What happens if my sponsored family member goes on social assistance?

When you sponsor a family member for permanent residence, you sign a legally binding undertaking promising to financially support them for a set period. If your sponsored family member collects social assistance from a provincial or territorial government during the undertaking period, the province may seek repayment of those amounts from you as the sponsor.

The repayment obligation is enforceable. If the government is unable to collect from your sponsored family member, it can pursue you directly. This debt can be reported to credit agencies, collected through the courts, and can affect your ability to sponsor additional family members in the future — IRCC bars sponsors who have defaulted on an undertaking.

The undertaking period varies by relationship: for spouses and partners it is three years, for parents and grandparents it is 20 years. Sponsoring a parent or grandparent is therefore a very long-term financial commitment. Even if the sponsored person becomes a Canadian citizen, the undertaking obligations may continue for the defined period. Understand the full scope of what you are committing to before you sign an undertaking — and if financial hardship makes compliance uncertain, discuss the risks with a lawyer before submitting the sponsorship.