Family Sponsorship
An Overview of the Parents and Grandparents Program in 2023
Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has currently not provided any details regarding the process for administering the Parents and Grandparents Program (PGP) for 2023. However, according to IRCC’s last PGP lottery in October 2022, approximately 155,000 potential sponsors from the Fall 2020 pool of applicants remain after submitting an expression of interest.
A Brief Outlook of the PGP Since 2020
The IRCC has used a lottery approach over the past three years to choose at random which potential sponsors would receive an Invitation to Apply (ITA). Since 2020, all ITAs for the PGP have gone to applicants who initially indicated a desire to sponsor their parent(s) or grandparent (s).
- Up to 10,000 fully completed PGP applications were accepted by IRCC in 2020.
- Around 30,000 applications were approved by the department in 2021.
- In 2022, the number of applications was 15,000.
PGP Status in the Latest Immigration Levels Plan
IRCC stated that there is no specific way to find out the number of ITAs to be sent out through PGP in 2023. However, the latest Immigration Levels Plan for 2023-2025 reveals that Canada intends to invite over 28,000 parents and grandparents in the following three years.
The targets for PGP are as follows:
| Year | No. of ITAs |
| In 2023 | 28,500 |
| In 2024 | 34,000 |
| In 2025 | 36,000 |
Super Visa – An Alternative
The Super Visa, an alternative to the Parents and Grandparents Program (PGP), is a temporary resident visa that allows sponsored parents and grandparents of Canadian citizens or PRs to visit their Canadian families.
Here’re the following benefits of the program;
- Where PGP is available for 2 weeks, the super visa is open for a year.
- Super visa lasts for up to five years at a time without any renewals.
- It is a multi-entry visa that allows reuniting with parents and grandparents multiple times for a period of up to 10 years.
- It allows parents and grandparents to move freely in Canada and their home country
- The program provides a letter that allows a sponsored person’s entry into country for up to 2 years.
