Case Study #3

Sometimes you wish that you could change Canadian immigration law in order to help someone who comes to speak with you. That's just not how it works though, and immigration isn't always as fair or accommodating as we would like it to be.

Someone came to me recently asking whether she could sponsor her brother to Canada. The facts of her case were: -she lived in Canada with her husband and two children.

-the person she wished to sponsor wasn't actually her brother; he was her step-brother.

-her step-brother was 15 and lived with his mother (the step-mother of the person I was speaking to). Her step-mother had been married to her father, but her father was now deceased.

-Her step-mother had never legally adopted her.

This is where it became difficult. I would have loved to tell this woman that yes, she can sponsor her step-mother, and then her step-mother can also bring her step-brother as her dependent son. But unfortunately Canadian immigration law does not currently permit the sponsorship of step-parents if the biological parent is deceased (there is an exception, which is if the step-parent legally adopted the sponsor).

And so my answer was no, she could not sponsor her step-brother to Canada. This didn't mean that she couldn't try to have him visit, or that he couldn't apply to come to Canada as a student. But as a Permanent Resident, at least for now, the answer was no. It was a difficult answer to give, but it was the truth.

Happy March, everyone.

Thomas Sproat R515846

#familysponsorship #sponsorship #sponsor #stepparent #stepbrother