Canadian Grandparents raising American minor grandchild. I want to apply for immigration. Can I?

[Sandra2018]

Hello,

My husband and I who are Canadian citizens, have a Canadian court ordered legal guardianship of our US citizen minor granddaughter. (Both her mom; my daughter and her deceased father are US citizens. My daughter never took the oath of citizenship. She left to the US and got married stayed there. That was 20 years ago. She became a US citizen. I am not sure if she can do anything with that expired PR now)

I want to make sure I can do everything legally possible for my granddaughter to continue to stay in a stable safe living condition. Also to continue studying and etc here.

I am seeking advice as how I can go about finding out more information and what our options are if any.

Thank you in advance.

 

[scylla]

Hello,

My husband and I who are Canadian citizens, have a Canadian court ordered legal guardianship of our US citizen minor granddaughter. (Both her mom; my daughter and her deceased father are US citizens. My daughter never took the oath of citizenship. She left to the US and got married stayed there. That was 20 years ago. She became a US citizen. I am not sure if she can do anything with that expired PR now)

I want to make sure I can do everything legally possible for my granddaughter to continue to stay in a stable safe living condition. Also to continue studying and etc here.

I am seeking advice as how I can go about finding out more information and what our options are if any.

Thank you in advance.

Your options seem relatively limited but straight forward. You cannot sponsor your granddaughter for permanent residency. For now, likely her only option is to come to Canada on a study permit (as an international student). Once she is an adult, she can look into qualifying and applying for Canadian permanent residency through an economic immigration stream.

It does not sound like your granddaughter can benefit from your citizenship. But it would be good to get the full story to make sure. How did you obtain Canadian citizenship? Was your daughter born before or after you became citizens?

 

[Sandra2018]

Your options seem relatively limited but straight forward. You cannot sponsor your granddaughter for permanent residency. For now, likely her only option is to come to Canada on a study permit (as an international student). Once she is an adult, she can look into qualifying and applying for Canadian permanent residency through an economic immigration stream.

It does not sound like your granddaughter can benefit from your citizenship. But it would be good to get the full story to make sure. How did you obtain Canadian citizenship? Was your daughter born before or after you became citizens?

Hi there,

Thank you for your response.

I came with my husband under a business immigration. We invested money here. We did all that was required for us to get our immigration. We became citizen's. My daughter received the same invitation to take oath the same time we received it. She fell in love and left to the US (the timing was horrible) and got married against our wishes. She never took her oath. She was born before we we became citizens.

Her husband passed away. My granddaughter has been studying in Canada with a study permit in high-school here currently. So, I cannot do much for her? She has a SIN, Alberta Health Card number too. I am so lost.

 

[Wonderland_1010]

Hi there,

Thank you for your response.

I came with my husband under a business immigration. We invested money here. We did all that was required for us to get our immigration. We became citizen's. My daughter received the same invitation to take oath the same time we received it. She fell in love and left to the US (the timing was horrible) and got married against our wishes. She never took her oath. She was born before we we became citizens.

Her husband passed away. My granddaughter has been studying in Canada with a study permit in high-school here currently. So, I cannot do much for her? She has a SIN, Alberta Health Card number too. I am so lost.

Do you have any other children in Canada?

 

[Sandra2018]

Do you have any other children in Canada?

Yes, I do. The took the oath and are citizen's here. They are adults.

 

[scylla]

Hi there,

Thank you for your response.

I came with my husband under a business immigration. We invested money here. We did all that was required for us to get our immigration. We became citizen's. My daughter received the same invitation to take oath the same time we received it. She fell in love and left to the US (the timing was horrible) and got married against our wishes. She never took her oath. She was born before we we became citizens.

Her husband passed away. My granddaughter has been studying in Canada with a study permit in high-school here currently. So, I cannot do much for her? She has a SIN, Alberta Health Card number too. I am so lost.

OK - so that unfortunately confirms there's no way for your granddaughter to benefit from your citizenship. Sponsoring her is unfortunately not possible either. She will need to qualify for PR on her own through an economic stream like Express Entry. This being feasible is still a number of years away and immigration programs do typically change every few years. Having said that, I would recommend you familiarize yourself with the economic immigration stream programs to understand what it will take for her to qualify. Probably the shortest possible route is to continue studying in Canada as an international student until she completes post secondary studies (preferably a bachelor degree), then move on to a post graduate work permit and then hopefully qualify for PR after working in Canada for a full year. Definitely not guaranteed - but potentially possible.

Make sure she doesn't use her SIN to work. Those who are studying at the high school level on a study permit are not allowed to work.

 

[scylla]

Do you have any other children in Canada?

Doesn't matter. She has a husband - so she cannot sponsor her granddaughter based on that fact alone.

 

[Sandra2018]

OK - so that unfortunately confirms there's no way for your granddaughter to benefit from your citizenship. Sponsoring her is unfortunately not possible either. She will need to qualify for PR on her own through an economic stream like Express Entry. This being feasible is still a number of years away and immigration programs do typically change every few years. Having said that, I would recommend you familiarize yourself with the economic immigration stream programs to understand what it will take for her to qualify. Probably the shortest possible route is to continue studying in Canada as an international student until she completes post secondary studies (preferably a bachelor degree), then move on to a post graduate work permit and then hopefully qualify for PR after working in Canada for a full year. Definitely not guaranteed - but potentially possible.

Make sure she doesn't use her SIN to work. Those who are studying at the high school level on a study permit are not allowed to work.

WOW. You have been very helpful.Thank you. This is not good news. But its better to be aware. I had a thought though.. What if I legally adopted her? Would she be able to the same rights to stay a Canadian. Her mother is not able to take care of her. We have become the sole provider for her.

 

[scylla]

WOW. You have been very helpful.Thank you. This is not good news. But its better to be aware. I had a thought though.. What if I legally adopted her? Would she be able to the same rights to stay a Canadian. Her mother is not able to take care of her. We have become the sole provider for her.

No - that most likely won't work since she's not an orphan.

How old is she? How long has she been living with you?

 

[Sandra2018]

No - that most likely won't work since she's not an orphan.

How old is she? How long has she been living with you?

Hello, She 16. My husband and I have been caring for her on and off over the last 8 years; ever since her father passed away. Since she was 8.

 

[dbss]

I would suggest humanitarian as a last ditch effort but the question before for me and IRCC would be why cannot your daughter take care of the child? Why does she need to stay with you?

https://www.canada.ca/en/immigratio...tions/humanitarian-compassionate-grounds.html

 

[Sandra2018]

I would suggest humanitarian as a last ditch effort but the question before for me and IRCC would be why cannot your daughter take care of the child? Why does she need to stay with you?

https://www.canada.ca/en/immigratio...tions/humanitarian-compassionate-grounds.html

Thank you. Makes sense. My daughter doe not have a steady job. She is living a shared accommodation setting which is not good for my granddaughter.

 

[zardoz]

WOW. You have been very helpful.Thank you. This is not good news. But its better to be aware. I had a thought though.. What if I legally adopted her? Would she be able to the same rights to stay a Canadian. Her mother is not able to take care of her. We have become the sole provider for her.

That would, I suspect, quite rightly be seen by IRCC as an "Adoption of Convenience" performed solely for the purpose of gaining immigration status.

 

[scylla]

Hello, She 16. My husband and I have been caring for her on and off over the last 8 years; ever since her father passed away. Since she was 8.

The on and off won't count - and doesn't support adoption or sponsorship. If she had severed all parental ties with her mother many years ago and you had been her primary caregiver for many years - that might be a different story.

H&C has some chance of working. Hard to know how much of a chance based on the information provided. If you want to go the H&C route, highly recommend you hire an immigration lawyer to assist you.

 

[Sandra2018]

Thank you

That would, I suspect, quite rightly be seen by IRCC as an "Adoption of Convenience" performed solely for the purpose of gaining immigration status.

thank you