing eligibility on both sides, preparing complete and accurate applications, and addressing the complications that can arise from prior refusals, inadmissibility concerns, and previous sponsorship undertakings.
Who Can Sponsor
To be eligible to sponsor a family member for permanent residence, you must be a Canadian citizen, permanent resident, or Registered Indian who is at least 18 years of age. You must be living in Canada when you submit your application — permanent residents living outside Canada cannot sponsor. You must also not be subject to any of the bars or restrictions that prevent sponsorship, including:
Being sponsored by a spouse or partner yourself and having become a permanent resident less than five years ago — the five-year sponsorship bar prevents you from sponsoring a new spouse or partner during this period
Having sponsored a previous spouse or partner where fewer than three years have passed since they became a permanent resident
Having defaulted on a previous undertaking where the sponsored person received social assistance
Being in default of a government loan
Having been convicted of certain offences involving bodily harm to family members
Being subject to a removal order
Being incarcerated
Who You Can Sponsor
The family members you can sponsor for permanent residence fall into three main categories:
Spouses, Common-Law Partners, and Conjugal Partners You can sponsor your spouse, common-law partner, or conjugal partner for permanent residence — whether they are living with you in Canada or living abroad. If your spouse or partner is living with you in Canada, you may apply through the Spouse or Common-Law Partner in Canada (SCLPC) class, and your partner may be eligible for an open work permit while the application is being processed.
Dependent Children You can sponsor your dependent children or the dependent children of your spouse or partner. A dependent child is generally defined as a child under 22 years of age who is not in a conjugal relationship, or a child 22 years of age or older who has depended substantially on a parent financially since before the age of 22 due to a physical or mental condition.
Parents and Grandparents You can sponsor your parents and grandparents through the Parent and Grandparent Program (PGP) — however, this program operates through a capped intake process and is not continuously open. New intake rounds are unpredictable and heavily oversubscribed. The PGP was closed to new applications for all of 2026. The Super Visa is the primary alternative for families who want to bring parents or grandparents to Canada while waiting for a future PGP intake.
Other Relatives In limited circumstances, you may be able to sponsor other relatives — such as a brother, sister, nephew, niece, or grandchild — if you do not have any of the family members listed above who you could otherwise sponsor, and the relative you want to sponsor has no close relatives of their own in Canada.
The Undertaking
When you sponsor a family member, you must sign an undertaking — a legally binding promise to the Government of Canada that you will financially support the person you are sponsoring and ensure they do not need to rely on government social assistance. The undertaking period varies:
Spouse or common-law partner — 3 years from the date they become a permanent resident
Dependent child — 10 years or until the child turns 25, whichever comes first
Parents and grandparents — 20 years from the date they become a permanent resident
If the person you sponsor receives social assistance during the undertaking period, you are required to repay those amounts to the government — and you cannot sponsor anyone else until that debt is repaid.
Income Requirements
For most spousal and dependent child sponsorships there is no income requirement — you simply need to demonstrate that you can meet the basic needs of the person you are sponsoring. However, an income requirement does apply if you are sponsoring a dependent child who has one or more children of their own, or a spouse or partner who has a dependent child with children of their own.
For Parent and Grandparent sponsorships, a specific Minimum Necessary Income (MNI) threshold must be met for each of the three consecutive tax years before the date of your application. This is assessed based on your family size, which includes all family members — including those not coming to Canada.
What We Do
Assess sponsor eligibility including undertaking bars, conviction bars, and income requirements
Assess the sponsored person's admissibility including health, criminal, and misrepresentation concerns
Advise on inland vs outland spousal sponsorship and open work permit eligibility
Prepare and submit complete sponsorship and permanent residence applications
Advise on Parent and Grandparent Program intake timing and Super Visa as an alternative
Handle sponsorship refusals and Immigration Appeal Division appeals