Paying Fees and Other Expenses for the Parents Sponsorship

This article is a continuation of a parent sponsorship course – to see full course material please click here

In-depth Tutorial on Spousal Sponsorships, your total expenses to sponsor someone will depend on whether you appoint a representative and what you hire your representative for.
A paid representative who guides you through the entire application process can cost you anywhere from around $2,000 up to close to $5,000 for a high-profile immigration lawyer.
A good rule of thumb is to consider a $3,500 fee as a reasonable average for qualified and efficient representation during the whole application process.
However, please understand that there will be further costs involved:
• Government fees the IRCC charges you – which we detail just below.
• Fees for services like Medical Exams or Police Certificates which you must pay for and which IRCC does NOT pay for.
• Courier fees to send documents from abroad to Canada and to send the application package. That is, unless you choose to use Canada Post if you are mailing the package from within Canada – this is a likely possibility seeing most sponsors are recent Canadian citizens or proud permanent residents of Canada.
Let’s go through these additional fees, starting with the fees IRCC charges you.

IRCC Fees for Parent and Grandparent Sponsorship
Fee Description CAN$
Sponsorship Fee Parent/Grandparent $75 $1,050
Principal Applicant Processing Fee $475
Right of Permanent Residence Fee $500
Spouse/Partner of Parent/Grandparent $1,050
Dependent Child of Parent/Grandparent $150 per child
Biometrics Fees CAN$
Fee per person $85
Fee per family (2 or more people applying at same time & place) $170
There are a few things to note about IRCC fees:
• To avoid delays it’s suggested you pay the Right of Permanent Residence Fee when you pay the rest of the fees which is done when you put together your application package. If your application is refused, your right of permanent residence fee will be returned to you.
• The total in IRCC fees adds up to several thousand dollars. If for example you are sponsoring your parents and a dependent child that adds up to:
o $1,050 x 2 = $2,100 plus
o $150 plus
o $170 which adds up to
o $ 2,420 including biometrics fees.
If you now add Medical Exam costs, Police Certificate costs, courier and insurance costs, as well as any fees notaries or translators might charge, you’re probably looking at a figure of over $3,000 already.
Please recall that when we talked about Medical Inadmissibility above, we mentioned that one strategy is to put together a mitigation plan. A mitigation plan can sometimes include private health insurance that the sponsor promises to take out on behalf of their parents or grandparents who suffer from a medical condition that might otherwise cause IRCC to deem them inadmissible.
And of course, there are the plane tickets as well.
So, if you add all these fees to your representative fees, you could be looking at around $6,000 without even considering travel costs. Sponsoring your parents or grandparents is an investment on the part of the sponsor, and it can be a fairly substantial investment. However, given the overwhelming demand for this program every time it opens up annually, it’s an investment many new Canadians are more than willing to make.
Before we show you how to pay your fees – as we did in our Spousal Sponsorship Tutorial – we’d like to remind you NOT to give biometrics UNTIL you receive your Biometrics Instruction Letter. We’ll go through this in a later chapter.

How to pay your Parental Sponsorship Fees

If you are in Canada, you must pay your parental sponsorship fees online.
You will need the following:
• A valid email address
• Access to a printer (in order to print the receipt)
• A Credit Card or Canadian Debit Card
Go here to pay your IRCC fees online. You will create an online account with a password that will enable you to pay your fees online.
Before we go through the steps to paying your fees online, let’s see how to set up your online account with IRCC.
Go here to set up your account. The IRCC webpage should look like this:

Go to the lower left-hand box that says Don’t have an account? Click on the blue Register button. This will take you here to this page where you should see the following:

If you scroll down, you will find instructions for 2 ways to register for an account:

• Register with a GC Key
• Register with a Sign-In Partner.

To register with a GC Key (we recommend this method):

1. Click Register with a GCKey below.
2. Click Sign Up.
3. Read the Terms and Conditions of Use and click I Accept.
4. Create a username. Click Continue.
5. Create a password. Click Continue.
6. Create your security questions and responses. Click Continue.
7. Click Continue to get to the Sign-Up Complete page.
8. Read the Terms and Conditions. Click I Accept.
9. Enter your information and follow the steps to create your account.

The blue Register with GC Key button is just below these instructions on the linked page.

To register with a Sign-In Partner (These are Canadian banks or Credit Unions where you already have an account)

1. Click Register with a Sign-In Partner below.
2. Choose your financial institution.
   1. If you don’t see your financial institution listed, you need to register with GCKey.
3. Enter your banking sign-in information and click Continue.
4. Read the Terms and Conditions of Use and click I Accept.
5. Enter your information and follow the steps to create your account.

The blue Register with a Sign-In Partner button is just below these instructions on the linked page.

We recommend the GC Key Account option because later on in Chapter 28 where we talk tracking your application, you can use your GC Key Account to track your application, but it must be opened by the Principal applicant not the Sponsor. Seeing the principal applicant may not have a bank account in Canada, they will have to use GC Key.

 

Now, let’s continue with the steps to pay your Fees.

 

The first step is to make sure you’re paying the right fees. We’ve done that for you with the table above.

The second step is to get your card ready. Please note that the Credit or Canadian Debit card does NOT have to be in your (sponsor or applicant) name. In other words, the cardholder’s name which will appear on the printed receipt does NOT have to match the applicant’s name, as long as the card is valid, and the payment goes through.

The following credit and prepaid cards are accepted for paying fees at IRCC.

• Visa
• MasterCard
• American Express
• JCB
• UnionPay.

If you use a prepaid Card to pay your fees, keep your prepaid Card for at least 18 months as it will enable you to receive any refunds.

The following Debit Cards are accepted:

• Any debit card from a Canadian Bank that uses INTERAC online
• The debit card must also be registered for online use at your Canadian Bank’s website. Just go to your bank’s online website and follow the instructions to register your card (have your card handy so you can enter the full number).
• Visa debit Cards.

The third step is to pay your fees. If you’re still uncertain as to how much you have to pay, go here (the fee wizard) and answer some questions to get your correct fee amount.

The fourth step involves receiving a copy of your receipt in your email inbox which you must then print out and include in your application package. DO NOT forget to include your receipts or your application will be sent back to you.

Finally go here and log in (you will have already created an online account with a password at the first link given just above the first step) to view all your receipts.

 

If you are living outside of Canada you have 2 options to pay your parental sponsorship fees:

 

Paying your IRCC fees online.

Go here to get instructions on how to pay online from abroad. Choose your country of residence from the drop-down menu:

Here we’ve chosen Brazil just as an example to show how to pay online from abroad.

Next we choose what type of application and what specific application we’re paying fees for from the other 2 drop-down menus:

Remember to choose Family Sponsorship in the second drop-down menu, and then choose Parent and Grandparents Sponsorship from the last drop-down menu you see.

Next we click on Get payment instructions:

Remember to print your receipt before leaving the page. While IRCC says they will mail a copy of your receipt to your email address, make sure additionally that you print the receipt when you pay the fee. That way you ensure you have a copy of the receipt no matter what happens afterwards.

In other words, DO NOT LEAVE THE ONLINE PAYMENT SITE UNTIL YOU HAVE PRINTED YOUR RECEIPT. This means you must have your printer working and ready to go before you log in online to pay your fees.

 

Paying your IRCC fees off-line

You can only use this option if you are living outside Canada and do not have access to the internet. Your payment must:

• Be an International Bank Draft or Money Order
• Be payable to the Receiver General for Canada
• Be in Canadian funds (in Canadian dollars NOT US dollars)
• Be acceptable and therefore cashable at a Canadian Financial Institution (check with your local bank to see if this is the case)
• Indicate clearly:

• The name of the Canadian financial institution,
• The address of the Canadian financial institution,
• The account number of the Canadian financial institution,
• All of which will show where your International Bank Draft or Money Order can be cashed. Consult with your local bank for details.
• Better yet, if possible find an internet connection and printer and do it online following the steps we outlined just above. But you should know that you can indeed, under certain circumstances, do it offline.

Remember that if your fees are insufficient, your application will be returned to you. If you overpay (your fees total more than the correct amount) then your application will continue to be processed and you will be refunded the difference between what you overpaid and what you actually owe in fees.