As a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, you have the right to sponsor your parents and grandparents. You must prove the relationship to your parents and grandparents to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). In terms of sponsoring your parents, you will need to provide your birth certificate, school certificates, and passport showing names of parents etc. to prove your relationship. If sponsoring your grandparents, you must show your birth certificate as well as birth certificate(s) of your parents. To be eligible to sponsor parents and grandparents, the sponsor has to meet the Federal Income Table for Sponsors of Parents and Grandparents. If you are not eligible to sponsor because of your income, your legally married spouse or a common law partner can be a co-signer for the sake of parental sponsorship undertaking. The sponsorship undertaking applications for parents & grandparents were paused on November 05, 2011 to reduce the major backlog and extensive waiting periods.
Furthermore, to deal with the major backlog, the Case Processing Centre (CPC) Mississauga approved the parental sponsorship undertaking applications and requested the applications for permanent residency for the principal applicant and his or her dependent(s) in six batches (i.e November 25, 2011, March 01, 2012, March 30, 2012, August 02, 2013, July 30, 2014, and July 28, 2015).
In addition, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada introduced the parent and grandparent super visa on December 01, 2011, which is valid for up to 10 years. This multiple-entry visa allows an applicant to remain in Canada for up to 24 months at a time without the need for renewal of their status. The creation of this visa allows for sponsored parents and grandparents to come into Canada within eight weeks instead of waiting for years.
Parents and grandparents sponsorship undertakings were re-opened on January 02, 2014 which were paused on November 05, 2011. The major change was that Low Income Cut Off (LICO) was increased by 30 percent and is now called Minimum Necessary Income (MNI). The sponsor now must show the income required according to Federal Income Table for Sponsors of Parents and Grandparents for the past three taxation years. The dependent child(ren) were eligible up to age 22 [except for dependent children who were regularly enrolled as a full time student at a post secondary institution accredited by the relevant government authority and has depended substantially on the financial support of parent(s)]. The mentally and physically disabled child(ren) could also be sponsored who were depended substantially on the financial support of parent(s) since before the age of 22. Effective August 01, 2014, the definition of dependent child was reduced to under 19. All permanent resident application the IRCC inventories before August 01, 2014 benefited from the pre-amendment definition of dependent child. IRCC published the regulatory changes which became effective from October 24, 2017. The age for dependent children became under 22 years. Children aged 22 and older who were depended substantially on the financial support of their parent(s) since before the age off 22 years, and who were unable to be financially self-supporting due to a physical or mental condition, may be considered dependent. The responsibility of undertakings was extended to 20 years instead of 10 years. Only 5,000 sponsorship undertaking applications were accepted for parents and grandparents in the years 2014 and 2015. The Liberal government kept its election promise and 10,000 sponsorship undertaking applications were accepted in the year 2016.
In 2017, the IRCC introduced a new process to give all Canadian citizens and permanent residents an equal chance. Canadian citizens and permanent residents who wanted to sponsor were asked to first complete an online form on the IRCC website to let the department know that they are interested to sponsor their parents or grandparents. This form became available for 30 days starting from noon EST on January 03, 2017 to noon EST February 02, 2017. The form took down the individual’s personal information and provided them with a confirmation number upon the submission of the online form. The individual was to keep this confirmation number for their records. The people who filled the online interest form on IRCC website who received a confirmation code through email, consisted of 2 digits then 2 letters of the alphabet then 3 digits generated by computers, randomly. On April 25, 2017, IRCC selected 10,000 applicants who have expressed their interests to sponsor their parents and grandparents. The applicants were sent emails and the deadline to submit the applications was July 24, 2017. IRCC then extended the deadline to August 04, 2017. Lots of people who did not have three years income filed online interest form and were unable to submit their applications; therefore, IRCC sent out another round of invitation on September 06, 2017, to more people who have filed interest to sponsor parents and grandparents. The deadline to submit the applications was December 08, 2017.
For 2018, the online interest forms were accepted from the noon of January 02, 2018 to February 01, 2018. Those who filled out the ‘Expression of Interest Forms’, online for the year 2018, they were invited to submit applications on March 19, 2018. The deadline to submit the applications was May 25, 2018.
On July 28, 2018 the Ministerial Instructions were issued which repealed the instructions published in part 1 of the Canada Gazette on December 30, 2017. By using a randomized selection process, sponsors were given the same opportunity of having their application accepted for processing within the 17,000 sponsorship applications accepted for processing in any year. The IRCC did another draw on July 31, 2018 to meet this commitment. The invitations were sent out to those people who filled ‘Expression of Interest Form’ in January 2018. The deadline to submit the applications was October 05, 2018.
On August 20, 2018, Honourable Ahmed Hussen, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, announced that the Government of Canada will accept up to 20,000 applications for the sponsorship of parents and grandparents, in 2019.
On August 20, 2018, Honourable Ahmed Hussen, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, announced that the Government of Canada will accept up to 20,000 applications for the sponsorship of parents and grandparents, in 2019.
In 2019, as in previous years, the ‘Interest to Sponsor Form’ was made available online, starting January 28, 2019 at 12:00 PM EST, so eligible potential sponsors could let IRCC know they wished to sponsor their parents and grandparents to come to Canada. However, instead of randomly selecting the sponsors to apply, IRCC invited them to submit an application to sponsor their parents and grandparents based on the order in which IRCC received their Interest to sponsor form. The portal link to the Interest to Sponsor form was closed within 10 minutes due to having met the 27,000 application intake limit out of which 20,000 applications were chosen.
On October 05, 2020, The Honourable Marco E. L. Mendicino, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, announced details for the opening of the 2020 Parents and Grandparents (PGP) Program, building further on the government’s commitment to reuniting families.
The ‘Interest to Sponsor’ form were made available over a 3-week period, from 12 p.m. EDT on October 13, 2020, to 12 p.m. EST on November 3, 2020. In order to ensure a fair, transparent and equal opportunity for applicants, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) randomly selected potential sponsors and sent them an invitation to submit an application. Selected applicants were given 60 days to submit their application.
July 20, 2021 – Building on the success of the PGP Program in recent years, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) invited a record number of people to apply under the 2021 intake of the Program. In 2020, IRCC sent out 20,000 invitations to apply out of which 10,000 applicants were accepted. In 2021, IRCC received up to 40,000 complete applications – 10,000 from the 2020 intake process and 30,000 from 2021. IRCC did not accept interest forms for new applicants in 2021.
Using the same random selection process as used in previous years, IRCC sent invitations to potential sponsors who had already submitted an interest to sponsor form in 2020. This gave additional interested sponsors the opportunity to bring their parents and grandparents to Canada. Invitations to apply were sent over the course of 2 weeks, starting the week of September 20, 2021.
For the 2020 tax year, the income requirement has continued to be the minimum necessary income, instead of the minimum necessary income plus 30%, and has allowed regular Employment Insurance benefits and temporary COVID-19 benefits, such as the Canada Emergency Response Benefit, to be included towards the sponsor’s income. This measure ensures that applicants are not penalized for losing income during the pandemic. For the 2018 and 2019 tax year, the income requirement will be the minimum necessary income plus 30%. For further information regarding the announcement please visit the following the link:
You can contact our office if you need assistance in submission of full application for your parents or grandparents.
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