I have an unusual situation, I hope I can get some useful advice here. My girlfriend just adopted her sister from Senegal due to family financial difficulty. She would like to bring her sister/daughter to Canada to study. Sponsoring her for permanent residence would take 2 years, which is a long time for a child (she is 15). We would like her to come to Canada as soon as possible so she can adapt to Canada more easily. She is a permanent resident, and I hear that the dependent of a PR can attend school here for free even on a visitor visa. We are concerned however about having to renew a visitor visa every 6 months. We would like to apply for permanent residence for her sister in the long term, but the top priority is to bring her here as quickly as possible. Would we be able to apply for an open study permit?
Sponsoring an adopted child
- Thread starter jz87
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Is your girlfriend's sister an orphan? Are both of her parents deceased? If not, then I'm afraid CIC likely won't recognize the adoption for immigration purposes and will say it was carried out for the primary reason of obtaining PR status for her sister.
No, she is not an orphan. Can CIC refuse to issue PR even if Canadian courts recognize the adoption? Even if she can't get PR immediately, can we apply for TRV/TRP for her to come and study?
If we get married, and I adopt her sister also (I'm a PR as well), would that help the case since I'm not related to her by blood.
If we get married, and I adopt her sister also (I'm a PR as well), would that help the case since I'm not related to her by blood.
Yes - CIC can refuse PR in this case since she isn't an orphan. Getting married unfortunately won't change this situation.
She will need to apply for a study permit to come to Canada immediately to study. Your first step will be to find a school that will accept her as a student. I think it's quite possible you may be asked to pay a tuition fee (even if the school is a public school) - likely between $12K and $14K per year.
She will need to apply for a study permit to come to Canada immediately to study. Your first step will be to find a school that will accept her as a student. I think it's quite possible you may be asked to pay a tuition fee (even if the school is a public school) - likely between $12K and $14K per year.
It is extremely questionable, under the circumstances that you describe, given the tests of validity defined in the document I linked to, that she would be found to be a legal "dependent". I think that it's on this basis that Scylla was providing sample figures.jz87 said:
jz87 said:
What Zardoz said.
Dependent children don't have to pay - but there's a chance your girlfriend's sister may not qualify as a dependent. Typically a school will allow a non-PR / non-citizen dependent to attend school for free if it can be proven that a PR application is in progress. However as mentioned above, I think it's highly unlikely a PR application will succeed for your girlfriend's sister because she won't be recognized as a dependent for immigration purposes.
Either way, she will definitely need a study permit if you want her to attend school. So you should start with that (once you've found a school willing to accept her). When you speak with the school, you can find out what it will take to have her attend for free.
Can we justify the adoption on financial grounds? Her father has been unemployed for many years now and her mom's job is at risk due to budget cuts. The adoption was approved in her home country for reasons of family financial difficulty. We have documentation to prove all these facts. In addition, due to her mom working long hours, she has been taking care of her sister since her sister was young. (There is a 14 year age gap between them). So in practice she has been acting as her sister's mom since her sister has been a baby.
Unfortunately financial grouds won't be accepted - if you use finanical grounds it will be classified as an adoption of convenience.
What CIC would want to see to accept this adoption from an immigration perspective is that your girlfriend effectively became her sister's parent years ago and her sister has effectively severed her parental relationship with her actual parents. For example, good proof of this would be the sister hasn't lived with her parents for a number of years but has been living with your girlfriend instead and your girlfriend is the one who has been paying for her schooling, food, clothes, etc. If the sister is still living with her actual parents - I don't think you'll have any chance of proving this.
What CIC would want to see to accept this adoption from an immigration perspective is that your girlfriend effectively became her sister's parent years ago and her sister has effectively severed her parental relationship with her actual parents. For example, good proof of this would be the sister hasn't lived with her parents for a number of years but has been living with your girlfriend instead and your girlfriend is the one who has been paying for her schooling, food, clothes, etc. If the sister is still living with her actual parents - I don't think you'll have any chance of proving this.
jz87 said:
What you could do is get her to come to Canada on a study permit to attend school, and actually live with you here. After several years of this, then it would be a more genuine adoption case and you could possibly then apply for her PR. So I would start reaching out to schools and see if any will give a break on tuition fees due to her being an adopted daughter of your PR girlfriend. As i understand it, schools' can set their own rules here so while many may demand high international student fees, you may get lucky and find one that will enroll her for free.
If that happens you could then apply for her study permit/visa, but even that could prove challenging as a visa officer could think she has no intention of ever leaving Canada, and could deny any visa request even if linked to a study permit.
But to adopt someone and then immediately apply for PR, would have a high chance of rejection since it would be plainly obvious the adoption was only done for the sole reason of immigration.
Rob_TO said:
This is a good suggestion. You should try to get her here as soon as you can since she's already 15 (I think) which doesn't leave you too much time to establish the parent relationship before she turns 18 and ages out for the adoption route.
No guarantee this will convince CIC that her parental relationship with her actual parents has really been severed. But I think it's your best bet.
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zardoz said:
To save chasing a link, here's the text that I find just about sums it all up:
"To assess whether an adoption has created a genuine relationship of parent and child, officers should look closely at the effect of the adoption in order to determine:
a) Whether the adoption completely severed the adopted child’s former legal ties with their biological parents and created a new legal parent-child relationship;
b) the authenticity of relationships between adoptive parents and adopted children. The primary purpose of an adoption must be to establish a parent-child relationship and not be for the purpose of assisting that child to gain admission to Canada;
