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The “Family Class” of immigrants has long been a preferred
means to bring family members to Canada who would otherwise be
ineligible for permanent residence. This “Class” of
immigrants is restricted to spouses, fiancé (s), parents,
grandparents and dependent children. This means that you
cannot sponsor brothers or sisters unless they are included in
a sponsorship of your parents as dependants. This can include
overage (19 years of age or over) siblings if they have
maintained their educational pursuits on a full time basis –
provided no more than a lapse of one year has occurred during
the continuation of their formal education.
In
order to sponsor family members for permanent residence in
Canada within this class, you must meet a “Low Income Cut
Off” (or LICO). You
can find general details at www.cic.gc.ca
or if
you wish to go directly to the “Family Class” website, you
can do so at www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigr/index2.html#family.
The LICO amount needed is dependent on the number of members
presently in your family in addition to the number of the
persons sponsored. The sponsor must present an annual income
to immigration authorities i.e. from employment, interest or
investment income etc. The presentation of “general assets”
to demonstrate you have the financial means to support your
sponsored family members will not be accepted as the
Immigration Department only accepts annual income, as shown on
the sponsor’s Notice of Assessment, issued by the Canada
Customs and Revenue Agency (CCRA).
For
many countries of Southeast Asia (India, Singapore, Malaysia
and Taiwan to name a few), Citizenship and Immigration Canada
has initiated a new process or “joint application package”
in an effort to streamline Family Class sponsorships. The new
application package includes a sponsorship form, an immigrant
application form and a medical form. This sponsorship package
is only available to sponsors in Canada. With this process,
the sponsor sends
the application forms to the relative(s) abroad. The completed
application is returned to the sponsor with all supporting
documents. The sponsor will then submit the application to the
Case Processing Centre in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. To
further speed up processing, the sponsored relative(s) should
complete the medical examination before the application is
submitted to the Case Processing Centre. This new and
streamlined sponsorship process does not apply to children who
are to be adopted.
Citizenship
and Immigration Canada states that “half of the applications
submitted under this new process will be randomly selected for
appraisal in Canada”. The applications that are correctly
completed and free of complications will be processed to visa
issuance, within Canada. Applications deemed to require
personal interviews and/or clarifications will be forwarded to
the applicable overseas visa office, thus incurring a much
lengthier processing period. If you are unsure if your
application is properly completed, refer to your local
immigration professional for assistance; it may save you
months of unnecessary delay.
*
Rick
Howat
Upon completion of economics studies in university, Mr. Howat
thereafter joined the Citizenship and Immigration department
where he acted as a Senior Immigration Officer and supervisor.
After five years of employ with the Immigration department,
pending a one-year hiatus, Mr. Howat established his own
immigration consulting practice. More recently, Mr. Howat
assumed the position of V.P. Marketing and Development with
First Entrepreneur Enterprises, developing and promoting
business immigration programs in Canada.
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