Individuals cannot be private sponsors by themselves.
They must be part of :
- A Sponsorship Agreement Holder (SAH) or one of their Constituents Groups (CS)
- A Group of Five (G5)
- Community Sponsors
To be part of a Group of Five, you need to :
- Be a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident of Canada, currently living in Canada
- Be at least 18 years old
- Live in the same community where the refugee is expected to settle, and
- Agree to give settlement support for the duration of the sponsorship (usually one year)
You must be able to provide the required financial and non financial support. You will also need to submit a settlement plan.
The following people and groups are ineligible to participate in the sponsorship of refugees:
- Any individual or groups responsible for a Sponsorship Undertaking that remains in default
- Anyone convicted in Canada of the offence of murder or an offence set out in Schedule I or Schedule II of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act, regardless of whether the offence was prosecuted by indictment, if a period of five years have not passed since the completion of the sentence
- Anyone convicted of an offence outside Canada that, if committed in Canada, would be equivalent to those offences mentioned previously, if a period of 5 years have not passed since the completion of the sentence imposed under a foreign law
- Individuals subject to a removal order
- Individuals subject to revocation proceedings under the Citizenship Act
- Anyone currently detained in any penitentiary, jail, reformatory or prison
- Individuals who are in default of any support payment obligations ordered by a court
