Bringing Ageing Parents: Which Countries Actually Allow It, and What It Costs

Imagine you are a nurse in Manila with a job offer in Toronto. The pay is far better for the same work. Your children will grow up with good schools and a hospital that answers the phone.

Then you look across the dinner table at your mother. She is 68. Your father's knees are bad. You are the one who takes them to their check-ups. Who will do that when you are on a night shift on the other side of the world?

For many families, this is the question that decides the move. Not the salary. Not the points score. Whether Mum and Dad can come too.

The short answer: Only a few countries let adult migrants bring parents to live permanently. Canada, Australia and New Zealand have real parent routes, but all three ration them with caps, queues or high prices. The United States lets citizens aged twenty-one and over sponsor a parent with no annual cap. The UK's route needs proof of serious care needs that most parents cannot show. Germany, the Netherlands and Ireland have no general route. Most families use long-stay parent visitor visas instead, such as Canada's Super Visa.

Who this guide is for

You are the sponsor. The answer depends on three things about you: where you are moving, whether you will be a citizen or permanent resident there, and how much you earn on paper over several years. If bringing your parents is a must, weigh the parent route next to salary and points. It can change which country you choose.

For the emotional and money side of leaving parents behind, read what happens to ageing parents when you migrate. This article covers the legal question.

Every figure here is a planning range as published when we checked in August 2026. Confirm current numbers on the official page before you budget or apply.

The four types of destination

Think of parent routes like doors into a building. Some doors open but have a long queue. Some let you visit but not move in. Some are locked unless you prove an emergency. Some are not there at all.

1. Sponsorship with a queue. Permanent, but rationed, with waits in years. The United States also fits here: US Citizenship and Immigration Services treats a parent of an adult US citizen as an immediate relative with no annual numerical cap, so the wait is processing time only.
2. Long-stay visitor visas. Long stays with private health cover, but no residence. Schengen has nothing like this. Visits are capped at 90 days in any 180.
3. Dependency test. You must prove your parent needs long-term care they cannot get at home. Refusal rates are high by design.
4. No realistic route. Tourist visits only, or residence tied to your own work permit (the Gulf model).

Canada: a real route, rationed by intake

Canada's Parents and Grandparents Program (PGP) is the strongest parent route our readers target. It is also the hardest to get into, because entry is rationed before anyone checks if you qualify.

Sponsors submit an interest-to-sponsor form during an open window. IRCC invites a limited number from that pool, and only they can apply. In recent years IRCC has drawn from older pools instead of opening a new one, so if you were never in a pool, you had no way in. This rule changes often. Check IRCC's PGP page.

The income test is where most sponsors get stuck. You must meet a minimum necessary income, set above the low income cut-off, for each of the three tax years before you apply. You prove it with Canada Revenue Agency notices of assessment. The amount grows with family size, and your parents count in that size. IRCC updates the table every year, so read the current one.

You also sign an undertaking to support your parent for twenty years from the day they get permanent residence (Quebec has its own shorter undertaking and income rules). If your parent claims social assistance in that time, the government can recover it from you. Processing has often taken well over a year.

The Super Visa: what most families actually use

The Super Visa lets parents and grandparents of citizens and permanent residents stay for long periods on a multi-entry visa valid for up to ten years. IRCC sets three conditions:

• A signed invitation and financial promise from you, the child.
• Proof you meet an income level based on the low income cut-off.
• Medical insurance for your parent from an approved insurer, with a minimum coverage amount and a minimum policy term.

IRCC has revised the coverage rules and approved foreign insurers, so check its Super Visa page.

Budget the insurance seriously. As a planning range only, cover for a parent in their late sixties or seventies has often been quoted at a four-figure yearly cost in Canadian dollars. It rises sharply with age and illness, and some insurers say no. Get a quote before you assume the Super Visa is the cheap option.

Australia: one door expensive, one closed in practice

First, the balance-of-family test. At least half of your parent's children must live permanently in Australia, or more of them must live in Australia than in any other single country. Fail this and every permanent parent visa is closed, whatever you earn. The Department of Home Affairs definition counts stepchildren and adopted children in ways that surprise people.

Non-contributory parent visas (subclasses 103 and 804). The fee is fairly small. The queue is the problem. Home Affairs has published waiting times far beyond a decade, with guidance at times describing around thirty years for new applications. For a parent already in their sixties, this route will not deliver. Check the current estimate on the Home Affairs page.

Contributory parent visas (subclasses 143, 173, 864 and 884). The wait is far shorter. The price is why. The second visa application charge runs into tens of thousands of Australian dollars per parent. For a couple, the all-in total, with both payments and the assurance of support bond, has often been quoted at AUD 100,000 or more. Price it from the Home Affairs fee schedule for your exact subclass.

The assurance of support bond is a separate cost. An assurer lodges it with Services Australia for a set period (ten years on the contributory permanent visas). You get it back at the end if your parent made no recoverable social security claims. It is like a deposit on a flat: you get it back, but you cannot touch it for the whole time.

Sponsored Parent (Temporary) visa (subclass 870). Australia's long-stay visitor option. Your parent can stay for several years, with no work and no path to permanent residence. You need an approved sponsorship and must pass an income test. Your parent needs private health insurance for the whole stay. Places are capped each year. Price it next to Canada's Super Visa.

New Zealand, Ireland and the UK

New Zealand. Immigration New Zealand runs a Parent Resident Visa with a yearly cap, selected from a queue or ballot. Sponsors must meet income levels linked to the national median wage and sign a sponsorship promise. There is also a Parent Retirement Resident Visa for parents who make a large investment in New Zealand. That route is for people with capital, not income. For visits, the Parent and Grandparent Visitor Visa allows repeated long stays over several years, with limits on time spent in the country and a need for health insurance. All of this has changed in recent years, so read Immigration New Zealand's own pages.

Ireland. There is no general parent route. The Department of Justice has a discretionary policy for non-EEA dependent parents of Irish citizens and some residents. The sponsor income bar is high: a set gross income in each of the three years before you apply, higher for two parents than one. Your parent also needs private medical insurance and no access to public funds. If you are going to Ireland for its work permits, plan on visits. Verify the policy with the Department of Justice.

United Kingdom. The Adult Dependent Relative route under UKVI rules is the only permanent option. Your parent must show that, because of age, illness or disability, they need long-term personal care for everyday tasks. They must also show that this care is not available or not affordable where they live, even with your money. Being lonely, being old or wanting to be near family is not enough. Applications are normally made from outside the UK.

In practice, a parent in fair health has no UK route, only visitor visas. Those rules do not let you live in the UK by chaining visits together. Check Appendix Adult Dependent Relative on the UKVI pages.

Germany, the Netherlands and the Gulf

Germany. Parents of an adult resident have no standard right to join them. The German Residence Act (Aufenthaltsgesetz) allows other family members to join only in cases of exceptional hardship. "Exceptional" means it: a care need that cannot be met at home. Parents of a minor child who holds German citizenship are in a much stronger position.

For most readers moving to Germany for engineering or IT, parents will come as Schengen visitors, capped at 90 days in any 180 across the whole Schengen area. Decisions sit with the local authority, so check with the German mission in your country and the local Ausländerbehörde.

The Netherlands is stricter still. The Immigratie- en Naturalisatiedienst (IND) has no general family reunification category for parents of an adult resident. Plan on visits.

The Gulf. The UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia let residents sponsor parents. But the parent's residence is tied to yours. Sponsorship usually needs a minimum salary, a deposit or guarantee per parent, health insurance and renewal, often every year.

Think of it like a phone on a family plan. It works well while the main account is active. When your job ends, your permit ends, and your parents' permits end with it. It is generous while it lasts, but it is not permanent. Check the ICP or GDRFA pages for the UAE and the matching ministry in Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Our comparison of Gulf family sponsorship salary thresholds covers the salary rules.

What it really costs

The visa fee is only one of four costs.

1. Application charges. From fairly modest (the UKVI Adult Dependent Relative fee, IRCC's sponsorship and processing fees) to Australia's contributory second visa application charge, one of the largest published visa charges of any of these countries. Price everything per parent. A couple is two of everything.

2. Bonds and undertakings. Australia's bond is held by Services Australia for a decade. Canada's twenty-year undertaking costs nothing unless your parent claims social assistance. Gulf deposits are refundable. Treat all of these as money you cannot touch.

3. Health cover. The cost families miss most. Every long-stay route needs private medical insurance at the age when premiums are highest. Expect four figures a year per parent, more with health conditions. Get a real quote first. Our guide to out-of-pocket healthcare costs by country shows what insurance does not cover.

4. The income floor you must hold for years. Canada wants three qualifying tax years in a row. Ireland's policy has looked at three earlier years. A promotion next month does not fix a gap in the last three years. This is what most often turns a five-year plan into an eight-year plan. Model it first.

The free eligibility check asks 6 questions (age, education, experience, English, target countries) and gives you a quick read on your options in 2 minutes.

How long it takes: three clocks

Families usually count one clock. There are three.

Clock 1: your own status. Most parent routes need you to be a citizen or permanent resident. That usually takes two to five years from arrival on a work visa.

Clock 2: your income record. The three tax years Canada checks, or the look-back period elsewhere. This can run at the same time as clock 1. Planning it that way is one of the few real ways to speed things up.

Clock 3: the queue and processing. Canada's program has taken over a year to process, on top of the intake draw. Australia's contributory stream publishes multi-year estimates; the non-contributory stream is measured in decades. New Zealand's capped selection adds an unknown wait.

Add them up honestly. Land in Canada next year, get permanent residence in three years, build three qualifying tax years, then wait for an intake pool. Your parent may arrive close to a decade from now.

So ask yourself: who looks after them in the years between? How often can you fly home? Those years are most of the story.

When this does not work

• Your parent fails the health check. Canada, Australia and New Zealand assess if a condition would place excessive demand on public health or social services. Read our guide to medical inadmissibility for a family member.
• The balance-of-family test fails. If your siblings all live at home, Australia's permanent routes are closed.
• Your income will stay under the floor. Two parents can push you below a line you passed easily for one.
• Your destination has no route. Sort this out on your shortlist, before the language exam.

Common mistakes

Counting income you cannot prove. Cash income and undeclared freelance work usually do not count. Build the paper record now.

Treating a queue estimate as a promise. Published waits have grown as often as they have shrunk.

Buying travel insurance instead of the required medical cover. The Super Visa and the subclass 870 both set coverage terms that normal travel policies usually do not meet.

Believing an agent who guarantees a parent visa. No one can guarantee a place in a capped intake or a ballot. Walk away from anyone selling a "reserved" place or asking for payment into a personal bank account. Check a Canadian consultant with the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants, an Australian agent with the Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority, a UK adviser with the Immigration Advice Authority, and a New Zealand adviser with the Immigration Advisers Authority. See our guide to avoiding immigration scams.

Using a visitor visa when you clearly plan to stay. It gets refused, and you must declare that refusal on every future application. Use the route built for long stays.

What to do next

1. Decide if bringing your parents is a must or a wish.
2. Put your target country into one of the four types, then read the official rules.
3. Model your income against the sponsor threshold, parents included, over the look-back period.
4. Get real insurance quotes, and write down the year a parent could realistically arrive.

Frequently asked questions

Which countries allow parent sponsorship for permanent residence?

Canada, Australia and New Zealand run permanent parent routes, all capped or queued. The United States lets citizens aged twenty-one and over petition for a parent as an immediate relative through US Citizenship and Immigration Services, with no annual numerical cap. US permanent residents cannot petition for a parent. The UK's permanent route has a care test most applicants cannot meet. Germany, the Netherlands and Ireland have no general route.

Can I sponsor my parents if I am a permanent resident and not a citizen?

It depends on the country. Canada lets both citizens and permanent residents sponsor parents through the PGP and host them on a Super Visa. The US limits parent petitions to citizens aged twenty-one and over. Australia allows sponsorship by eligible citizens, permanent residents and some New Zealand citizens. Check the sponsor rules for your specific route.

How much income do I need to sponsor a parent?

It grows with household size, and your parents count. Canada checks three tax years of Canada Revenue Agency records against a level above the low income cut-off. Read the current table, because it changes every year.

Is a long-stay parent visitor visa a path to permanent residence?

No. The Super Visa, subclass 870 and New Zealand's parent and grandparent visitor visa give long visits with no work rights and no path to residence.

What happens to my parents' visa if I lose my job?

In the Gulf, your permit and every permit linked to it end together, with a short grace period to leave or move sponsorship. In Canada, Australia and New Zealand, a parent who already has permanent residence keeps it. Your financial undertaking still binds you.

A note on advice

This is general information, not legal advice. Before you spend money, confirm the rules with IRCC, the Australian Department of Home Affairs, Immigration New Zealand, UKVI, the Irish Department of Justice or the relevant Gulf ministry, and have a licensed adviser check your case.

To see if a route works for you before spending anything, take the free eligibility check.