The application stream to sponsor your parents and grandparents to become permanent residents of Canada will be opening soon.
What does this mean?
Canada’s Parents and Grandparents Program (PGP) is designed to help Canadian permanent residents and citizens bring their family living abroad to Canada. The IRCC initiated this program because family reunification plays a significant role in attracting, training, and integrating immigrants into Canadian society.
This year, the PGP program is taking a different approach to applications. The IRCC (Immigration Refugee & Citizenship Canada) will be randomly selecting 10,000 completed applications from the previous year (2020), and selecting 30,000 newly completed applications for the 2021 year for a total of 40,000 applications.
This represents a wonderful path to get your extended family permanent residency in Canada. To apply, you must first submit an expression of interest. Invitations to apply will then be sent over the course of two weeks, starting September 20th, 2021. Those who are invited to apply will have 60 days to complete and submit their PR application.
This is an extremely tight deadline, as it typically takes three months to prepare and submit these types of applications. This is why Immigrate is alerting you early, so you can start to get your application ready before the date opens to apply. To learn more about what is needed for this process, book a meeting with one of our consultants.
Eligibility requirements
To be eligible for this program, you must:
- Be +18 years of age
- Live in Canada, be a permanent resident of Canada, or have Canadian Citizenship
- Have enough money to support the persons you want to sponsor.
- The amount of money you need to be eligible to sponsor people depends on how many individuals you are looking to sponsor.
- The proof of income is based on your income in the last three tax years.
Income requirements for the past three tax years (2021 Applicants)
|
Total Number of People You Wish to Sponsor |
2020 |
2019 |
2018 |
|
2 People |
$32,270 |
$41,007 |
$40,379 |
|
3 People |
$39,672 |
$50,414 |
$49,641 |
|
4 People |
$48,167 |
$61,209 |
$60,271 |
|
5 People |
$61,613 |
$69,423 |
$68,358 |
|
6 People |
$68,598 |
$78,296 |
$77,095 |
|
7 People |
$68,598 |
$87,172 |
$85,835 |
|
For each additional person after 7, add: |
$6,985 |
$8,876 |
$8,740 |
Who can you sponsor?
You can sponsor your own parents and grandparents, related by blood or adoption. There must be at least one blood relative, which will be the principal applicant. Other individuals would be considered the dependents in the application. You can sponsor more than one person or couple, so long as you meet the income requirements for all the people you wish to sponsor and their dependents. Dependants include spouses, children (under 22 years old), and partners of your blood relatives.
For example, this is how the application would look in these different scenarios:
- Mother and father, together as a couple.
- One will have to be the principal applicant, the other designated as a dependent. If they have children (your brothers/sisters), you can sponsor them in the application too if they qualify as dependent children.
- Father, stepmother, and their child.
- Your father would need to be the principal applicant, as he is your blood relative. Both the stepmother and the child would be the dependents in this scenario.
- Grandparents, your mother, and your step father.
- In this case, you would need to submit two separate sponsorship applications - one per couple.
- On the grandparent application, either can be listed as the principal or dependent since they are both your blood relatives.
- Your mother would need to be the primary applicant, and the stepfather would be the dependent.
You can’t sponsor:
- Your spouses parents and grandparents (your in-laws).
- However, you can be a co-signer on your in-laws application.
- Anyone inadmissible to Canada.
- This is typically due to security, criminal, or medical reasons.
How do you know if you are selected?
In order to confirm whether you’ve been selected, potential sponsors should check the email address they used to submit their 2020 interest sponsor form. You can also check your status online using your 2020 confirmation number. The process will roughly look like this:
Step 1:
If you are eligible to become a sponsor, you must submit an “interest to sponsor” form. This form is not the application. It is just a form that states your desire to sponsor your parents and grandparents so they may come to Canada. These will be sent over a period of two weeks starting September 20th, 2021. If you have previously submitted one in 2020 and get notified via email, you can resubmit your application as one of the 10,000 applicants.
Step 2:
Once the “intent to sponsor” form is closed, the IRCC will review all submissions and remove duplicates in their system. From there, it is a random draw for all applicants. You will be notified via email with an invitation to apply for the 2021 draw.
Step 3:
Once you’ve been invited to apply, you will have 60 days to complete and submit your application. The team at Immigrate can help you prepare this application to ensure that it is completed correctly, increasing your chances of approval. We can help you get your documents ready so once you get the invitation, you can submit immediately.
To learn more about what is needed for this process, book a meeting with one of our expert consultants.