Guidance on Bringing Elderly Parents on PR From India to Canada

[jagota_j]

Hi there,

I became a permanent resident via Alberta's AINP program in Jan 2014.

My parents in India are elderly and there's no there to take care of them. I want to bring them on PR (Permanent Residence) to Canada and have the following questions:


1) My dad had a bypass operation in Nov 2010. During the family visa processing, I understand my parents would need to undertake a medical exam. Would this cause a blatant refusal?

2) I understand there's a certain minimum income required to be maintained for 3 consecutive years, (as per the link below, the $ amount is variable but somewhere around $46,354 when considering a family of 3 people - me, my mother and father) to be eligible for sponsoring them but last year I went to India for a 2 months vacation (most of which was unpaid) to visit them after 3 years.

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/applications/guides/5772ETOC.asp#table1

As a result my income didn't meet the minimum income criteria, fell short by about $6000 and was about $40k. The year before that it was about $47500 and this year I am projecting it to be between 46k-48k.

I am wondering if there's a workaround/exception or I would need to start the 3 years cycle again from this year onward to maintain the minimum required income. I really don't want to start the 3 year cycle again because after submitting the application the processing time is really long and I want to bring them here asap.

3) In the interim, to bring them here on visit, what's the difference between normal visit visa and super visa?


I highly appreciate your insights and valuable suggestions.

Thank you

 

[scylla]

There are no exceptions to the three year income rule. If you didn't meet the income last year - you have no choice but to start the three year cycle again. This means the earliest you'll be able to sponsor your parents for PR is 2019.

In the meantime they can try to apply to visit Canada on either a regular visitor visa or super visa.

A super visa allows them to stay in Canada for visitors long (for up to two years) - however they have to pass a medical to qualify and you must also purchase private health care insurance.

 

[jagota_j]

Thanks scylla for the reply

I had called into CIC yesterday. The agent advised that I can send in the application and include a letter of explanation as to why the salary was below the benchmark. It would then be at the discretion of the processing officer to approve/decline the application.

Any other suggestions/thoughts/perspectives?

 

[scylla]

Thanks scylla for the reply

I had called into CIC yesterday. The agent advised that I can send in the application and include a letter of explanation as to why the salary was below the benchmark. It would then be at the discretion of the processing officer to approve/decline the application.

Any other suggestions/thoughts/perspectives?

The call centre gave you bad advice. (Unfortunately they often give out very poor information to all but the most basic questions.)

If you don't meet the Low Income Cut Off, you can guarantee that your application will be refused. There is no officer discretion involved. You either meet the criteria or you don't.

You can then certainly appeal the refusal. However I don't think this will be a good spend of money since appeals typically only work if CIC has made an incorrect decision or mistake. In this case your parents' application would have been correctly refused since you as the sponsor don't meet the minimum criteria - so the appeal should fail.

 

[Rob_TO]

As a result my income didn't meet the minimum income criteria, fell short by about $6000 and was about $40k. The year before that it was about $47500 and this year I am projecting it to be between 46k-48k.

I am wondering if there's a workaround/exception or I would need to start the 3 years cycle again from this year onward to maintain the minimum required income. I really don't want to start the 3 year cycle again because after submitting the application the processing time is really long and I want to bring them here asap.

As mentioned, there are no workarounds or exceptions. Even if you are $1 short of the MNI amount required, your app will be refused.

If you missed the 2014 MNI and start qualifying again in 2015, then you'll need 2015, 2016 and 2017 tax returns and can apply to sponsor them in January 2019 (assuming rules stay the same).

 

[screech339]

As others have mentioned, you have no choice but to restart your 3 year cycle again and apply in 2019. There is a reason for 3 consecutive years of meeting LICO. It is to provide proof of long term job stability in supporting your parents.

Keep in mind, that once you submit your application in 2019, you have to maintain annual LICO during the entire PR process until your parents land. If you fail meeting LICO while application is in process, your application can and will likely be rejected. CIC will request option C prints of all the years during process before issuing COPR to your parents.

 

[jhutti]

Thanks scylla for the reply

I had called into CIC yesterday. The agent advised that I can send in the application and include a letter of explanation as to why the salary was below the benchmark. It would then be at the discretion of the processing officer to approve/decline the application.

Any other suggestions/thoughts/perspectives?

You seems like the only son/daughter of your parents. few things u can do rather than wait till 2019
1> marry someone who atleast was earning around 20K per annum in canada in year that u are short of income. But new income calculation will be based on 4 people. ( possible take care of 5 -), kids get born ).Co-signer income is added
2> if option one is not going to work for you. Get them super visa.
3> Sell all property from India
4> after their stay of 6 months or so here. apply for H & C PR application assuming you have no sibling back in india.

In worst case ur application can get rejected. Then be ready to apply for pR in 2019

best of luck

 

[mikeymyke]

You seems like the only son/daughter of your parents. few things u can do rather than wait till 2019
1> marry someone who atleast was earning around 20K per annum in canada in year that u are short of income. But new income calculation will be based on 4 people. ( possible take care of 5 -), kids get born ).Co-signer income is added
2> if option one is not going to work for you. Get them super visa.
3> Sell all property from India
4> after their stay of 6 months or so here. apply for H & C PR application assuming you have no sibling back in india.

In worst case ur application can get rejected. Then be ready to apply for pR in 2019

best of luck

I think you're giving a couple pieces of bad advice. The super visa makes the most sense however.

Marrying someone just to have a cosigner to meet the income requirements, there are some people who would be unwilling to bear the financial responsibility of sponsoring two in-laws for 20 years, as 20 years is the undertaking length. Asking his parents to sell all of their property in India before they even have a permanent resident visa makes no sense at all, and is just setting up his parents for disaster back home in India. H&C is often times a difficult path to get PR and is only issued under the most dire circumstances.

OP should apply for a super visa for both of his parents.

 

[jhutti]

I think you're giving a couple pieces of bad advice. The super visa makes the most sense however.

Marrying someone just to have a cosigner to meet the income requirements, there are some people who would be unwilling to bear the financial responsibility of sponsoring two in-laws for 20 years, as 20 years is the undertaking length. Asking his parents to sell all of their property in India before they even have a permanent resident visa makes no sense at all, and is just setting up his parents for disaster back home in India. H&C is often times a difficult path to get PR and is only issued under the most dire circumstances.

OP should apply for a super visa for both of his parents.

bad or good advice is all depends on personal situation. U think super visa is fine. He/she may think shelling 500 dollars for next 6-8 years per month is too much. Not to mention regular stay cost.
Super visa once got on brand new issued passport for 10 years are good enough. After all how long is life. Property selling or breaking any connection back home is important if H & C applications needs to be successful. Anyone getting PR these days own its own are smart enough to understand the risk & challenges of advice on public forum.

 

[screech339]

bad or good advice is all depends on personal situation. U think super visa is fine. He/she may think shelling 500 dollars for next 6-8 years per month is too much. Not to mention regular stay cost.
Super visa once got on brand new issued passport for 10 years are good enough. After all how long is life. Property selling or breaking any connection back home is important if H & C applications needs to be successful. Anyone getting PR these days own its own are smart enough to understand the risk & challenges of advice on public forum.

Selling all your possessions and property in your home country to boost your H&C application makes your case really bad. In fact, you are committing fraud. Usually H&C cases are for those whose lives are in mortal danger. Selling your property does not make your lives mortally in danger at all.

There are cases of Syrian refugees converting to Christianity / Catholicism once they entered EU so that they can strengthen their claims that their lives will be in danger if returned to Syria for apostasy. They won't admit it to authorities as it would void their claim for refugee status.

 

[mikeymyke]

bad or good advice is all depends on personal situation. U think super visa is fine. He/she may think shelling 500 dollars for next 6-8 years per month is too much. Not to mention regular stay cost.
Super visa once got on brand new issued passport for 10 years are good enough. After all how long is life. Property selling or breaking any connection back home is important if H & C applications needs to be successful. Anyone getting PR these days own its own are smart enough to understand the risk & challenges of advice on public forum.

Shelling $500/month on health insurance is way better than having his parents sell their property, apply and then be refused H&C (which will happen guaranteed), and then subsequently being forced to leave Canada, returning to India to no house (since they've already sold it), and having to search for a new place to live again, creating even more hardships.

Also, there's a chance they could be refused the PR application anyway if either one of them fails the medical.

 

[jhutti]

To the original post owner. As you can see people have their opinions. SO take your decision accordingly.
Do some math on cost . Also work on some points . One can try do below same situation

1> Talk to good lawyer before proceeding with the below possible plan
1a>Transfer all assets of their name to your name
2> Get them on rental home in india
3> Get them new passports with 10 year validity
4> Get them super visa. Things are tricky here. As in super visa application, officer will check as how much attachment parents have back in India. Showing govt pensions may be okay but do not show house or other fixed assets. Any case if they do not have any assets in thier name then no issue
5> Now they will have medical done. if they can clear medical for super visa, they can clear medicals for PR too in future
6> Hope fully things going as per plan. They get super visa
7> Shift them to Canada on super visa with 500 dollar cost per month insurance
8> in six months or so using lawyer, apply for PR under H & C


This is the last post on this topic from my side