Canada is a great place that will provide families with a better quality of life. Therefore, it shouldn’t be surprising why so many residents want to bring their families to this country as soon as possible. As long as you meet the criteria to sponsor your family members, you can bring your family members to Canada through family sponsorship.
If you have yet to process your family sponsorship, you can always contact a professional lawyer at total.law to help you with your application. After all, a professional can help you sort out legal matters and other concerns regarding your family sponsorship.
Now, just in case you don’t know, here are the following requirements you need to meet to become an eligible sponsor. Here they are:
- Must provide proof that you can give financial support to the family you’re sponsoring
- Must be 18 years old and above
- Must not be jailed or indicted with a serious offense
- Must not be suffering from bankruptcy
- Not assigned with a removal order (for permanent residents)
- Must live in Canada and prove their intent to stay in the country once the sponsored family members enter the country
- Must be willing to support the sponsored members until a particular period while also ensuring that these members also create efforts to support themselves
Now, this begs the question: how soon can you get your family to live in Canada? Here are a few factors that can affect family sponsorship processing times below.
Who are the Family Members You’re Sponsoring
Your processing date begins right after you turn in your complete application. From there, you simply have to wait for the embassy to make a decision about your application. Depending on the family member you’re sponsoring, the length of the processing can vary. Based on the relationship with the family member you’re sponsoring, the process can take longer or shorter.
In general, Canadian Immigration takes up to twelve months or more to process various applications. In addition, multiple factors can affect processing times for different applications. Here they are below:
Factors Affecting Processing Times for Applications
- The total duration you require to hand out your biometrics
- The evaluation is done for the sponsor and the family member being sponsored
- The course needed to ensure that you meet all the stated criteria for sponsorship
Other than the following factors above, your application’s processing time can also be affected by the following factors:
- The kind of application you sent
- If the application you turned in is complete or incomplete
- How fast applications get processed by the embassy
- How quickly your details can get verified
- How quickly you respond to matters related to your application
- Other factors
Moreover, the Canadian embassy favors applications with complete documentation. Therefore, you must submit accurate information and include all the required documents. This will make sure that your application has better chances of getting approved.
Approximate Processing Times Per Family Member
You’re now aware of the following factors affecting specific application processing times. Next, let’s find out the approximate processing times per family member. As previously mentioned, the Canadian Embassy takes a minimum of twelve months to process each application. However, the time needed has taken much longer due to the pandemic.
- Spouse or common-law partner residing within Canada: 12 months
- Spouse or common-law partner residing outside of Canada: 12 months
- Dependent children: Depends on the country where the dependent child/children are coming from
- Grandparents and parents: 20 to 24 months
- Adopted children or other relatives: 28 months
Again, these processing times are just an estimate and can still vary depending on your type of application. Furthermore, processing times are also affected based on the total number of people that apply for immigration to Canada. If this number ends up being higher than what the Canadian embassy can accommodate, then you can expect longer processing times.
Final Takeaways
In general, it will take at least twelve months or more before you can get your family to live with you in Canada. It also depends on the family members you’re sponsoring as well. If you’re having problems dealing with your application, you can always reach out to a professional lawyer. After all, they can significantly help you with all your application concerns.
Moreover, there are chances that your application might end up unsuccessful even with the most minimal errors. With that being said, getting legal help might be your best bet to ensure that your application is filled correctly and includes all the necessary documentation. Therefore, with the aid of legal professionals, you can ensure that your sponsorship application gets submitted with excellent chances for approval.