2019 Parents and Grandparents Program to Open January 28

The situation

As previously reported, the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) announced that the Parents and Grandparents Program (PGP) will open for Canadian nationals and permanent residents to submit the interest to sponsor their parents and grandparents for permanent residence in Canada at 12 PM EST on January 28, 2019.

A closer look

Details of the updated PGP program include:

• Sponsorship process. The process for sponsorship through the PGP are as follows:
  • IRCC will accept submissions of the interest to sponsor for a limited time, which has not yet been announced.
  • After this window has closed, IRCC will invite potential sponsors to complete an application in the order that their submissions were received, until the yearly cap of 20,000 applications has been reached.
  • Selected sponsors will have 60 calendar days from the date of their invitation to submit a complete application to the IRCC.
• New document requirements. Sponsors will be asked to upload a copy of their Canadian immigration status document when submitting an interest to sponsor form. Previously, this was not required.
• Changes to sponsor form. The interest to sponsor form now contains additional security protections to detect duplicate submissions and potential fraud.

Impact

Potential sponsors should confirm that they meet the required minimum income requirements and submit an interest to sponsor form as soon as possible after the form becomes available on January 28, 2019. This will give increase the chances of obtaining an invitation to apply within the application cap.

Background

The IRCC will accept 20,000 PGP applications in 2019, up from 5,000 applications in 2015, due to a reduction in the application backlog and processing times, which have been shortened from seven to eight years down to approximately one to two years.

This alert is for informational purposes only. If you have any questions, please contact the global immigration professional with whom you work at Fragomen or send an email to [email protected].