With all the negative publicity Nigeria has been attracting, it has become a growing trend among Nigerians to be on the look out or in search of “greener pastures” in other countries.
Canada has been the most popular on the radar of immigrants all over the world, and popularly with Nigerians because Canada offers immigration programs that offers permanent residency with different options.
Canada
If you do not know, Canada is the second largest country by landmass in the world and the 38th most populated in the world (Even Nigeria that does not have that much land area is about 5 times more populated than Canada).
Canada is located in North America and shares a border with the United States of America. Canada has ten provinces, and its capital is Ottawa.
Canada Permanent Resident Programs
Canada offers many programs which allows a person to apply for permanent residence and these programs have different requirements. These programs are in four major categories and they are:
- Economic Immigration Program
- Business Immigration Program
- Family Sponsorship Program’
- Humanitarian and Refugee Pathways
Family Sponsorship Program
For the sake of this article, we will be discussing the Family Sponsorship Program. Relatives of a person in Canada can now get easy entry to Canada to live, study and work in Canada with permanent residency. Only persons 18 years and older who permanently resides in Canada or is a Canadian citizen can sponsor relatives. Any of your family member 18 years and older can sponsor relatives, partners, siblings, parents and even adopted children to Canada under this program. This means only persons with relatives in Canada can get access through this program. The program covers:
- Partner or Dependent Children Sponsorship: This program covers husbands sponsoring wives or the other way round, parents sponsoring children and even grandchildren.
- Parents and Grandparents: This program covers children sponsoring their parents or grandparents.
- Sponsor your relatives: This program covers sponsoring relatives and must be able to prove their relationship with documented evidence or medical examination.
- Sponsor your adopted child: This program covers sponsorship of adopted children which must be backed with legal documentation from the adoption process.
Sponsors must meet requirements which include:
- must be 18 years and older,
- must be a permanent resident or citizen of Canada,
- must be able to provide basic needs for any person(s) you want to sponsor,
- must not be receiving social assistance for reasons other than disability,
- must not have been sponsored by a previous spouse and became a permanent resident less than 5 years ago, and,
- must not be currently financially responsible for a previous spouse or child.
Also, persons who have applied to sponsor a spouse or child must not:
- have already applied to sponsor the spouse, parent or child you are currently seeking to sponsor and a decision on that application has not been made,
- have been convicted, in jail, prison or penitentiary,
- have defaulted in paying back any kind of loan,
- have defaulted in giving financial support when you signed a sponsorship agreement to sponsor someone else in the past,
- have been declared bankrupt.
Who can apply?
Persons that are to be sponsored must be able to prove their relationships. Medical examinations will be carried out for parents and children. Partner or spouse will require to prove with any supporting documents that legally binds them. Dependent children must be under 22 years of age and not older and if they do not have a partner. If they are above 22 years of age, they can only be considered as dependents if they are unable to support themselves because of a mental or physical condition.
Processing time for new applications are expected to take up to 12 months until a decision is made.
