Bringing Adopted Children to Canada: Sponsorship or Citizenship?

On This Page, You Will Find:

• Two routes to bring an adopted child to Canada
• Which route you must use
• How Bill C-3 changed the citizenship route
• Who can sponsor an adopted child
• Is there an income requirement?
• The adoption itself: provinces, Hague and letters
• Relatives, adults and adoptions of convenience
• Quebec’s separate process
• Forms, fees and processing times
• Frequently asked questions

Bringing a child adopted abroad to Canada involves two separate processes that run in sequence: the adoption itself, which is handled by the provinces and territories, and then a federal immigration or citizenship application handled by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). Both must be complete before the child travels to Canada to live.

The federal step is where most families face a genuine decision. Depending on their circumstances, adoptive parents either must use a specific route or may choose between two, and the choice has consequences that follow the child for life – including whether that child will one day be able to pass Canadian citizenship to their own children born outside Canada.

Two Routes to Bring an Adopted Child to Canada

There are two federal routes, and they produce different outcomes.

• Sponsorship for permanent residence. The adoptive parent sponsors the child under the family class. The child is issued a permanent resident visa and a confirmation of permanent residence before leaving, and receives a PR card after arriving. A medical exam and background checks are required. The child can later be naturalized as a Canadian citizen.
• Direct grant of citizenship. Under section 5.1 of the Citizenship Act, an adoptive parent who was a Canadian citizen at the time of the adoption may apply for a direct grant of citizenship for the adopted person. No medical exam and no background checks are required. IRCC mails a certificate of Canadian citizenship, and the child can then apply for a Canadian passport.

The critical trade-off concerns the next generation. An adopted person who becomes a citizen through the direct grant is generally treated as a citizen by descent and is caught by the first-generation limit: they cannot pass citizenship to a child born outside Canada on or after December 15, 2025, and cannot obtain a direct grant for a child they adopt abroad on or after that date, unless they have accumulated at least 1,095 days of physical presence in Canada beforehand. An adopted person who instead becomes a permanent resident and is later naturalized is not caught by the limit and can pass citizenship on normally.

Two other differences matter. The citizenship route is faster in practical terms because it skips the medicals and security screening, but in some countries the child may lose their original nationality on becoming Canadian. A permanent resident does not lose their foreign nationality. IRCC recommends that parents using the citizenship route still have the child examined by a reliable doctor and obtain a full report, even though no immigration medical is required.

Which Route You Must Use

You must use the citizenship process if the adopted child will not be living in Canada immediately after the adoption and citizenship processes are finished.

You must use the immigration (sponsorship) process if any of the following applies:

• neither adoptive parent was a Canadian citizen when the adoption took place;
• you are caught by the first-generation limit to citizenship by descent; or
• you are adopting from a country that requires a probationary period before the adoption can be finalized, meaning the adoption will be finalized in Canada.

You may choose either route if at least one adoptive parent was a Canadian citizen at the time of the adoption and that parent is able to pass citizenship by descent to the adopted person. Where the adoption will be finalized in Canada after a probationary period, the sponsorship application can be started before the adoption process is complete.

How Bill C-3 Changed the Citizenship Route

Bill C-3, An Act to amend the Citizenship Act (2025), received royal assent on November 20, 2025 and took effect on December 15, 2025. It removed the first-generation limit in certain situations and it changed the arithmetic for adoptive families. This is the point on which older guidance is most likely to be wrong.

The current rules, as stated by IRCC:

• Adopted before December 15, 2025. People born and adopted outside Canada in the second generation or later are likely now eligible to apply for a direct grant of citizenship for adopted people – a route that was closed to them before Bill C-3.
• Adopted on or after December 15, 2025. A second-generation-or-later adopted person is eligible for a direct grant only if the Canadian adoptive parent spent at least 1,095 days (three years) physically in Canada before the date of the adoption. This is the substantial-connection test.
• Crown servant exception. The 1,095-day test does not apply where, at the time of the adoption, an adoptive parent was employed outside Canada as a Canadian Crown servant, or where a parent of that adoptive parent was so employed at the time of the adoptive parent’s own birth or adoption. Locally engaged staff are excluded.
• Second Canadian parent. A child adopted on or after December 15, 2025 may still qualify if a second adoptive parent is a Canadian citizen who can pass on citizenship by descent.

Bill C-3 did not take citizenship away from anyone who already held it. Anyone who thinks the change made them a citizen must apply for a citizenship certificate to confirm it. Our guide to what Bill C-3 means now that it is in effect covers the descent rules in more detail.

Who Can Sponsor an Adopted Child

To sponsor an adopted child under the family class, you must be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, at least 18 years old, and living in Canada. A citizen living abroad may apply but must return to live in Canada by the time the child becomes a permanent resident. Permanent residents must be residing in Canada throughout.

You may be barred from sponsoring if you failed to meet the terms of an earlier sponsorship undertaking, defaulted on a court-ordered support payment such as alimony or child support, or were convicted of a sexual offence, a violent criminal offence or an offence against a relative causing bodily harm – depending on the nature of the offence, how long ago it occurred and whether a record suspension was granted.

Sponsorship carries an undertaking to support the child for 10 years or until the child turns 25, whichever comes first. A separate application is required for each child, even for siblings adopted together.

Is There an Income Requirement?

No, in the ordinary case. IRCC states plainly that the minimum necessary income based on the Low Income Cut-Off does not apply where the person being sponsored is a child you have adopted or intend to adopt in Canada and that child has no children of their own. Sponsors still complete the Financial Evaluation form (IMM 1283), and the exemption falls away if the adopted child has dependants. Quebec residents are assessed separately, as set out below.

The Adoption Itself: Provinces, Hague and Letters

IRCC has no role in the adoption step. Provinces and territories are responsible for adoptions, and the first call is always to your provincial or territorial central adoption authority. They determine whether you need a licensed agency, explain the sending country’s laws, and conduct the home study.

Canada has been a party to the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in respect of Intercountry Adoption since 1996. Canada’s federal central authority under the Convention is Intercountry Adoption Services within IRCC, which coordinates between provincial, federal and foreign authorities. Where the Convention applies, its requirements must be met. IRCC may refuse an immigration or citizenship application if the adoption did not follow the Convention’s safeguards – for example, if the child was not legally available for adoption – or did not follow Canadian and local law. Some countries currently suspend or restrict intercountry adoption altogether.

On the sponsorship route, you can apply once the adoption process is under way and the province or territory has issued one of three documents: a Letter of Agreement, a Letter of No Objection, or a Letter of No Involvement. Separately, before a permanent resident visa is issued in any adoption case, IRCC must obtain a letter from the provincial or territorial authority confirming it has no objection to the adoption; IRCC requests this directly at the time of sponsorship approval. Many sending countries also require post-adoption progress reports, which are the adoptive parent’s responsibility.

Relatives, Adults and Adoptions of Convenience

For every adoption, on either route, the adoption must be legal in the child’s home country and in your province or territory, must permanently end the legal relationship between the child and the biological parents, must create a genuine parent-child relationship, must be in the best interests of the child, and must not be entered into primarily to acquire status in Canada. Informed consent from both biological parents is required where they are living. That last condition is the rule against adoptions of convenience, and it is applied on the facts.

Adopting a relative is possible but is not simpler: different rules from your province or territory and from the country of origin may apply, and IRCC applies heightened scrutiny where the country of origin carries a higher risk of child trafficking. Applications from those countries take longer.

Adoptions of adults are permitted but narrower. The immigration route allows adoption of a person aged 18 or over only where the adoption was completed outside Canada. For a person adopted at 18 or older, the best-interests test does not apply, but a genuine parent-child relationship must have existed both before the person turned 18 and at the time of the adoption. Guardianships and similar custody arrangements do not qualify as adoptions.

Quebec’s Separate Process

Quebec runs its own adoption and sponsorship process. The provincial central authority is the Secrétariat aux services internationaux à l’enfant (SASIE), and Quebec residents – including Canadians who lived in Quebec before moving abroad – contact SASIE first.

On the sponsorship side, Quebec, not IRCC, decides whether a sponsor has the financial capacity to sponsor and how long the undertaking lasts. After IRCC confirms you meet the federal sponsorship requirements, it sends instructions to download Quebec’s undertaking kit, which you submit to the Ministère de l’Immigration, de la Francisation et de l’Intégration (MIFI) along with a copy of that letter. IRCC cannot decide the application until Quebec rules on the undertaking. Quebec also charges its own processing fee, paid to the province and not included with the federal application.

Forms, Fees and Processing Times

On the sponsorship route, the governing document is Instruction Guide IMM 5196. The sponsor completes the Application to Sponsor, Sponsorship Agreement and Undertaking (IMM 1344), the Financial Evaluation (IMM 1283) and the Medical Condition Statement (IMM 0133), and uses the Document Checklist – Sponsor (IMM 5287). The applicant’s side is filed through the permanent residence online portal and includes the Generic Application Form for Canada (IMM 0008), Schedule A – Background/Declaration (IMM 5669) and Additional Family Information (IMM 5406). A Separation Declaration for Minors Travelling to Canada (IMM 5604) and a Statutory Declaration of Common-law Union (IMM 5409) apply in some cases. A parent or guardian signs for an applicant under 18. If a child has not yet been matched, the child’s name may be left blank on the sponsorship forms.

On the citizenship route, the application package has two parts – Part 1 confirms the adoptive parent’s Canadian citizenship and ability to pass it on, and Part 2 is the adopted person’s application. It is a paper application, mailed to the IRCC Digitization Centre – Adoptions in New Waterford, Nova Scotia. Urgent processing can be requested. Fees are non-refundable, so confirm eligibility first.

Fees. IRCC’s fee tables for both adoption routes are published on the official fee list, and the amounts are indexed and change periodically. At the time of writing, the fee figures were not rendering on IRCC’s own pages, so we are not reproducing dollar amounts here other than the one IRCC states directly: biometrics cost CAD $85 per person, to a maximum of CAD $170 for a family applying at the same time. Adopted children over 14 must give biometrics for every permanent residence application, within 30 days of the instruction letter. Note that the sponsorship fee for an adopted child covers the sponsorship fee and the processing fee only – there is no right of permanent residence fee. Always confirm current amounts on IRCC’s fee list before paying.

Processing times. IRCC does not publish a fixed service standard for either adoption route and states that times vary with the complexity of the case. It warns that in some cases an adopted child’s immigration or citizenship application can take several years, and that this excludes the adoption process itself. Check IRCC’s tool for the current estimate, and see our pages on family sponsorship processing times and Canada immigration processing times. Where a child comes to Canada as a permanent resident, the family can later apply for citizenship on the child’s behalf once the adoption is finalized and the child holds permanent resident status.

Frequently Asked Questions