Get Ready to Submit Your 2019 Interest to Sponsor Form for the Parents and Grandparents Program
The Parents and Grandparents Program (PGP) gives Canadian citizens, permanent residents, and registered Indians the opportunity to sponsor their parents and grandparents for permanent residence. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) recently published information regarding the new application intake process.
Eligibility Criteria
To meet the eligibility criteria to sponsor your parent(s) or grandparent(s), you must:
- Be a Canadian citizen, permanent resident, or registered Indian;
- Be at least 18 years of age;
- Live in Canada; and
- Have enough money to support the people you want to sponsor.
You must prove that you have enough income to support everyone that you are financially responsible for, including yourself, once you become a sponsor. To this end, you will be required to provide proof that you meet the income requirements for each of the three taxation years immediately preceding the date of your application. The minimum income required for the taxation years 2015 to 2018 which applies to residents of all provinces except Quebec is detailed in the table below.
New Application Intake Process
IRCC has revised the application intake process so that invitations to apply will now be issued on a "first come, first served" basis rather than randomly. Going forward, the application process will be as follows:
Step One: Potential sponsors must express their interest in sponsoring their parent(s) or grandparent(s) by submitting an "interest to sponsor" form online. IRCC has announced that the "interest to sponsor" form will be available from 12 noon EST on Monday, January 28, 2019. Potential sponsors will be required to upload proof of their status in Canada (e.g. a copy of both sides of their permanent resident card) when they submit their "interest to sponsor" forms. IRCC will accept 27,000 "interest to sponsor" forms.
Step Two: IRCC will invite potential sponsors to submit a complete application, in the order in which their "interest to sponsor" forms were received, until the cap is reached. The cap for 2019 is 20,000 complete applications. To put this figure into perspective, IRCC received 93,836 "interest to sponsor" forms in 2018.
Step Three: Those who receive an invitation to apply will have 60 calendar days to submit a complete application. The exact deadline will be specified in the invitation. Those who do not receive an invitation to apply will have their "interest to sponsor" forms considered if there is a further round in 2019 or in 2020. The current processing time for a sponsorship application under the PGP is approximately two years. However, processing times vary significantly across visa offices.
Conclusion
In light of the new application intake process and the fact that the PGP is always oversubscribed, we strongly recommend that potential sponsors submit an "interest to sponsor" form as soon the form becomes available online. When available, potential sponsors should be able to access the "interest to sponsor" form on the IRCC website via the following link:
https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/immigrate-canada/family-sponsorship/sponsor-parents-grandparents/tell-us-you-want-sponsor-parent-grandparent.html
If you receive an invitation to apply and would like assistance in preparing and submitting a complete application or you don't receive an invitation to apply but your parent(s) or grandparent(s) would like to apply for a super visa, please do not hesitate to contact us.