Immigration Corner | I was adopted, but can I sponsor my biological mother?

Dear Miss Powell,

I am a Canadian citizen. I was adopted when I was a child. My adoptive mother is dead and I have found my birth mother in Jamaica. She isn’t married and I want to sponsor her to live with me in Canada. I also have a birth sister. I know I can’t sponsor her but, can she list me as a brother when she is doing her express entry application?

DN

Dear DN,

I do not know your history or the reasons for your adoption, and I suspect that this is a very emotional time for you. However, adoption means the act of taking another person’s child legally into your family to raise as your own child. This legal act created a legal parent-child relationship between yourself and your Canadian parents and severed the pre-existing legal parent-child relationship with your biological mother.

Under Canadian laws, when a child is adopted by Canadian parents, it is deemed to sever all pre-existing parental ties to its birth mother. You may have obtained Canadian citizenship through your adopted parents and so now your birth mother has permanently lost all rights and privileges as your mother.

When you were adopted, your relationship with your birth mother was fully and permanently severed. This principle can be found in the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations. It states that a full adoption severs a child’s legal relationship to their birth parents. Therefore, an adopted child cannot later sponsor a birth parent as, legally, the birth parent is no longer their mother.

RIGHTS OF SIBLINGS

Additionally, a full adoption also has the effect of severing ties to other members of your birth mother’s biological family, such as brothers, sisters, grandparents, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins. The biological family members of an adopted person will not qualify as members under the family class.

However, in the case of an adoption by a step-parent to jointly become the parent of the child of their spouse or partner, the relationship between the child and the remaining biological or legal parent does not have to be severed.

Therefore, regarding your siblings, I recommend that you consult an immigration lawyer to discuss the details and circumstances of your adoption, to see if there is a chance that your siblings can get the extra points under the Express Entry System.

SUPERVISA

Parents and grandparents of Canadian permanent residents or citizens can apply for a supervisa. This allows a parent or a grandparent to visit their children and grandchildren for a period of more than six months at a time and up to five years, without leaving Canada.

In your case, since you were adopted, your biological mother or grandmother would not qualify for a supervisa, as they would not be deemed legal family under the family class.

I recommend that your mother applies for a regular visitor’s visa/ temporary resident visa, which will give her the flexibility to visit you for up to six months at a time. She may also be able to apply for an extension of time beyond the six months, if she qualifies.

Your biological mother will need to first establish that she is a genuine visitor, that she will not work when she is visiting you, and that she will return to her country voluntarily at the end of the time granted, or apply for an extension of time if she requires it.

The key will be to show that she has greater ties to her home country than in Canada that will inspire her to return at the end of the time that is granted. Such ties may include ownership of property, savings, investments, motor vehicle, community involvement and other dependent or family members who reside in her home country.

If you have additional questions concerning this or other immigration concerns, please contact me to schedule a telephone or Zoom consultation.

Deidre S. Powell is a lawyer, mediator, and notary public in Canada. Submit your questions and comments to info@deidrepowell.com. You may call/ WhatsApp 613-695-8777 or find her on Facebook/ Instagram.