e-4180 (Citizenship and immigration)

The Government of Canada recognizes the importance of family reunification and the socio-economic benefits of reuniting families together in Canada. The Parents and Grandparents Program allows Canadian citizens and permanent residents to sponsor their parents and grandparents to come to Canada as permanent residents. Given the high demand for sponsorship, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) conducts periodic intakes of applications by randomly selecting interested sponsors and inviting them to submit an application.

IRCC has implemented different approaches to receiving applications in the past several years. Prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, IRCC would typically open an Interest to Sponsor period early in the calendar year and send invitations to apply to randomly selected interest sponsors over one or two rounds within the same calendar year. Different intake parameters are informed by operational capacity and policy considerations, and may vary from year to year based on Ministerial Instructions, which authorize the intake process. It should be noted that for any given intake, it is important for the Department to receive all applications in the same calendar year to ensure that all sponsors are assessed according to the same income requirements. All potential sponsors who are randomly selected and invited to apply must meet the income requirement (three previous tax years) at the time of application. 

In 2020, due the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, IRCC did not open an Interest to Sponsor period until October.   Alternative formats (paper copy, Braille or large print) were made available to persons with disabilities who were unable to use the online form. Approximately 203,000 unique Interest to Sponsor submissions were received following the removal of duplicate submissions.

In order to complete the 2020 intake, IRCC randomly selected from these interest to sponsor submissions and issued 13,400 invitations to apply in January 2021. Using the 2020 pool, the Department also sent 34,500 invitations to apply to interested sponsors to submit an application in October 2021, in support of delivering a 2021 intake. Most recently, for the 2022 intake, to ensure that all applications were received within the calendar year and the fact that a large number of Interest to Sponsor forms remained following the intake of applications in 2021, IRCC again randomly selected from the 2020 pool of submissions and issued an additional 23,100 invitations to potential sponsors to submit an application this past October. All potential sponsors invited to apply as part of the 2022 intake were required to submit their application by December 24, 2022 and had to meet the income requirement for three previous tax years (2019, 2020, and 2021). As such, no potential sponsor randomly selected from the 2020 pool, who does not meet the necessary income requirements, is eligible for parent and grandparent sponsorship.

The next intake of parent and grandparent applications has not yet been announced and further details, once available, will be published on the Department’s website and social media pages. 

For those interested in bringing their parents and grandparents to Canada, but have not submitted an Interest to Sponsor form or have not been invited to apply, their parents or grandparents may consider applying for a Super Visa. The Super Visa is a multi-entry temporary resident visa that allows parents and grandparents to reunite with their host families in Canada for extended periods. The application fee for the Super Visa is $100 and there is no limit on the number of individuals who may apply. The Government has made significant enhancements to the Super Visa to further promote family reunification, including increasing the length of stay per entry from up to two years to up to five years over the course of the validity of the visa.