Sponsoring Your Parents And Grandparents For Immigration To Canada

Canada has finally opened the 2020 Parents and Grandparents Program, and it will remain active until November 3rd. Citizens and permanent residents of Canada will now be able to provide sponsorship to their parents and grandparents if they want to apply for Canadian immigration.

The expression of interest for the Parents and Grandparents Program (PGP) began on October 13, and you will be able to submit your application until November 3. The PGP lets sponsors invite their parents and grandparents to Canada without much hassle. Once parents and grandparents secure permanent resident status in Canada, they can continue their stay without any hassle.

Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) will organize a lottery after November 3rd to pick the 10,000 sponsors randomly. The chosen candidates will then have to submit their applications soon by early 2021.

How to go about it?

If you are interested, the first thing to do is to complete and submit an online sponsorship interest form. This will put you in the pool of candidates who are planning to apply for PGP 2020. The system resembles a lottery, which means that IRCC will invite a maximum of 10,000 people and invite them to apply for the sponsorship.

There are certain requirements that you have to satisfy if you want to be a sponsor. The invited candidates can pay their application fees to IRCC and complete their sponsorship applications in the next 60 days. IRCC says that the processing time for the PGP is currently 20 to 24 months.

If you live in Quebec, your application process might look a little different. Once you get drawn during the lottery, you will have to complete your application and get a Quebec Selection Certificate from the provincial government so you can submit them together to IRCC.