Sponsorship of an orphaned, minor nephew

Thankfully sponsorships of orphaned, minor relatives are relatively rare, but when they do come up, you know the circumstances are sad. Today, I got some great news on a file! A passport request came in for a young man orphaned and living in Tanzania. He lost his father to kidney failure when he was only 7 and his mother died in a car accident only two years later when he was 9. Since then he has been living with a great uncle who has been caring for him as best he can.

This young man’s aunt in Canada came to see me about how she could help him out, knowing his situation was far from ideal. We were able to file a sponsorship under the Family Class.

Under s. 117 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations, an unmarried, under 18, orphaned nephew is considered a member of the Family Class:

117 (1) A foreign national is a member of the family class if, with respect to a sponsor, the foreign national is

(f) a person whose parents are deceased, who is under 18 years of age, who is not a spouse or common-law partner and who is

(i) a child of the sponsor’s mother or father,

(ii) a child of a child of the sponsor’s mother or father, or

(iii) a child of the sponsor’s child;

The biggest challenge with these kinds of applications is to prove a child is orphaned and a minor, especially in countries where documents to prove these facts may be hard to come by.

We filed an application in December 2019 and just received the request for the child’s passport. Really happy about the relatively fast processing amid all the COVID-19 delays!