It was 2018 when my parents finally started considering immigrating to Canada. The tension between Taiwan and China continued to intensify, and their old age made them recognize the advantage of being closer to me.
For me, it would be nice to get an opportunity to be close to them. It'll give me a bit more time to work and accumulate wealth. Perhaps we could even accumulate a few more happy memories before I finally decide to retire. Yes, retire. But that's a story for another day.
We don't know if China would ever attack Taiwan, but their intention for reunification is certain. As to "how" they would do it, although there are a few guesses here and there by various sources, we wouldn't ever really know. What we do know though, is that religious freedom is extremely important to my parents, and we want to help protect that. So we started looking into sponsoring them through the Parents and Grandparents Immigration program.
- The Most Dangerous Place On Earth by The Economist:
https://www.economist.com/leaders/2021/05/01/the-most-dangerous-place-on-earth - What Happens if China Invades Taiwan by Johnny Harris:
https://youtu.be/VNZ0so0LCoM?si=ckZC7XmTMiAlCP2L - T-Day: The Battle for Taiwan by Reuters:
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/section/taiwan-china/
Government of Canada: Sponsor your parents and grandparents:
https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/immigrate-canada/family-sponsorship/sponsor-parents-grandparents.html
Spring 2020 - Practice Run
I first downloaded the most current forms for us to look through (the 2019 forms). This allowed us to get an idea of the types of questions we need to find answers for and the supporting documents we would need to gather. I met with my parents through video conference once a week for a few months combing through each instruction, definition, form, and field, and filled them in as if we're filling them in for real. For questions that needed research, my parents took them away and came back with answers the following weeks.
We went through the Guide, the Checklist, all the Sponsor Forms, all the Applicant Forms, and the Representative form, all of which, are available on the "How to apply" page. It is tedious and takes a while to go through. You might think that there's little value in going through this practice run when it isn't even the forms you need to submit for your year, but trust me, because you only get 30 days to finish everything when the real thing come around, this did most of the heavy lifting for us and saved us, big time.
Oct. 2020 - Interest to Sponsor
Submit your interest to sponsor form:
https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/immigrate-canada/family-sponsorship/sponsor-parents-grandparents/tell-us-you-want-sponsor-parent-grandparent.html
The Canadian government will indicate a specific window of time when they will accept a sponsor's "Interest to Sponsor" form. This is a one page simple web form that the sponsor will need to fill in to get into the pool to get drawn for the chance to apply.
We monitored this page closely each week until the next available window was posted. Then we submitted the form as soon as we could.
Questions on this form include:
- Sponsor's current legal status (ie. Canadian citizen or permanent resident), status document numbers (ie. passport number), and an attachment of the status document
- Sponsor name, D.O.B., place of birth, address, email
- Applicant name(s), D.O.B.(s)
- Declaration and submit
After submitting, we got a confirmation message and number, which you can use to look up whether you've been drawn to apply. I received an email confirmation as well. The format of our confirmation number is X#X##XX-##.
The Waiting Game
The day applicants are drawn for 2020 came and gone. I wasn't sure if their email went to my junk box or if they simply didn't email us. I used our confirmation number to check their system, and realized we weren't drawn. The Canadian government publishes the number of applications they allow under the Parents and Grandparents category each year as well as the number of applications they receive.
How many applications to sponsor parents and grandparents do you accept each year?
https://www.ircc.canada.ca/english/helpcentre/answer.asp?qnum=820&top=14
There used to be a link to the site where all the confirmation numbers and their statuses were listed, but I wasn't able to find it today. Regardless, if it was available, you should be able to find it through the following page.
Find out if you're invited to apply:
https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/immigrate-canada/family-sponsorship/sponsor-parents-grandparents/selected.html
The application lottery happened again in 2021, and we weren't chosen again. This is when the uncertainty really sank in. There's no guarantee we will ever get drawn, no matter how many times we try or how long we wait.
Sponsors are required to meet a certain level of income, depending how the number of people they need to support in their household, for 3 consecutive years prior to the application. This meant if we lost our jobs, we needed to find another one right away. This meant we couldn't voluntarily take a year off if we wanted to. This meant we may need to withdraw our RSP in order to meet this income requirement. And this was for an indefinite period of time until we are chosen to apply, which put quite a bit of pressure for us, feeling like we weren't free to live life however we wanted, that we had to put our plans on hold in order to make this work.
How do I calculate my family size to sponsor my parents and grandparents?
https://www.ircc.canada.ca/english/helpcentre/answer.asp?qnum=1460&top=14
How much income do I need to sponsor my parents and grandparents?
https://www.ircc.canada.ca/english/helpcentre/answer.asp?qnum=1445&top=14
During this time, we had to think about how long we were willing to wait for, and what sort of income contingencies we could come up with in case something happened. The unknown ate at me and I felt like my life was no longer in my own hands...
Oct. 2022 - Invitation to Apply
Luckily, we didn't have to wait too long. Exactly 2 years later, we were notified that we were invited to apply. Given all the horror stories we've heard online, we recognize how lucky we were in having to wait only for 2 years.
The benefit of submitting the Representative form is that all correspondences came through to my email, so everything was clear and transparent to me. The letter informed us that we have until Dec. 24, 2022 to submit all application forms, supporting documents, and fee payments. Fortunately, because we went through the dry-run in 2020, we were able to reuse 80% of what we've done back then for the 2022 forms, which saved us a ton of time. In fact, if you can afford it, I would even go through the trouble of obtaining the certified translations of each of the supporting documents (ex. birth certificate, marriage certificate, exit/entry record...etc.) just so you can see how long it takes to do each one.
The main difference between the forms we practiced in 2020 and the ones we had to submit in 2022 were the resumes / CV that they require for each applicant / dependent. It took me a little bit of time, but there are a lot of resources online (look on Youtube) that coach you through how to write one that it wasn't too much additional trouble. Just remember that the forms and documents should all align and have the same dates / timelines.
We applied through the Permanent Residence Portal, which you'll need to register an account for the applicant: https://prson-srpel.apps.cic.gc.ca/en/login
One thing we did, which I think helped with our application, was creating our own checklist / letter of explanation on any items that may be ambiguous or unclear. Some of the web form fields had character limits that cut off school names, some of the Chinese characters didn't go through, some Romanized spellings were inconsistent. I used this checklist / letter to explain each and every question the immigration officer could potentially ask, in hopes to reduce the back and forth required in case clarity was needed. I also attached screen shots of the submission confirmation of each documents in the letter so there's a visual of each form and document that was submitted through the portal.
At the time of our application, the processing time listed was 37 months.
Check processing times:
https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/application/check-processing-times.html
A Flurry of Movements
Given we were quoted 37 months, we thought we would have a lot of time to prepare for the move. I put in my calendar to follow up in October of 2025. But to our surprise, we started to see movement in August of 2023, only 8 months later. Here's a log of events the followed:
- Jul. 2023: Received email with confirmation that they received it
- Aug. 2023
- Received 2 emails with biometrics instruction letter
- Sep. 2023
- Received informational email with pre-arrival services
- Parents went to Taipei to complete biometrics appointments
- Received email notifying us that we have met the requirements for eligibility as sponsors
- Registered for IRCC account as per instructions. Tried linking application through IRCC account. Failed.
- Received email that mentioned their application has been assigned to a case processing centre
- Received 2 emails with medical exam and criminal check instructions
- Parents went to Taichung to complete their medical exams
- Parents obtained Taiwan criminal clearance certificate
- Parents finished doing finger prints, sent finger prints to the FBI to get their US criminal clearance
- Oct. 2023
- Successfully linked out application through IRCC account
- Saw that we passed biometrics
- Emailed IRCC the additional supporting documents (address, Taiwanese criminal checks, and US criminal checks)
- Received response that IRCC has received them. Also confirmed it in our IRCC account
- Nov. 2023
- Received letter through IRCC portal to go get Confirmation of Permanent Residence in Taipei
- Parents went to Taipei to deliver the COPR package and take new photos
- Received IRCC account update: "Your application was approved"
- Received physical copies of COPR
Moving
What I didn't anticipate, was how hard it would be to determine the steps required to settle things in Taiwan so my parents could move here. Without a pre-existing checklist, we made our own lists of recurring bills they paid, tried to move as many online as possible. We simplified as much administrative and financial things as possible, and booked their tickets.
Jan. 2024 - Landing
They were 99% done, but won't become permanent residents until they physically land in Canada. There are a lot of resources online regarding the landing procedure, and we read through all of them to prepare ourselves. But the process was a lot easier than described.
Prepare for arrival
https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/immigrate-canada/family-sponsorship/sponsor-parents-grandparents/prepare-arrival.html
CANN YVR Landing Procedures
https://cannyvr.ca/landing-procedure/
They landed at the Vancouver International Airport. After going through the usual customs kiosks and picking up their luggage, they were able to park their luggage at a designated spot right across from carousel 24. They were asked about their Canadian address, phone number, email addresses, and proceeded to a second queue. After waiting their turn, they met with an immigration officer that confirmed that they were still married and that they have not committed any crimes between the time they were issued the COPR and the time they landed, and that was the end of it. The entire process took less than 2 hours.
During this entire journey, online resources were a huge help to me. Despite the Canadian Government's best efforts, it's hard to picture the entire process end-to-end. So I wanted to publish our experience in case it's helpful for anyone going through the process too.
