Want to bring your parents or grandparents to Canada? Here’s some good news

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) will start accepting Interest to Sponsor forms for the Parents and Grandparents Program (PGP) starting 12:00 pm EDT (9 a.m. PDT or 9:30 p.m. IST) on October 13 until 12:00 p.m. EST (9 a.m. PST or 10:30 p.m. IST) on November 3. The PGP allows you to bring your parents or grandparents to Canada as a Permanent Resident (PR) and they may eventually be able to apply for citizenship. Registrations for PGP were supposed to open earlier this year but this was delayed due to the coronavirus outbreak.

IRCC has a maximum quota of 10,000 applicants for 2020 which will be increased to 30,000 in 2021. This is the official announcement from Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) of the date of the reopening of the PGP.

This means that you can start submitting your Interests to Sponsor on October 13. An Interest to Sponsor is not a PGP application in itself, but rather, an opportunity for people to express their interest in sponsoring their parents or grandparents for PR. IRCC will then randomly select 10,000 applicants. The selected applicants will have 60 days to submit a completed sponsorship application. To be eligible, you need to be a Permanent Resident (PR) or Canadian citizen yourself. You also need to show that you have enough income to support them. You can check all the eligibility requirements here and can find the Interest to Sponsor form here once registration opens on October 13.

After the completed PGP application is processed, the parents or grandparents will have to complete a mandatory basic medical examination and submit a police clearance certificate, among other things, to get their Permanent Residence (PR) status. Once they have the PR status, they will have the right to work, obtain healthcare, get full protection under the Canadian law and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and can apply to become Canadian citizens when they are eligible.

If you need help with any part of the PGP process, you can contact us and ask to speak about the PGP. We can also help you complete the entire process from submitting your Interest to Sponsor until your parents or grandparents arrive in Canada.

Don’t forget, even if your application is not selected in the random number generation process to apply for PGP, you can always apply for a super visa for your parents or grandparents which will allow them to stay in Canada for up to 2 years at a time instead of less than 6 months with a visitor visa. For any help on applying for a super visa, you can contact our representative.