Guide to the Private Sponsorship of Refugees Program
2. Private Sponsorship of Refugees Program
2.9 How is a match made between a sponsoring group and a refugee?
There are two ways to achieve a match between a sponsoring group and a refugee.
1) Sponsor-referred: The sponsoring group puts forward the name of a refugee or refugee family it is interested in sponsoring. The group may have obtained the referral from an overseas contact, a friend, the relative of a member of the organization, or elsewhere. Sponsorship Agreement Holders/Constituent Groups, Groups of Five and Community Sponsors submit the sponsorship application on behalf of the sponsor-referred refugee to the CPO-W.
A group that would like to refer a refugee applicant for sponsorship should:
- consider whether or not the person is likely to be eligible for the private sponsorship program. (See “Who may be sponsored?” and “Who may not be sponsored?”) Ineligible applicants will be refused;
- determine whether the person has relatives or friends in Canada. In most cases, refugees should be resettled in their relative’s community.
2) Visa office-referred: The Matching Centre at CIC national headquarters in Ottawa administers an inventory of “visa office-referred” cases that have already been selected but require a private sponsorship before a permanent resident visa can be issued. Sponsoring groups may request profiles of refugee cases from CIC. The sponsoring group is given approximately three weeks to decide whether to proceed with the sponsorship or consider other profiles. Visa office-referred cases are normally ready to travel to Canada within one to four months of being matched with a sponsor. However, delays may occur in some “travel-ready” cases because of problems in arranging exit permits, travel documents, etc. Once the sponsorship is signed, the local Citizenship and Immigration Centre works with the Matching Centre and the visa office to provide the sponsor with more accurate information regarding departure and arrival dates, as well as any particular settlement needs that might exist in transit and in the first few weeks after the refugees have arrived in Canada.
Sponsoring groups can request a visa office-referred case by completing form IMM 5496 (Request for a Refugee Profile) and submitting it to the CPO-W. SAHs can view profiles of visa office-referred cases online.
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