Canada immigration update: new details into the parents and grandparents program

The federal government said to permit a surplus of 30,000 parents and grandparents for Canadian immigration via sponsorship.

The Parents and Grandparents Program (PGP) to open up its pandora's box once again. The draw is said to take place by mid-September on the 20th in two weeks duration.

Those granted the visa would have a 60-day deadline to submit their application for sponsorship along with the requested documents. As revealed by Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino during a press conference in BC, today.

The intake cap will be governed by the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) drawing 30,000 candidatures of those who applied with a sponsorship form between October and November 2020 following last year's PGP window.

In this transitory phase last autumn, Canadian citizens and permanent residents who were able to submit their plea to the IRCC for sponsoring their parents and grandparents were taken into consideration. Based on which the immigration department indiscriminately selected 10,000 prospective immigrant sponsors at the beginning of 2021.

Following which the federal government further stated that a threshold of 30,000 candidates would be granted a place on Canadian soil later this year. The upcoming PGP lottery 2021 will have more emphasis on those applicants who expressed their interest in 2020 but didn't find success due to the ongoing pandemic issues.

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IRCC recommends that the candidates update their credentials including their contact details on the web portal which were last uploaded in autumn 2020.

The parents and grandparents who are approved for sponsorship under this visa can move to Canada for an indefinite stay and may later be eligible to apply for citizenship once their visa matures.

Key eligibility factors for the PGP

PGP is the most aspired immigration stream for those who desire to bring their parents or grandparents to Canada. But those eligible must also meet the criteria of this Canada visa pathway.

The sponsoring candidate must be above 18 years old, should be a Canadian citizen, or a permanent resident with sufficient financial backing to support the family member they will be sponsoring.

Financial stability is important as you'd have to prove to the immigration authority that you'll be able to support the sponsored family member. Therefore, all applicants are encouraged to verify their financial status to see how much money would be required to support the number of people they'll be sponsoring including themselves before applying for a PGP visa.

The Minimum Necessary Income (MNI) is a key indicator of the Parents and Grandparents Program (PGP), and the IRCC will ask you to submit your proof of tax for the years 2020, 2019, and 2018. However, it will only be asked at a later stage once you've expressed your expression of interest through the online medium. The application selected after the assessment of the MNI would be granted with an invite and the applications which do not meet the MNI requirement will be refused by the IRCC.

Due to the ongoing pandemic situation, the IRCC will only assess your MNI for 2020 with some relaxation than the usual way of estimating the criteria. The applicant can show their Employment Insurance and Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) in their MNI for 2020.

Those applicants residing in Quebec who are granted an invite to apply would have to provide a Notices of Assessment from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) instead of the MNI for the last three financial years.

Rather than the usual three-year minimum income requirement established for the rest of Canada, Quebec asks a prospective candidate to show financial resources available with them in the last year. The Quebec ministry assesses these financial statements based on its income requirements for issuing the sponsorship for the parent or grandparent program.

The IRCC and Quebec government would ask you to give a signed undertaking that states your financial desire to sponsor your parents or grandparents till they become permanent residents of Canada.

The undertaking states a 20-year plan of supporting your parents and grandparents in all of Canada leaving Quebec, which requires only a 10-year commitment.