Bringing families together is at the heart of what we do. Canada's family class immigration programs are designed to reunite Canadians and permanent residents with their loved ones.
Family immigration is personal. You may be trying to sponsor a spouse, parent, grandparent, child, or another eligible relative while dealing with distance, deadlines, financial questions, and proof requirements.
This service is for families who want help understanding which sponsorship route fits their relationship and how to prepare a complete, well-organized application.
Canada values the importance of family and recognizes the significance of keeping families together. RA Migration helps sponsors and applicants prepare clear, complete family-class applications while avoiding the mistakes that often lead to delays, returned files, or refusals.
Canada offers sponsorship options for spouses, common-law partners, and conjugal partners. Same-sex partners are treated the same as opposite-sex partners, and the sponsored person must be in a genuine relationship with the sponsor, not in a relationship entered into mainly for immigration status.
To be eligible to sponsor, you must:
Spousal sponsorship can be processed in two ways:
If your spouse or partner is already living in Canada, you may apply from inside Canada. Eligible applicants can also apply for an open work permit after their permanent residence file is accepted for processing.
If your spouse or partner is outside Canada, the application is processed while they remain abroad and they become permanent residents once the application is approved and final steps are completed.
Canada recognizes common-law and conjugal partners as well as same-sex partners. If your situation involves cohabitation history, relationship barriers, previous refusals, or complicated proof of relationship, we help you build the evidence package properly before you submit.
The Parents and Grandparents Program (PGP) allows eligible Canadians and permanent residents to sponsor their biological or adopted parents and grandparents for permanent residence. Because demand is high, the program operates through an invitation-based intake process when IRCC opens a round.
If IRCC opens a new round, you generally need to be invited before you can submit a complete PGP application. The sponsor must show the required income for the relevant tax years and the parents or grandparents being sponsored must still meet medical, criminal, and security requirements.
| Program Step | What It Means |
|---|---|
| Invitation to apply | You must usually be invited by IRCC before submitting a full PGP application. |
| Income review | Your income is assessed against the current sponsor requirements for your family size and the applicable tax years. |
| Undertaking | You commit to financially support your parents or grandparents for 20 years outside Quebec. |
| Admissibility | Your parents or grandparents must pass medical, criminal, and security screening. |
If the PGP intake is closed or you are not invited, the Super Visa is often the best alternative. It currently allows eligible parents and grandparents to visit Canada for up to 5 years at a time and can be valid for up to 10 years. Learn more about the Super Visa.
Canada allows sponsorship of other relatives only in very specific situations. This is a limited category, and the sponsor must meet strict eligibility rules before IRCC will accept the case.
You may sponsor an orphaned brother, sister, nephew, niece, or grandchild only if they are related to you by blood or adoption, are under 18, are single, and both parents are deceased.
You may be able to sponsor one relative of any age if you do not have a living close relative you could sponsor instead and you do not have another qualifying relative in Canada who is a citizen, permanent resident, or registered Indian.
For this category, sponsors must be at least 18, live in Canada, meet the income rules, and sign an undertaking to support the relative for the required period.
Even if a relative qualifies for sponsorship, they can still be refused if they are inadmissible to Canada for medical, criminal, security, or misrepresentation reasons. If there are any concerns about admissibility, it is important to assess the case before filing.
Family immigration applications involve detailed documentation and strict eligibility requirements. A mistake can result in delays, refusals, or bans on re-applying. Our regulated consultants ensure your application is complete, accurate, and compelling.
We prepare and review every document to ensure nothing is missing or inconsistent, which is a common reason for refusals.
We track current processing times and submission windows to ensure your application is submitted at the right time through the right channel.
We guide you on how to properly document the genuineness of your relationship, a critical factor in spousal sponsorship decisions.
If a previous application was refused, we analyze the refusal reasons and build a stronger case for reapplication or appeal.
Family sponsorship files must explain real relationships through documents that are clear and consistent. RA Migration understands that each family situation is different and that the right evidence depends on the specific sponsorship category.
We help review eligibility, organize forms and supporting documents, identify missing information, and prepare the application so the relationship and sponsor details are easier to follow. We give honest guidance without promising an outcome.
If your goal is to reunite with family in Canada, RA Migration can help you prepare with care, structure, and attention to detail.
Canadian citizens and permanent residents can sponsor a spouse, common-law or conjugal partner, dependent children, and parents and grandparents. Other relatives only in narrow circumstances.
The categories are defined and there is no general "family" sponsorship. Siblings, aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews cannot normally be sponsored. The limited exceptions are orphaned close relatives under specific conditions, and the one-relative provision available to sponsors who have no other living relative to sponsor.
Inland applies when the sponsored spouse is in Canada with valid status; outland is processed through a visa office abroad and can be used whether or not the applicant is in Canada.
The practical trade-offs matter more than the labels. Inland applicants may be eligible for an open work permit while waiting, but leaving Canada during processing carries risk. Outland applicants generally retain the right to appeal a refusal to the Immigration Appeal Division, which inland applicants do not. Neither is universally better, and the choice should be made deliberately.
Generally no. Spousal and dependent-child sponsorship does not carry a minimum income requirement, unlike parent and grandparent sponsorship.
You do sign an undertaking to provide for your spouse’s basic needs, and being in receipt of social assistance other than for disability can make you ineligible. Parent and grandparent sponsorship is the category with the formal income test, which is LICO plus 30 percent across three consecutive tax years.
A common-law partner is someone you have lived with in a conjugal relationship for at least 12 consecutive months.
The 12 months must be continuous. Short absences for work or family reasons are generally acceptable, but a genuine separation restarts the clock. Evidence has to place you at the same address across that period, which usually means joint tenancy or ownership, shared accounts and correspondence, rather than photographs alone. Couples who cannot meet the cohabitation requirement because of immigration or legal barriers may fall into the conjugal partner category, which is narrow and evidence-heavy.
With documents that independently show a shared life over time, rather than with a single certificate or a large number of photographs.
The strongest evidence tends to be third-party and dated: joint leases or mortgages, shared financial accounts, insurance and benefit designations, correspondence to a common address, travel records showing time together, and communication records spanning the relationship. Officers are assessing whether the relationship is genuine and was not entered into primarily for immigration purposes, so continuity matters more than volume.
Canadian citizens can, provided they demonstrate they will return to live in Canada when the sponsored person becomes a permanent resident. Permanent residents cannot: they must be residing in Canada to sponsor.
A citizen sponsoring from abroad should be prepared to show concrete plans to return, such as employment arrangements, housing or other evidence. Intention alone, stated without support, is a common reason these applications run into difficulty.
RA Migration serves clients across Ontario and Quebec, online and in person from our Burlington office, with Arabic-speaking service.
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Every community we serve across Ontario & Quebec.
Each of these has its own page with the specifics, the evidence required, and the mistakes that cause refusals.
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