2.B Sponsors: From Mobilization to Engagement

B.3 Who is eligible to sponsor and what is their relationship to government?

(ix) For what reasons may a sponsoring group or individual member be ineligible to sponsor?

How Canada Does It

A sponsoring group or group member may be ineligible to sponsor if:

  • The sponsoring group does not demonstrate that it meets the financial requirements to sponsor (see 2.B.3(v));
  • The sponsoring group does not demonstrate that it has the settlement capacity to sponsor (see 2.B.3(vi));
  • The sponsoring group does not have enough members or doesn't meet other eligibility requirements (see 2.B.3(iv));
  • The sponsoring group does not have enough members living in the community of settlement (see 2.B.3(vii));
  • A sponsor has recently been convicted of a serious crime;
  • A sponsor is in detention;
  • A sponsor or sponsoring group has defaulted on a previous sponsorship (see 2.D.3) or any court-ordered support payment obligations; or
  • A sponsor is at risk of deportation or having his/her citizenship revoked.

A sponsoring group must satisfy Canada that it is eligible (see 2.B.3(ii), 2.B.3(iv)), which includes having the financial (see 2.B.3(v)) and settlement capacity (see 2.B.3(vi)) to sponsor. In addition to meeting basic criteria for forming a group, Groups of Five and Community Sponsors may only sponsor refugees who have previously acquired valid proof of refugee status from UNHCR or their host State. 

In addition, the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations provide that group members are ineligible to sponsor if they have been:

  • Convicted in Canada of murder or an offence set out in schedule I or II to the Corrections and Conditional Release Act and five years have not passed since sentence completion;
  • Convicted in another country of an offence synonymous to the above and five years have not elapsed since sentence completion under that country’s law;
  • In default on a previous sponsorship undertaking (see D.3);
  • In default of court-ordered support payments;
  • Subject to a removal order;
  • Subject to a revocation proceeding under the Citizenship Act; or
  • Detained in a jail, penitentiary, reformatory or prison.