Every year, IRCC chooses Parents & Grandparents Program sponsors in order to sponsor their older loved ones to come to Canada.
How IRCC picks these sponsors is not always clear. This is because of the department’s lottery system, which is used in Parents’ and Grandparents’ selections. However, recent published instructions from the government reveal more about IRCC’s process regarding PGP selections.
What Is IRCC’s Method For Choosing Sponsors Through The Parents and Grandparents Program?
For recent Parents and Grandparents Program intakes, IRCC has selected potential sponsors from a randomized list of interest to sponsor forms submitted in 2020. An IRCC agent uploads a selected number of email addresses to a bulk email tool, beginning with the first sequential entry that hasn’t been invited. The bulk email tool sends out ITAs, i.e., invitations to apply letters, to prospective sponsors, thus inviting them to submit a family sponsorship and permanent residence application package.
For the 2024 intake, IRCC sent out over 35,700 ITA letters with the aim of accepting 20,500 complete applications. The higher number of ITAs accounted for the likelihood that not all recipients will submit an application.
A Note On The 2024 Parents and Grandparents Program
IRCC chooses Parents & Grandparents Program sponsors every year. Because IRCC chose to draw from the 2020 pool of sponsors who submitted an interest-to-sponsor form, specific conditions are in place even for those who obtained ITAs through the PGP this year. These rules were also in place the previous year that IRCC considered sponsors from the 2020 pool and might be enforced in the future as well.
1. Documentation Required
Sponsors invited to submit a sponsorship application for the 2024 intake had to include a copy of the same ‘status in Canada’ document which was submitted with their 2020 interest to sponsor form. Suppose there was any discrepancy between the information provided in the interest to sponsor form and the sponsorship application. In that case, the potential sponsor has to provide an explanation for the change and satisfactory evidence. Both these things must showcase that the application pertains to the same individual identified in the 2020 form.
2. Priority Of Processing
IRCC processes applications to sponsor parents and grandparents on a first-in, first-out basis. This implies that new applications submitted for the 2024 intake were placed in the queue behind the applications currently in the existing inventory of sponsorship applications for parents and grandparents.
2024 marks the fourth year in a row that the PGP has drawn from the 2020 pool of interested sponsors. While the program is set to grow in admission allocations, demands for the program have consistently outpaced available space. The environment created by these slim allocations, has even led to prominent criticism of IRCC’s family reunification initiatives.
For instance, after the 2023 PGP intake, there were still 108,000 interest-to-sponsor forms in IRCC’s backlog. This implies that the department could still spend the next three years working through the 2020 pool of sponsors. Well, this is despite the growing number of new sponsors from subsequent years.
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