Use this 14-stage record to review the process, costs, timing, parentage steps, and open questions. Answer five questions to compare it with your situation.
Your key questions
Start with the answer to your question. Open source details only when you need to inspect the evidence boundary.
Review the published 14-stage process and sources, then use the checks below for parentage and return-home questions specific to your situation.
As of 2026-07-10 | G2 review limited | 12 source references.
Official payment and expense rules are available below, but no complete public total-budget range has been reviewed for this route.
As of 2026-07-10 | G2 review limited | No source-backed range attached.
No complete public timeline range has been reviewed for this route.
As of 2026-07-10 | G3 source gap | No source-backed range attached.
Destination parentage steps and home-country recognition must both be confirmed for the selected jurisdiction and family context.
As of 2026-07-10 | G2 review limited | 8 parentage source references.
Recommended next step
Answer five intended-parent questions to compare reviewed destinations, documented cases, budget and timing evidence, and the checks that apply to your facts.
CA-BC, CA-ON
Check required
Route-specific gates, sources, and unknowns. General industry guidance lives in the journey guide.
Pre-clear the Canadian altruistic and provincial route
Confirm every proposed payment and provider fee against federal prohibitions, select British Columbia or Ontario, identify the GC's age and residence, and map the pre-conception agreement, post-birth consent, parentage, birth-registration, reimbursement, clinic, and insurance requirements before matching.
Choose the GC residence, treatment location, and expected birth province before matching. Federal payment prohibitions apply nationally, while the written agreement, post-birth consent, legal parentage, and birth-registration process differ between British Columbia and Ontario.
Identify the IVF clinic, province-specific counsel for each side, reimbursement recordkeeper, insurance reviewer, obstetric team, and birth-hospital contact. Ontario expressly requires independent legal advice; no provider should receive consideration for arranging a surrogate in breach of federal law.
Confirm embryo inventory, genetic contributors, donor consents, screening records, storage location, receiving-clinic acceptance, and any cross-border shipment requirements. A Canadian clinic must confirm that the records, gametes or embryos, and proposed transfer satisfy its protocol before a date is promised.
Use an altruistic match process and document legal, medical, and relationship fit, including residence, pregnancy history, communication, travel, embryo count, termination views, reimbursements, disclosure, and support. Federal law prohibits paying the surrogate or paying consideration to arrange her services.
Complete obstetric-record review, medical and infectious-disease testing, uterine evaluation, psychosocial assessment, medication review, household-support assessment, and informed-consent counseling. The GC remains the decision-maker for her medical care throughout treatment and pregnancy.
Complete the written agreement before conception and address intent, medical autonomy, expenses, loss of income, travel, failed transfer, miscarriage, termination, multiples, privacy, post-birth cooperation, and records. Ontario requires independent legal advice; in both provinces the pre-conception agreement does not replace the surrogate's post-birth consent.
Use an expense protocol that distinguishes prohibited consideration from permitted reimbursement. Obtain the required signed declarations, receipts, medical recommendations where applicable, and loss-of-income certification; retain reimbursement records for six years. Separately budget clinic, legal, travel, insurance, newborn, NICU, failed-cycle, and rematch exposure.
After medical, legal, and reimbursement controls are cleared, the clinic manages cycle preparation, embryo thaw and transfer, pregnancy testing, medication continuation, and failed-transfer follow-up. No record should imply that transfer, implantation, pregnancy, or live birth is guaranteed.
Set communication and emergency contacts; coordinate clinic-to-OB handoff, maternal-fetal medicine, expense documentation, insurance claims, travel, miscarriage, bed rest, hospitalization, delivery changes, and conflict mediation. The GC controls consent to medical care throughout pregnancy and delivery.
Before the third trimester, coordinate hospital registration, newborn decision authority, GC and IP access, infant coverage, pediatrician, NICU reserve, discharge, post-birth consent timing, statutory declarations, and document pickup. The agreement alone does not complete provincial parentage or bind every hospital workflow.
Follow the selected province's post-birth sequence. In British Columbia obtain the surrogate's written consent after birth and take the child into care, then use the non-online Vital Statistics package. In Ontario obtain consent no earlier than seven days after birth and submit the commissioned surrogate and intended-parent declarations.
A child born in Canada is generally a citizen except for statutory exceptions such as certain diplomatic-parent cases. Obtain the provincial birth certificate with parental information, then ask the relevant Canadian and destination authorities which passport, visa, or travel document applies. If a Canadian child passport is used, submit the required citizenship, parentage, and custody or guardianship evidence.
Obtain the final provincial birth registration and parental-information certificate, preserve the agreement and post-birth consent evidence, complete any counsel-directed declaration or court step, and determine and obtain the correct passport or travel document when travel is planned. Domestic status does not eliminate the need to retain the full parentage document chain.
