The COVID-19 pandemic separated many Canadian Citizens and Canadian permanent residents from their loved ones who reside outside of Canada. Most of them have been looking forward to getting an opportunity to sponsor their parents and grandparents to become permanent residents of Canada.
The 2022 Parent Grandparent Sponsorship Program (PGP) ran in an almost identical fashion to how applications were accepted in 2021. IRCC used random selection process by choosing amongst those potential sponsors who had submitted an interest to sponsor form. Due to the number of interest to sponsor forms remaining in the pool of submissions from 2020. In 2022, IRCC sent invitations to apply to randomly selected potential sponsors from that pool instead of opening a new interest to sponsor form. IRCC invited 23,100 potential sponsors to apply to sponsor their parents and grandparents.
Invited sponsors had 60 days to submit their PGP sponsorship application to IRCC after they had been invited to apply. Those invited to apply used the new Permanent Residence Portal or the Representative Permanent Residence Portal, which allowed applications to be submitted electronically.
To be eligible for the Parents and Grandparents Program, sponsors had to meet the following criteria:
- have completed and submitted an Interest to Sponsor form to the IRCC within a prescribed time period;
- be a Canadian citizen, permanent resident of Canada, or a registered Indian under the Canadian Indian Act;
- be 18 years of age or older;
- be residing in Canada (potential applicants had to provide a proof of residence during the Interest to Sponsor phase);
- meet the Minimum Necessary Income requirement set by the IRCC for each of the past 3 most recent taxation years (2021, 2020 and 2019). The potential sponsors had to prove that they had met the minimum income requirements by submitting notices of assessment issued by the Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA) for three most recent taxation years. The Minimum Necessary Income amounts were lowered due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
We are hopeful that the Parent and Grandparent Sponsorship will become available to new applicants in 2023, as many Canadian citizens and permanent residents of Canada are waiting for this immigration program to become available.
An alternative to the Parent and Grandparent Sponsorship is the Super Visa Program. A Super Visa is a multiple-entry visitor visa valid for up to 10 (ten) years, which allows your parents/grandparents to stay in Canada of up to 5 (five) years without having to exit the country. If the Super Visa is issued, the invited parents or grandparents will not become permanent residents and will not have the right to work in Canada. They will, however, enjoy the freedom of visiting their family members in Canada for maximum period of 5 (five) years per visit.
Siskinds’ Immigration Law Group takes pride in helping Canadian citizens and permanent residents to reunite with their family members. If you wish to sponsor a parent and/or grandparent to become a permanent resident of Canada in the future or if you wish to invite your parents or grandparents to come to Canada as visitors under the Super Visa Program, do not hesitate to contact us for a free consultation.