Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) will invite more sponsors of foreign parents and grandparents to submit an application under the Parent and grandparent program (PGP).
The 2nd draw, which will begin on September 6 and continue over a few days. Potential sponsors who were not invited to apply in the first round, now have a second chance of being invited to apply.
The upcoming invitation round will be restricted to potential sponsors who submitted an Expression of Interest through the PGP ‘Interest to Sponsor’ form in early 2017, but who have not yet been invited to apply. Invited sponsors will have to submit their application by December 8 in order for it to be accepted.
However, IRCC also confirmed that registration to enter the PGP ‘Interest to Sponsor’ pool of potential sponsors will reopen in early 2018, allowing more potential sponsors to plan on bringing their parent(s) or grandparent(s) to Canada as permanent residents.
Under the current criteria, PGP sponsors must meet the following requirements:
• Be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident;
• Be 18 years of age or older;
• Meet the Minimum necessary income level by submitting notices of assessment issued by the Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA) in support of their sponsorship. Sponsors must also demonstrate they have met the minimum necessary income level for three consecutive years (the requirements for sponsors residing in the province of Quebec are slightly different). If married or in a common-law relationship, the income of both persons may be included; and
• The sponsor must sign a sponsorship agreement that commits him or her to provide financial support for the sponsored person(s).
At this time, it remains unknown whether these criteria will remain the same for the 2018 version of the PGP.
