Surrogacy in Canada: the complete guide to law, process, cost and contract

The process, stage by stage

A surrogacy programme is a run of separate stages, not one decision. The order shifts with the destination and with whether you need donated eggs or sperm. The full walkthrough, with the questions each stage raises:

1. 1

   Set out your own situation

   Your medical, legal and financial facts come first, because they decide which destinations are open to you at all.

2. 2

   Choose a destination before a clinic

   The place is chosen on legal grounds, before any money moves. The legal-considerations guide lists what to confirm.

3. 3

   Screening, both ways

   Your fertility work-up and the carrier’s medical and psychological screening. FIGO’s position is that psychological screening and ongoing support should be mandatory.

4. 4

   Matching

   How a programme pairs you with a carrier is where marketed and delivered service differ most. Ask in writing what happens if a match is not reached.

5. 5

   The agreement, and the money behind it

   Before treatment, the arrangement is set down in writing and should carry the funds, not just point at them. Escrow is usually funded before the first transfer.

6. 6

   Treatment and transfer

   Medication and monitoring, then the embryo transfer. From here the timeline is no longer yours: clinic schedule and the carrier’s cycle decide.

7. 7

   Pregnancy

   Prenatal care is the obstetrician’s. What you pay for, and who decides, are contract questions that should already be settled.

8. 8

   Birth and parentage

   The parentage path decides what happens in the delivery room and after. Only a lawyer in that jurisdiction can say which path applies to you.

9. 9

   Bringing the child home

   Registration, passport or consular documents, and whatever your home country requires. Cross-border parents are not rare: a third of US surrogate transfers involved them.

Cost figures published for this destination

Each number below is one a named source published, in that source's own currency, for the year stated. It is a published figure with a citation rather than a quote, and the source that printed it is linked from the row.

No cost figure is published here. The payment position above says what may be paid under the rules of this destination, and the questions below say what no source settled.

The contract is the legal core

Before any treatment begins, the arrangement should be written down and should carry the money, not merely point at it. What every contract must cover, and the clauses worth insisting on:

Choosing an agency

The agency is the one party whose incentives are not yours by default. We do not name agencies on this site: what follows is how to ask, and how to judge whether an agency is sound, before you sign.

Questions people ask

Is surrogacy legal everywhere?

No. It ranges from explicitly permitted to prohibited, and within federal countries it varies by state or province. The legal basis for each destination is set out at the top of this page, with its source and the date it was checked.

Can intended parents from another country use this route?

It depends on the destination. The "intended parents from abroad" cell in the summary strip above says whether the sources behind this record admit foreign commissioning parents, and the admissions section below names the family types each rule opens to.

When is parentage settled?

That is the single biggest planning difference between systems. Some name an intended parent at birth; others treat the woman who gives birth as the legal mother until a court moves parentage afterwards. Which one applies to you only a lawyer in that jurisdiction can say.

What does the price usually include?

A programme price is built from several lines, and scope matters more than the headline total. The figures a source has published for this destination are in the cost table above, and the full breakdown of what a quote usually leaves out is in the cost guide.

Do I have to travel there myself?

Usually, yes, at least for some steps. Signing before treatment, attending a court or registrar, collecting documents and staying after the birth are separate requirements that often come from clinic practice and the court rather than the statute. How many trips you can make often narrows the field before cost does.

Is there an average surrogacy cost?

No single figure applies. The total depends on the destination, on what the programme includes, and on what a quote leaves out, so an average would hide the differences that decide whether a plan is feasible. The per-line figures on this page and the cost guide show why.

How does the child come home?

Birth registration, a passport or consular documents, and whatever your home country requires to recognise the arrangement. The steps differ by where the child is born and where you live, and the documents guide walks through them.

What each position rests on

• Expenditures incurred by a surrogate mother in relation to her surrogacy may be reimbursed under subsection 12(1) of the Assisted Human Reproduction Act.

  Assisted Human Reproduction (Reimbursement of Expenditures) Regulations, SOR-2019-193 · Justice Canada, consolidated regulations , checked Oct 14, 2026

• Reimbursable surrogate costs enumerated by the regulator include travel, childcare, counselling, legal fees, medications, maternity clothing, prenatal classes, delivery, insurance, and lost work-related income during the pre-pregnancy and post-partum period, with receipts required and records kept for six years.

  Reimbursement of expenditures incurred by a surrogate applicant or a surrogate in relation to her surrogacy (consultation document) · Health Canada , checked Oct 14, 2026