Sponsoring Elderly Parent
 

Hello all, this is my first post, so please be gentle :).

My situation is a little complex, bear with me.....

I lived in canada some years ago, and have canadian citizenship. I have two sisters in canada (with their own children and grandchildren). I moved back to the UK to help care for my ailing mother. Subsequently married, and had 3 kids (eldest is 6, twins are 2).

Fast forward .... mother has since died, and my elderly father (87) now lives with us.

We are planning to return to canada with my father. Kids have dual nationality and I am processing their canadian citizenship and passports now - this will apparently take 12 months+. I will sponsor my husband, which apparently will take between 6 - 8 months. I will hold off on sponsoring my husband until we have confirmation for dad. So far so good.

Now we come to dad. My sister in canada has applied to sponsor dad, the application went in May this year. We have heard nothing back since, but have read on the site that the processing time for parent/grandparent class is OVER THREE YEARS !! - :blink: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/informa...sp#sponsorship

You can imagine my shock on reading this, as dad will be 90 by then (if he makes it). And we're all in limbo until we know if he is accepted. :cry_smile:

Does anyone have any experience in waiting times for eligible relatives ? Is there any way to get it done faster ?

Any advice gratefully received.

Jilly

Re: Sponsoring Elderly Parent
 

Hi, and welcome to the forum.

I'm sorry to have to tell you that the sponsorship timeframe for your father would actually be 4 or more years rather than 3. The processing time on the CIC website that you mentioned is only relevant for the first part of the process at Mississauga, but it's actually a two stage process and after this would have to be sent to London where it will take another year or so before he gets PR.

I'm sorry, but there is no way around it.

Good luck.

Re: Sponsoring Elderly Parent
 

oh my, this is so depressing :banghead:

is there any way of sponsoring on compassionate or humanitarian grounds ?

many thanks
j

Re: Sponsoring Elderly Parent
 

There are ways to sponsor using humanitarian grounds, but it's not something that would apply to you. Humanitarian grounds are for situations such as being family members in war zones or in Haiti after the earthquake etc.

I know it won't be much comfort, but there are many people in the same situation who are desperate to get elderly parents over asap. You'll just have to wait your turn in the queue I'm afraid.

Fingers crossed it goes as quickly as possible for you. :fingerscrossed:

Re: Sponsoring Elderly Parent
 

yes I can see i'm going to have to just wait.

but are the processing times just for guidance, and worst case ? does anyone have any experience of how long it has actually taken?


thanks again
j

Re: Sponsoring Elderly Parent
 

Hi Feline,
Just been going through the process ourselves and I understand how you are feeling.My son applied to sponsor his mother and myself in may 2007 and we have just had our medicals,thats a long time,but we are younger than your father , now in our sixties.I was a young man when we applied.
The simple fact is they don't really want us ,as we in their eyes may be a burden to the state in years to come.I can't blame them really but they have to let a certain amount in I presume otherwise a lot of work age immigrants would not go if their parents could not follow.I don't know anything about the compassionate route of immigration but you have nothing to loose.I would get in touch with a specialised immigration lawyer for advice.All the best in the future to all of you as I sympathies with your predicament.:thumbsup:

Re: Sponsoring Elderly Parent
 

Thanks for your input Big Ron. So it took 3.5 years to your medical - wow? :ohmy:

How much longer is it likely to be before you go ?

Re: Sponsoring Elderly Parent
 

Hopefully sometime next summer but we still have our bungalow to sell and you know what the housing market is like,so it's fingers crossed has soon as they ask for our passport all hell will break loose .:thumbsup:

Re: Sponsoring Elderly Parent
 

let's hope the housing market picks up for spring :fingerscrossed:

Good Luck :thumbsup:

Re: Sponsoring Elderly Parent
 

I have just checked the application time-line - it is 6 years for the two stages of getting PR for parents at the moment (not including a year or so we'd need before we are eligible to apply for sponsorship)! It's awful, they will miss all their granddaughter's developmental milestones! Does anybody know how long it is practically possible to keep grandparents on the visitor's visa? I know they can get a 6 months visa which can be extended from within Canada. But for how long? And what next? I suppose it wouldn't be possible to carry on doing it for 6 years?? Many thanks for any ideas! And good luck to Jilly getting your dad to live with you!

Re: Sponsoring Elderly Parent
 

===

Hi Zhanna, my sister checked with a lawyer in Canada, and had we not ALREADY followed the proper process and made an application to sponsor my dad, we could have bought him in on a visitor visa then applied from within Canada on humanitarian grounds, him being an elderly war vet with all his children in Canada and noone to care for him in the UK etc, we were advised it would have taken about 12 months to get him landed.

However, while he was waiting he would have to be on a visitor visa for the first 6 months, and essentially for the remainder he would not be legally landed, plus he would not be covered by provincial medical cover. Because of his advanced age, the cost of private insurance for him would have been over £1,000 per month (!) and would not cover any pre-existing conditions - of which he has a few. So we have decided not to risk it and have no choice but to await the process. Better that than leave him in a care home (probably to die).

Ironically, the canadian citizenship certificates for my children just came through this week - but they are unlikely to be going before they reach High School age at this rate - sigh :(

However, if your parents are maybe a decade or two younger and fitter, then they might want to consider if it is worth the risk. I would get legal advice BEFORE you fill in any applications and get them to check for medical insurance cover.

Hope that helps
Jillian

Re: Sponsoring Elderly Parent
 

Hi ALL
We finally got our visa in feb 2011 after 44 months wait following the sponsorship process.A long time but we eventually got there and are still alive and kicking.House up for sale next week :fingerscrossed: can,t wait to sell up and go. Good luck to you all and keep trying.:thumbsup:

Re: Sponsoring Elderly Parent
 

:thumbup: Congratulations big ron, good luck selling your house :fingerscrossed:

Jilly

Re: Sponsoring Elderly Parent
 

Thank you very much for your advice Jillian! It is a very interesting idea, I wasn't aware of such possibility, we will defenitely look into it. I hope it all goes well for you and your dad, good luck!

And congratulations to Big Ron! :D

Re: Sponsoring Elderly Parent
 

Is it correct that under these circumstances you don't have to be in Canada for a year before you can sponsor? I have heard of someone bringing their parent over with them when they moved over and going down the humanitarian route.

Re: Sponsoring Elderly Parent
 

I doubt this would apply as a general rule to parents singingringingtree, and if you speak to the immigration service they would deny that this is possible. However, our lawyer said, if we had consulted him BEFORE trying the legal route, dad would probably be landed by now.

In the case of my dad, both my sisters have been living there for over 20 years and so my sister is actually sponsoring him through the proper channels.

Because we have already started the legal process, dad's details are now in the system and if he tried to enter Canada now, it is likely that he would be turned back on the assumption that he intended to stay illegally. So now he can't even visit.

The best advice I can give is to consult a CANADIAN immigration lawyer BEFORE you do anything else.

There are always exceptions of course, just not for us as we chose do it "properly" for which we now have to pay the price. :(

Re: Sponsoring Elderly Parent
 

Have to say, I think this lawyers advice is rather odd. Why on earth can't your father visit in the interim? Plenty of other people awaiting PR manage to visit their friends/spouse/children etc whilst their application is being processed.

And not heard of humanitarian grounds being a possibility for somebody from the UK either (assuming your dad is from the UK anyway) - thought it was for people in danger in their home country etc. Think we did have somebody try it on the forum previously, but CIC told them it was their choice to leave their parent, so hardly a humanitarian problem, which is fair enough really!

Re: Sponsoring Elderly Parent
 

I think the advice was not to try bringing him over with us without PR papers and then try the humanitarian route now that we have started the process.

The humanitarian route could only be tried AFTER he enters canada, and he has severed all ties to the UK beforehand. The solicitor said we would have a case as he has more family in Canada now (3 daughters, 7 grandchildren, and 7 great grandchildren) and that he could not care for himself if sent back to the UK alone which would cause him actual harm. There is of course significant risk that he could still be sent back in this scenario, and we weren't prepared to risk it. Others might.

Re: Sponsoring Elderly Parent
 

I suspect in reality the timeline is a lot worse than Immigration are letting on. There was a recent news article on Family sponsorship obtained through the freedom of information act. The Immigration minister has put the breaks on family sponsorship. They will only be processing 1600 app's a year. That means if you were to apply now you'd be waiting about 13 years based on the current backlog.

We're in the same situation. We're about 2.5 years into the waiting list. Our In-laws visit 2-3 times a year and have a house here. On their current trip they applied for visa extensions so they don't have to keep returning to the UK.

They just got the visa extension yesterday. They asked for 2-3 years but only got 1. I don't know if they will be able to renew it.

So on the one hand that is good, they can stay and not spend money on airfares, but on the downside they are having major difficulties now trying to find long term medical insurance for non-residents.

Re: Sponsoring Elderly Parent
 

Sounds like something we'll have to do as well. I suppose that besides airfares and strain of travelling, it is also the feeling of suspension which is even more difficult when you are older - being unsettled for so many years, living 'between' the countries.

Re: Sponsoring Elderly Parent
 

But if the sponsor was one of the sisters mentioned who have lived in Canada for many years, the circumstances when they left would be very different. It would be a change in their father's situation prompting the application.

I remember when I was looking into my route to PR reading something about compassionate grounds and it seemed to apply to family circumstances. I had my mother in mind in case she ever wanted to follow. It seemed unlikely she could because I'd be the only son here while she had three other sons, plus daughters in law, plus grandchildren all around her. So if the presence of family members around her prevented compassionate grounds applying, the absence of family members might then become a consideration in relation to who was in Canada already.

Re: Sponsoring Elderly Parent
 

I kind of agree with Big Ron's comment, we need to bear in mind that elderly 'non-working' parents have very little (if anything) to offer Canada and in many cases will end up costing the Canadian economy (medical expenses etc). They will have paid nothing into the system so why would or should they fast track applicants?

I know it sounds harsh (and there's a possibility in the future we may need to consider it), however try and see if from a Canadian government perspective, their priority will be to get the 'key' people processed.

It's a hard decision to make leaving family behind, especially elderly parents, we all need to make a choice thats right for us.

Good luck with whatever you choose.