Sponsorship Undertaking and Settlement Plan: Community Sponsor (CS) (IMM 5663)

The Sponsorship Undertaking and Settlement Plan (IMM 5663) is used to assess whether your organization has the capacity to fulfil the financial and non-financial obligations to support the refugees so they can establish successfully in Canada.

• The Signing Authority for the CS, the Signing Authority for the organizational co-sponsor (if applicable) and individual co-sponsor(s) (if applicable), should discuss settlement arrangements and responsibilities together and jointly fill out the settlement plan.
• Your organization must support the refugees for 12 months from the date of arrival or until they become self-sufficient, whichever comes first.
• In exceptional cases where the officer abroad had concerns about the refugee’s ability to become established in Canada (as per R139 (1) (g) of IRPR), sponsors may be asked to provide support for the refugee for up to 36 months. This is at the discretion of the officer abroad (as per R154 (3) of IRPR) and you may be contacted later in the process if the officer has made this determination.

Fill in the form

For BVOR sponsorships

If you are sponsoring refugees referred to your sponsoring organization by IRCC under the (BVOR) Blended Visa Office-Referred Program:

• check the box for (BVOR) Blended Visa Office-Referred sponsorships
• type the profile number you received from ROC-O

Type the following details about your community organization:

• organization name
• family name, given names and date of birth of your organization’s President, CEO, Executive Director or equivalent
• family names, given names and date of birth of the Signing Authority
• organization’s address
• contact details: home, business or cell phone numbers and email address

If you have one or more co-sponsors in this application, check “yes” (if not, check “no”).

If you checked “yes”, more fields will appear.

Type the following details about the co-sponsor(s):

• from the drop-down menu, select if the co-sponsor is an individual or organization (more fields will appear)
• to add another co-sponsor, click the “add a co-sponsor” button
• to remove a co-sponsor, click the “remove this co-sponsor” button

For each co-sponsor, type the following details:

• the name of the organizational co-sponsor, if applicable
• the name of the individual co-sponsor or organizational co-sponsor Signing Authority’s family name, given names and date of birth
• Unique Client Identifier (UCI), if applicable and if known. This number is found on official documents you get from IRCC, if you have immigrated to Canada. It can be either eight or ten digits (Example: 0000-0000 or 00000-00000). If you do not have or do not know your UCI number, type “N/A”
• relationship to the PA, if applicable. If it is not applicable, type ‘N/A’
• address of the individual co-sponsor or organizational co-sponsor Signing Authority
• contact details, including: home, business or cell phone number and email address

• All names and personal information must match your travel documents.
  • Type all names and biographic information exactly as shown on the PA and family member’s passports or travel documents.
  • Also make sure the biographic information matches between the Generic Application Form [IMM 0008] and the Sponsorship Undertaking and Settlement Plan (IMM 5663).
  • If there are any discrepancies, the application may be returned.
• All persons who do not meet the definition of family member as per IRPR should have their own sponsorship and permanent residence applications.
  • If you submit the name of a person in this section that is not a family member as per the regulations, the application may be returned.

Principal applicant (PA)

Type the:

• family name
• given names
• gender
• date of birth
• place and country of birth, including the name of the town or city
• marital status
• country of citizenship
• other citizenship, if applicable

Family Members

Before you complete this section, check to see who qualifies as a family member.

If you have more family members to add, follow the instructions below:

• if you check “yes”, more fields will appear
  • click the “add additional family member” button to add more family members
  • click the “remove this family member” button to remove a family member

For each family member, type or select from the drop down menu:

• family name
• given names
• gender
• date of birth
• place and country of birth, including the name of the town or city
• marital status
• country of citizenship
• relationship to the PA (spouse, common-law partner, son or daughter, child of son or daughter)
• check the box to indicate if the family member will be accompanying or non-accompanying when the PA travels to Canada
• citizenship
• other citizenship, if applicable

• Fill in this section if you want to link multiple sponsorship applications.
  • Applications can be linked if applicants plan to live in one household or as a family unit in Canada. This may include caregivers or de facto dependants (who do not meet the definition of a family member as per IRPR).
  • Efforts will be made to have linked applications processed at the same time.
• Listing applications that do not need to travel together will delay processing of your applications.
  • Only link applications when applicants must all travel together to Canada.
  • The information you fill in must be identical to the biographic information that is on the linked application. If not, ROC-O might not be able to link the applications together.

Type the:

• family name of the other PA
• given names
• date of birth
• application number (G number) if known

Click “add application” to add another linked application. Click “remove application” to remove a linked application.

To determine if your organization can sponsor as a Community Sponsor, a ROC-O officer needs to understand how your organization functions.

Complete questions 1-6 in this section, providing as much details as possible about your organization. Make sure you include any supporting documents with your application.

Settlement Plan

• Be as precise and detailed as possible.
  • Do not leave any questions blank.
  • Not applicable (N/A) is not an acceptable answer to the narrative questions.
  • Note that, the officer assessing your application does not know you and cannot make assumptions about the services you will be providing to the refugees.
• Each settlement plan must address the unique needs of the PA and their dependents.
  • Include details of your plan to address the unique needs of the PA and all their dependents whether they are accompanying or not the PA to Canada.
  • Your answers should not be copied from other settlement plans.
• Consider financial and non-financial obligations already committed for other sponsorships.
  • If your community, organizational co-sponsor or individual co-sponsor are currently sponsoring other refugees, in a cover letter list these sponsorships.
  • Provide an explanation as to how much money the individual co-sponsor contributed for each sponsorship and how your sponsorship group will be able to manage your time to provide settlement support to all the refugees you are sponsoring and the refugees you want to sponsor under this application.
• Include the settlement needs of every refugee applicant named on the Sponsorship Undertaking
  • The settlement plan must include the needs on every named applicant, even if they will not come to Canada with the PA.
  • if you do not consider non-accompanying family members in your settlement plan and financial assessment, your application may be refused.

Question 1

Are you planning on employing refugees within your organization?

If you check the box for “yes”, the following two questions will appear:

Question 2

Provide details on the employment that will be offered

Provide details on your plan for employing refugees, including the type of work involved and number of hours per week.

Question 3

Explain how employment within your organization will be part of the sponsored refugee’s overall settlement and integration plan

Explain how will you ensure that the refugee(s) receive(s) necessary language training and other settlement services while working?). Will the refugee(s) be expected to work immediately, and if so, what will you do if they are unable to do so due to special needs or other settlement considerations?

Note:

• employment must conform to federal and provincial labour standards and regulations
• employment should not interfere with the refugee’s efforts to learn one of Canada’s official languages or to receive other necessary settlement services
• information about hiring newcomers

Check the box to indicate who will provide for the settlement needs of the refugees over the duration of the sponsorship period. Where more than one party is providing for a particular need, check all boxes that apply.

If a need is not applicable to your case, check the box under “not applicable”. A new field will appear where you must explain why that need does not apply.

Housing Plans:

• When you check the box to indicate who will be responsible for ensuring housing plans are in place, more fields will appear:

Question 1 – Please explain what housing arrangements will be made for the refugee(s)

Provide details of your planned housing arrangement, including the following:

• type of building (high-rise apartment, townhouse, detached house, shared accommodation, etc.)
• number and type of rooms available to the sponsored refugees (number of bedrooms, bathrooms, types of living areas, basement, kitchen etc.)
• types of furnishing (sofas, number of beds, dining table, etc.)
• if the refugee will be sharing this permanent housing with others, provide:
  • the name of the person hosting the refugees and relationship to the PA (if applicable) and
  • the number of other people living there

If you are arranging temporary housing upon arrival, provide details about the accommodation as listed above and additionally:

• the accommodation arrangement in the temporary housing
• the time frame when you expect to find permanent housing
• details of the permanent housing you expect to arrange

If shelter is being donated in-kind (at no cost), explain if it is being donated by:

• a member of the sponsoring group (and if so, which member(s); or
• a third party that is not a member of the sponsoring group

See options for providing in-kind shelter.

Question 2 – If known, please provide the address of the planned housing

Provide the address of temporary and/or permanent housing if known.

Question 3 – Do you have a back-up plan if your initial housing plan does not work?

Please explain your contingency plan if your planned housing arrangement does not work.

This cost estimate will be used by IRCC to assess your financial capacity as part of your sponsorship application. This is an estimate only, and is based on a the sponsorship cost table, which is an average of all the provincial/territorial social assistance rates in Canada. Depending on where you live, this estimate may be higher or lower than the actual amount of money needed for the sponsorship. The actual amount that you will need to provide to the refugee(s) after their arrival in Canada is based on the Resettlement Assistance Program (RAP) rates and policy in the community where the refugee(s) will live. Refer to the Post-arrival Support Requirements for Private Sponsorships for additional details on financial requirements for sponsorships

1. Minimum Financial Requirement

   The family size and minimum financial requirement will be automatically calculated based on the information you enter in section C. The minimum expected amount of money to sponsor is indicated in the Sponsorship Cost Table (Appendix A).

2. Estimated living costs in the expected community of settlement

   In this section you will create a budget based on annual estimated settlement costs for the refugees. The budget includes:

   • start-up costs (items purchased once to help the refugees get established)
   • ongoing monthly costs (including rent, food, phone and internet, pocket money and allowances and transportation costs)

   For one-time start-up costs, enter the estimated amount for each item.

   For ongoing monthly costs, enter the estimated monthly cost. The annual cost column and total annual living costs fields will be automatically calculated.

   The total annual living costs you budget for must be greater than or equal to the minimum financial requirement in section H (i).

3. Donations

   In this section, you can deduct costs for items you are donating.

   • Use the In-kind Deduction Table in Appendix A.
   • Enter the in-kind deduction amount for each donated item.
   • Pay attention to the maximum allowable deductions for each item.
   • If the amount you enter is more than the maximum allowable deduction for the family size, you will get an error message and that amount will be deleted.
   • Enter shelter donations amount, only if donor is party to the sponsorship undertaking

   Options for providing in-kind shelter:

   Shelter may be donated fully in-kind as long as it is safe, secure and suitable for the size of the family unit, and provided to the refugee(s) without cost.

   In-kind shelter can be provided by anyone other than a refugee that is within their sponsorship period.

   Sponsors have the following options for demonstrating in-kind shelter:

   1. If housing is being donated by a member of the sponsorship group included as a signatory to the sponsorship undertaking:
      • The sponsoring group does not need to demonstrate that funds are in place to provide housing and may enter the full in-kind shelter amount in this section of the form.
   2. If housing is being donated by someone that isn’t a member of the sponsoring group, chose one of the following options:
      • Add the donor as a party to the sponsorship; or
      • Demonstrate in the proof of funds that 100% of the minimum required shelter amount per Sponsorship Cost tables (see Appendix A ) is in place to provide housing in case the third party support becomes unavailable. While shelter may still be provided fully in-kind post-arrival, the sponsor must demonstrate that funds are available at the application-stage as a contingency measure.
4. Financial Requirement
   • This section will automatically calculate your total financial requirement for sponsorship by subtracting the in-kind deductions from the estimated annual living costs.
   • If your estimated annual living costs are less than the minimum financial requirement in section H (i), the minimum financial requirement amount will be used for the calculation instead.
5. Total Committed Funds

   In this section, you must enter the amount of money each individual co-sponsor is committing and/or the funds held in trust, towards the sponsorship. If an individual co-sponsor is contributing personal income, enter the amount.

   If you are contributing funds in trust, you must explain how they were obtained and submit proof. If you do not explain how the funds were obtained, your application may be refused.

6. Assessment of Financial Capacity

   This section will indicate if your group has committed enough funds to sponsor. The form will automatically subtract the Financial Requirement in section iv from the Committed Funds in section v.

   • If your group has committed sufficient funds:
     • the balance will be positive and a checkmark will appear
   • If your group has not committed sufficient funds:
     • the balance will be negative and an X will appear
   The sponsorship application may be refused if the group has not committed sufficient funds.

This section must be read carefully, signed and understood by all parties to the sponsorship.

• Each sponsor must sign and date the application:
  • by signing here, each member of the sponsoring group declares that they understand and commit to upholding the terms outlined on the sponsorship undertaking and settlement plan, in accordance with the Post-arrival Support Requirements for Private Sponsorships.
  • if a signature is missing or if it is dated more than 90 days prior to the date of submission at ROC-O, the application may be returned
  • the president or the executive director of the organization must sign the Sponsorship Undertaking and Settlement Plan form along with the CS Signing Authority (if they are not the same person) and any co-sponsors
• As the sponsors, you must ensure that all the information contained in the application is accurate at the time of submission at ROC-O.

If there are changes to your sponsoring group’s composition or changes to the PA’s family composition at any stage in processing, a new Sponsorship Undertaking and Settlement Plan must be submitted.

See options for signing the sponsorship forms.

• Form was not submitted.
• Invalid version of form was submitted.
• Form was handwritten.
• Incomplete contact information:
  • Section A – Sponsor Information
  • Section B – Co-Sponsor Information
• One or more email address is missing or the email provided is invalid or not the sponsor’s own personal email address.
• PA and family member information does not match the Generic Application Form [IMM 0008] (PDF, 0.65 MB).
• Family member does not meet the definition of a family member as per the IRPR.
• Form was not signed and/or is dated more than 90 days from the date of the application’s submission to ROC-O.