Family Sponsorship

Family reunification is one of the three pillars of CIC’s immigration program. Canadian immigration policy and legislation have a long tradition of supporting family reunification, which permits both recent immigrants and long-established Canadians to be reunited with members of their family. Under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations (IRPR), family living abroad may be sponsored as well as spouses or common-law partners living in Canada with their sponsor. Persons who can be sponsored in the family class include the spouse, common-law partner (including same-sex partner), conjugal partner, dependent children, parents, grand-parents, children adopted from abroad, and other relatives in special circumstances.