The Parent & Grandparent Sponsorship Program

Under the Parent & Grandparent Sponsorship Program (the “PGP“), Canadian citizens and permanent residents can sponsor their foreign national parents and grandparents.  Sponsors must sign an undertaking with the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration (“IRCC“) or with the Ministère de l’Immigration, de la Diversité et de l’Inclusion for those in Quebec.  The undertaking ensures that the sponsored individuals and their family members do not have to apply for social assistance. The length of undertaking in the PGP is 20 years.

As per the IRCC website, sponsors must:

• be 18 years of age or older;
• be a Canadian citizen, Registered Indian or permanent resident;
• be sponsoring their parents or grandparents;
• live in Canada;
• sign an undertaking promising to provide for the basic requirements of the person being sponsored;
• sign an agreement with the person theyare sponsoring; and
• prove that they have sufficient income.  Co-signers are permissible.

Exclusions

A Canadian citizen or permanent resident cannot be a sponsor if they:

• are in receipt of social assistance for a reason other than disability;
• are in default of an undertaking, an immigration loan, a performance bond, or family support payments;
• are an undischarged bankrupt;
• were convicted of an offence of a sexual nature, a violent criminal offence, an offence against a relative that results in bodily harm or an attempt or threat to commit any such offences—depending on circumstances such as the nature of the offence, how long ago it occurred and whether a pardon was issued;
• are under a removal order; or
• are detained in a penitentiary, jail, reformatory or prison.

Additional information on the PGP can be found in the IRCC internal processing instructions below.  Please note that these instructions were obtained through an Access to Information Act request, and their reproduction has not occurred with the affiliation of the federal government.  As well, they are current as of February 2014, although except for the minimum necessary income requirements were substantially accurate for 2015 as well.  The instructions include the following topics:

• Duration of Undertakings
• Co-Signers
• Eligible Applicants and Dependants
• Ineligible Dependants
• Document Requirements
• Document Deficiencies
• Lock-in Dates
• Visa Office Destination
• Quebec Cases
• Switching Principal Applicants
• Settlement Arrangements
• Calculating the Size of the Family Unit
• Financial Assessment
• Ineligible Types of Income
• Notice of Assessment
• Reassessments
• Referrals to the Special Unit

Sponsors

Regulation 130(1) provides that a Canadian citizen or permanent resident can sponsor their parent or grandparent to immigrate if they:

1. are over 18 years of age
2. reside in Canada
3. have submitted a sponsorship application.

Sponsors must also meet or exceed minimum necessary income requirements of the Low-Income Cutoff plus 30% for each of the three taxation ears immediately preceding the date of the application.

Income may be reassessed after submission only if more than 12 months since the receipt of the application and new information comes to IRCC’s attention that a sponsor may no longer be able to meet their financial obligations.

Death of Principal Applicant

If the principal applicant in a PGP Application passes away an officer is authorized to process the surviving spouse or partner as the principal applicant. To qualify, that person must be a family class member in their own right (i.e. also be the sponsor’s parent or grandparent).

History

As the following image shows, the government significantly reduced the backlog that in 2011 had peaked at 167,007 applications.

This was achieved through a temporary pause on sponsorship from November 2011 to January 2014. In January 2014 the program reopened with an annual cap of 5,000.

In 2016, Ministerial Instructions increased the cap to 10,000 and a randomized selection intake process was introduced.

In 2019, the cap was raised to 20,000 and IRCC reverted back to a “first come, first served” basis.

In 2021, IRCC returned to a randomized intake process, with an annual cap of around 30,000 applications.

Internal Manuals

The following is the IRCC Parent and Grandparent Completeness Check Manual, Updated October 2021.  It explains when a PGP application will be determined to be complete or incomplete.

Jurisprudence

In Sadeghian v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration), 2024 FC 1144, Justice Gleeson affirmed that decisions to not process PGP applications because of Ministerial Instructions cannot be judicially reviewed.