Group Sponsoring

There are many Canadian citizens who want to know whether they could sponsor to Canada their siblings still remaining in their country of birth.

Under Canadian immigration law, only those within the ‘family class’ can be sponsored. And those falling in this category are: spouses, dependent children, adopted children, parents, grandparents, orphans and ‘other relatives’. For an extended explanation of the Family Class, please refer to backgrounder on Family Class Immigration.

But there have been questions whether the remaining siblings who are married with children could be sponsored. Some say there the option is available under Group Sponsoring. When this question was put to Ravi Jain, an immigration lawyer in Toronto, he says there is no way a married sibling could be sponsored under a category called ‘group sponsoring’.

The only way a married sibling could come to Canada would be through the skilled worker system.

Group of 5 (G5)

But the Canadian government has an avenue open for refugees to be sponsored. Called Group of 5, or G5, this allows a group of five or more Canadian citizens, or those with permanent residence, to sponsor a refugee. The person to be sponsored should fulfil the criteria for refugee under Canadian refugee law or the UN convention on refugees. Generally, the refugee should be able to prove he or she has a well founded fear of being prosecuted because of race, religion etc, and should be living outside the country of birth (where he or she fears persecution). For more information, go to the Citizenship and Immigration Canada website’s section on G5 sponsorship.