Phone: 416-477-2545 || E: info@TheVisa.ca || Book a Consultation
If you would like to sponsor a refugee, you would need to meet certain requirements to be eligible. First and foremost, in order to sponsor a refugee, you will need to be a group of five or more Canadian citizens, Registered Indians, or permanent residents who are 18 years of age or older and who live (or have representatives) in the community where the refugees are expected to live. The Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada refer to this group of people as the Group of Five. Similar to any other types of sponsorship, sponsors are obligated to arrange necessary settlement to financially support the principal applicant (the refugee) for the full duration of the sponsorship. The sponsors are also responsible for fulfilling the terms of the Sponsorship Undertaking. In this blog, you will specifically learn about the financial responsibility of the sponsors.
If you are a person who has been convicted in or outside Canada of murder or other offences, and five years have not passed since the completion of the person’s sentence, then you are ineligible to sponsor a refugee. A person who has not paid fines ordered by a court, is in jail, is subject to a removal order, or is subject to a revocation proceeding under the Citizenship Act, also fails to qualify as an eligible sponsor.
As previously mentioned, you will need to have sufficient funds to support the principal applicant. Needless to say, the funds cannot come from the refugees.
As a crucial part of the application, you are required to submit adequate information and evidence to demonstrate that you have sufficient financial means to fulfill the settlement plan. The ROC-O officer will review the forms and all the financial documents you submitted to assess your financial capacity to sponsor. If the ROC-O officer find you do not have enough money for the sponsorship, your application will be refused.
As a G5 sponsor, you have three options to demonstrate that you have the necessary funds for your sponsorship:
If your group decides to submit funds in trust, you must provide an original letter, which was issued within six months of the date you submit your application, from a financial institution attesting to the bank account details. On the letter, be sure to include name of the Canadian financial institution, names of the account holders (minimum of two), account number, current account balance, and the signature/stamp of the employee of the financial institution. Apart from the letter, you must also provide the most recent account statements signed and stamped by an employee of the financial institution. The statement must indicate the account number, account holders’ names and branch information.
There are many ways by which you can gather the funds, and it is important for you to explain it in your application. For example, you might have gathered the funds with fund raising activities. Next, you will need to provide proof of how the funds were obtained. This information can be obtained from details of deposits, bank statements, statements from fund raising activities, and so on.
On the other hand, if the funds come from a group member, you must provide proof of income. Please note, if your group members’ personal income is the only means for the financial support, you are required to have at least three sponsors who can contribute towards the financial commitment.
In order to prove your group has enough funds, you will need to provide Notice of Assessment issued by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). Alternatively, ROC-O officers also consider the following documents:
As a sponsor, you are obligated to provide income support to at least the equivalent amount that is provided by the Resettlement Assistance Program (RAP) in the expected community of settlement. The main goal is to help the refugee become self-sufficient. That being said, you need to provide the refugee with both financial and non-financial support (including start-up costs) for up to 12 months or until the refugee becomes self-sufficient, whichever comes first.
If your refugee sponsorship is made under the Blended Visa Office Referred (BVOR), you need to provide the refugee with both financial and non-financial support up to 6 months or until the refugee becomes self-sufficient, whichever comes first.
If the refugee becomes financially self-sufficient within the 12-month sponsorship period, your sponsoring group is no longer required to provide financial support to the refugee. However, if the refugee fails to be self-sufficient, your sponsoring group must start supporting the refugee again for the remaining length of the sponsorship.
Should you have any further questions or feel confused or unclear about how to sponsor a refugee or apply for refugee status, it is important to talk about any questions you may have and discuss your concerns. By talking to immigration professionals about your concerns, this will ease your worries and assist with the application process. Many immigration applications are difficult to pursue on your own and it is highly recommended that you seek out professional and experienced help before attempting to apply. Here, at Akrami & Associates, we work and have experience with many different immigration issues. We have helped our clients sponsor refugees or apply for refugee status in Canada. Please feel free to contact Akrami & Associates at 416-477-2545 for more information, or if you would like to book a consultation with an immigration professional for more advise.
With Akrami & Associates, there is always a way!
