family class question

[robflo]

Hello to everyone,
I have a very important question regarding my family sporsorship.
Let me explain my situation, In 2009 my wife and I applied for her mother and two sisters who were under 19 at that time to come to Canada as a land immigrants, it took almost 6 years for them to get their visa and come here, well they came here and stayed with us for almost 18 months now they decided to go back home and after a few nonths they want to return to Canada but now only my wife's two sisters are coming here my wife's mom will no return. When they left my house it wasn't nice, we had problems and the relationship between us broke. Now my wife and I fear that when they return to Canada they want to look for help from the government like (WELFARE) which we know will affect us since we were the ones that applied for them. We want to know if we could do something to protect ourselves if they decided to do this. They are healthy young women who can easy find a job and work no problem, We don't care if they return or ot it is just, if they return and they decided to do this... horrible thing what is going to happen to us.

please advice

thank you

 

[scylla]

By sponsoring your family members, you agreed to a 10 year undertaking of responsibility (this 10 years starts from the day they landed in Canada and became PRs). If any of them go on welfare during this ten year period, you and your wife will be responsible for paying this money back to the government. There's really no way to "protect yourself". By signing the sponsorship paperwork you agreed to a 10 year legal obligation to support your family members. This is why deciding to sponsor family members is a big decision and shouldn't be undertaken lightly.

 

[robflo]

Basically my wife and I are screwed. wow, you try to help so they can have a better life and they turn their back on you.... If I've known this was going to happen for trying to give them a chance for something better I would have never thought of helping no one.

btw... how long can they be out of canada so they don't lose their PR.?

One of them has already gone back the other one is going back in 2 months. Honestly I hope they'd never come back

 

[scylla]

They can be outside of Canada for up to three years without losing PR (residency obligation is two years out of five years). Even they stay outside of Canada for longer than three years, it's quite possible they may still be able to re-enter Canada and keep their PR status.

 

[mikeymyke]

Basically my wife and I are screwed. wow, you try to help so they can have a better life and they turn their back on you.... If I've known this was going to happen for trying to give them a chance for something better I would have never thought of helping no one.

btw... how long can they be out of canada so they don't lose their PR.?

One of them has already gone back the other one is going back in 2 months. Honestly I hope they'd never come back

There's a good chance they might not go on welfare anyway, as the payments are extremely low, they'd have a hard time supporting themselves with just welfare. Chances are they'd be looking to get a min. wage job in order to have any form of living.

Also it's not just straight up welfare payments that you'll be on the hook for. Things like financial assistance for rent, or whatever, could be considered social assistance from the government.

I have to say, it's a pretty difficult decision at the beginning: Either you refuse to go through with the sponsorship, and risk scorn from your wife and her family, or you go through with it, only to have them potentially getting welfare payments later. It's definitely not a decision to be made lightly to sponsor, and its definitely something that a lot of people forget to think about when they're marrying their spouse: that the spouse's relatives might want to come to Canada and expect you to sponsor them. And the rules have changed so now it's a massive 20 year undertaking

I know of one co-worker who sponsored his Filipino wife. He admitted to me he always thought it would just be him and his wife living together, but then the wife starts pressuring him to sponsor her parents. So he did, the parents came, both are old and can't speak English, so both are not working. Him and his wife had a kid recently, wife's stay at home mom, so he has to support his kid, wife, and 2 in-laws, who are all living under the same roof. You can imagine how stressed he was.

You know the old saying when it comes to certain spouses: Marry the wife, marry the family.

 

[canadianwoman]

If they come back and go on welfare, one thing you can do is contact the welfare office and state that they are capable of working. Now, if they really cannot find a job, they will still be entitled to welfare and you will have to pay the government back, but people on welfare are expected to look for work. If they do not, or refuse suitable work, the government can refuse to give them welfare.

They may not go on welfare anyway - the amount they would get is very low. A minimum-wage job would be preferable.