What Does My Child Need to Show to Host Me on a Super Visa?

The host must be your biological or adopted child or grandchild, and you must be able to prove it. They must be a Canadian citizen, a permanent resident or registered under the Indian Act, at least 18 years old, and living in Canada. They meet or exceed the minimum necessary income for their family size, and they write and sign a letter of invitation.

The letter must include proof of the income, the list of everyone counted in the family size, and each person's name and date of birth. The host's spouse or common-law partner can co-sign and add their income if they are also a citizen, permanent resident or registered Indian. Siblings and other relatives cannot.

Everyone below goes in the count. You and any other super visa applicant the host will support, such as your spouse. The host. The host's spouse or common-law partner, including a separated spouse. Dependent children of the host and of their spouse or partner, whatever the custody arrangement. Anyone else the host or their spouse is already hosting on a super visa under a letter that still applies. And anyone the host or co-signer previously sponsored while that undertaking is still in force.

IRCC's own example: a host with a spouse and one child invites one grandparent, and the spouse is already hosting two parents on super visas. That is a family of six, even if those two parents are not in Canada at the moment.

Minimum income by family size, as updated by IRCC on July 29, 2025: one person $30,526; two $38,002; three $46,720; four $56,724; five $64,336; six $72,560; seven $80,784. For each person beyond seven, add $8,224.

Option one: the host's total income, with the co-signer's if there is one, met the figure in either of the 2 tax years before the application. Proof is the Canada Revenue Agency notice of assessment.

Option two: the host's income in the year before the application was at least 75 percent of the figure, and you add your own income to reach the full amount. IRCC prefers the notice of assessment but accepts a T4 or T1, twelve months of pay stubs, an employer letter with title, duties and salary, bank statements showing pension or employment deposits, pension statements, or rental contracts. For your own contribution you must show the income will continue while you are in Canada, and the document must state the currency.

You apply from outside Canada and take an immigration medical exam. You hold private health insurance valid for at least a year from entry, with at least $100,000 of emergency coverage, from a Canadian insurer or an approved foreign one. The insurance note goes through the policy rules. And the general visitor test still applies: the officer must be satisfied you will leave when the visit ends.

A super visa lets you stay in Canada for 5 years. If you want 6 months or less, IRCC points you to a plain visitor visa, and our comparison sets out the trade-offs. If a sponsorship is already filed, you can apply for a super visa while it waits.

The family count, because previously sponsored parents and separated spouses are the people hosts forget. Then the notice of assessment against the right row, and whether option two is needed. In our experience, a host who is $2,000 short in the last tax year often clears the bar with the year before. Our super visa service starts with that arithmetic.