In another worrying move for Indian immigrants living in Canada, the Canadian federal government has announced that it will not accept any new applications to sponsor parents and grandparents for permanent residence in 2025. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) said that by 2025, it will only process family sponsorship applications that were submitted in 2024 under the Parent and Grandparent Program.
According to a report by Canadian immigration news website CIC, IRCC intends to process a maximum of 15,000 sponsorship applications during 2025.
What other options do immigrants have?
Canadian citizens and permanent residents who wish to invite their parents and grandparents to live in Canada for an extended period can still sponsor their relatives for a super visa. A super visa allows relatives of Canadian citizens and permanent residents to visit them for up to five years at a time.
What is the Parent and Grandparent Sponsorship Program?
The Parents and Grandparents Program (PGP) allows Canadian citizens, permanent residents and registered Indians to sponsor their parents and grandparents to immigrate to Canada. Parents and grandparents approved under this program receive Canadian permanent residence and may eventually be able to apply for Canadian citizenship.
People sponsored through the PGP can take full advantage of Canadian permanent residence, including working in Canada, receiving health care, enjoying full protection under Canadian law and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and once completed, becoming a Canadian citizen. Can apply for. eligibility criteria.
Since there is much more sponsor interest than available places in the PGP program, IRCC uses a lottery system to issue invitations to apply to those who have submitted interest on the sponsorship form. According to the CIC report, between 2020 and 2024, IRCC issued invitations to sponsors who had submitted forms during the 2020 entry.
Reason for stopping PGP
IRCC has reduced permanent resident targets by 20 percent for 2025. A part of this cut includes reduction in allocation for landings under PGP. In the first immigration tiering plan published in 2023, IRCC set a target of sponsoring 34,000 foreign nationals in 2025 under the PGP. However, the new target for 2025 is 24,500 landings through PGP.
