family cooking together in the kitchen — Photo by Kampus Production on Pexels.com

Last Updated On 21 March 2023, 2:46 PM EDT (Toronto Time)

Today, IRCC announced details of Canada Parents & Grandparents Program 2022. Member of parliament, Sonia Sidhu made this announcement on behalf of IRCC Minister, Sean Fraser.

IRCC will be accepting up to 15,000 complete applications for sponsorship under the Parents and Grandparents Program this year. As per the press releases, IRCC will begin sending the invites today.

23,100 interested potential sponsors will be sent invite over the next 2 weeks. This is to ensure that IRCC receives its target of 15,000 complete applications. Similar to last year, interest to sponsors will only be sent to interest to sponsor forms remaining in the pool of submissions from 2020.

So, anyone who submitted an interest to sponsor form in 2020 but did not get an invitation to apply in January 2021 or September 2021 should check their email for the invite.

Parents & Grandparents 2022 Application Process:

Invited sponsors will have to use IRCC’s new Permanent Residence Portal or the Representative Permanent Residence Portal and fill out the details electronically.

IRCC recognizing that many potential sponsors may have had financial challenges in recent years as a result of the pandemic. So, such sponsors will again benefit from the reduced income threshold for parent and grandparent sponsorship.

For the 2020 and 2021 tax years, the minimum necessary income will just be the minimum necessary income. There will be no need of showing extra 30% income proof.

Furthermore, regular Employment Insurance benefits and temporary COVID-19 benefits (such as the Canada Emergency Response Benefit) will also be permitted to be counted against the sponsor’s income.

Canada Parents & Grandparents Processing Time & Fee

IRCC processing fees is $1,080 for single parent. If there is accompanying spouse of the parent, then additional $1085. Apart from this additional $155 for accompanying dependent child. Current processing time for exiting PGP applications stands at 37 months.

Alternative to PGP

Canada parents & grandparents program has always been considered just as a lucky draw. This is just because of very low number of invites sent every year. Alternatively, children & grandchildren living in Canada can consider applying Super Visa for their parents or grandparents.

As of relief, Canada recently announced increase in stay for super visa to 5 years. Additionally, IRCC is offering 2 years extension after the completion of 5 years.

Source: IRCC press release