The family class immigration category in Canada was created to enable Canadian Citizens and Permanent Residents to reunite with their family members who are outside Canada or residing legally inside Canada through a temporary permit.
When applying for the family class category, applicants are required to support their sponsored family members, by promising that they will be able to provide the basic needs (such as food, shelter, clothing, necessary goods or services, and health and dental care not already covered) for their sponsored family members in a way that they won’t be dependent on governmental social assistance, the commitment of support is called a sponsorship undertaking, which will be for a specific period of time, applicants are required to sign a binding contract between them and the IRCC (Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada) which will state their readiness and commitment to provide the basic needs for their family members, and it will also state that sponsors accept the obligation of replaying the provincial/territorial government authorities and received social assistance payments made to the sponsored applicants during the undertaking period.
These sponsorship applicants can involve Spouses, common-law or conjugal partners, dependent children, parents and grandparents, and other relatives, and these sponsored applicants can live, study and work in Canada and will have the same rights and responsibilities of permanent residents.
Applicants through this category must submit a sponsorship application as well as a family class permanent residence application at the same time to the responsible Case Processing Center, and under all programs, the sponsor must be either a Canadian Citizen or a permanent resident who is currently residing in Canada, or a person registered in Canada as an Indian under the Canadian Indian Act.