Overview
Understand the pathway before you act.
Eligibility, timing, evidence and risk should be assessed together before an application or response is prepared.
Family sponsorship beyond a spouse or partner can involve dependent children, adopted children, parents, grandparents or a narrow class of other relatives. Each route has its own eligibility, intake and evidence requirements. The sponsor’s undertaking, the family relationship and the applicant’s admissibility must be assessed together.
Dependent children
A biological or adopted child may qualify as a dependant under the current age, relationship and dependency rules. A child who may already be a Canadian citizen should be assessed for citizenship before a permanent-residence sponsorship application is started.
Where a child has another parent or legal guardian, custody, decision-making responsibility and consent to immigration can be central. Every family member who must be declared should be addressed even if that person is not accompanying the applicant.
Adopted children
Intercountry adoption cases combine provincial or territorial adoption requirements with federal immigration or citizenship requirements. The appropriate process can depend on whether the adoption is complete, where it took place, the child’s country of origin and whether immigration or direct citizenship processing is legally available.
The adoption must create a genuine parent-child relationship and satisfy the applicable legal requirements. Immigration planning should be coordinated with the adoption authority before irreversible steps or travel arrangements are made.
Parents and grandparents
The Parents and Grandparents Program uses controlled intake. As of 30 July 2026, new interest-to-sponsor forms and new invitations are paused until further notice while accepted applications continue to be processed. An older interest form does not by itself permit an application unless IRCC issues a valid invitation.
The Super Visa is a separate temporary-residence option for eligible parents and grandparents. It does not provide permanent residence and has its own host, income, insurance and admissibility requirements.
Intake status can change. Check the current IRCC program page before relying on a prior-year process, invitation or checklist.
Other eligible relatives
Sponsorship of relatives outside the usual spouse, child, parent or grandparent categories is limited. It may include certain orphaned relatives or, in a narrow situation, one other relative where the sponsor has no closer sponsorable relative and no qualifying relative in Canada.
The family tree, age, marital status, parentage, adoption history and Canadian status of other relatives should be documented before eligibility is assumed.
How Beyond Borders Law can help
- Identify the correct child, adoption, parent or relative category.
- Review sponsor eligibility, undertakings and family-relationship evidence.
- Coordinate custody, consent, adoption and citizenship questions.
- Prepare accepted sponsorship and permanent-residence applications.
- Direct a refusal, return or admissibility issue to the appropriate review pathway.
Gather the sponsor’s Canadian status and residence, complete family tree, birth, marriage, custody and adoption records, prior immigration applications, income records where required, invitation records for a parent or grandparent, and applicant identity, civil-status, medical and admissibility documents.
Official information: IRCC family sponsorship guidance, current parent and grandparent intake notice and other-relative eligibility.
This guide provides general information. An inquiry does not create a lawyer-client relationship. Advice and representation begin only after the firm confirms scope and a retainer is completed.