What are Private or Community Sponsorship Pathways?
Sponsorship programs provide individuals, groups of individuals, or organizations with an opportunity to sponsor refugees to come to their country, thus offering them protection and a new home.
In private sponsorship, the sponsors directly engage in the efforts to admit displaced persons in their country. They are the ones identifying, selecting, and supporting the entry and stay of people in need of international protection, who are not referred by UNHCR.
While sponsors can freely choose whom to support, the individuals sponsored most often include nuclear and/or extended family members of the sponsors or people known to the community.
The following countries provide sponsorship programs:
Australia: Special Humanitarian Program (SHP)
Canada: Private Sponsorship of Refugees (PSR) program
Please note that UNHCR Iran is not involved in these sponsorship programs.