What is the Parents and Grandparents Program (PGP)?

How to sponsor your parents and grandparents to come to Canada through the PGP.

Canadian citizens and permanent residents can sponsor their parents and grandparents to come to Canada. If your family is approved under the Parents and Grandparents Program (PGP), they will receive Canadian permanent residence and may be eligible to eventually apply for Canadian citizenship.

In 2021, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) held a lottery and invited 30,000 citizens and permanent residents to submit their sponsorship applications for the PGP. Information about the 2022 PGP is not yet available.

In addition, IRCC’s eligibility criteria for PGP sponsors is:

Be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, or a registered Indian under the Canadian Indian Act

• Be at least 18 years old;
• Be residing in Canada;
• Meet the minimum necessary income level for the PGP (married and common-law partners can combine income if they want to co-sign the application) and provide proof of income to IRCC by submitting Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) Notices of Assessments;
• Sign a legal undertaking that they commit to financially supporting the sponsored individuals for 20 years and to repay any social assistance claimed by the individuals within this period.The minimum necessary income (MNI) requirement depends on the size of your family and where you reside in Canada. If you live outside of Quebec, the minimum income requirements are based on the last 3 years of tax years prior to the date of application Qpplicants who live in Quebec, they are onrly requied to meet the minimum income over the past 12 month

The Super Visa

The Super Visa is another option for sponsoring parents and grandparents and is available all year round. You can apply for a Super Visa as well as try to get selected for the PGP. The Super Visa allows parents and grandparents of Canadian citizens and permanent residents to visit their family for up to five consecutive years without renewing their visitor status. Furthermore, parents and grandparents can enter Canada multiple times with the Super Visa for up to 10 years.

What are the Super Visa eligibility requirements?

In order to be eligible for a Super Visa, an applicant must be a parent or grandparent of a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident of Canada. A spouse or common law partner of the applicant may be included on the application, but no dependents may be included.

They must also have a signed letter from your child or grandchild inviting the applicant to Canada which also includes:

• A promise of financial support for the length of your visit
• The list and number of people in the household of this person
• A copy of this person’s Canadian citizenship or permanent resident document
• The applicant must also have medical insurance from a Canadian insurance company that is:
• Valid for at least 1 year from the date of entry
• At least $100,000 of emergency coverage
• Have proof that the medical insurance has been paid in full

In addition, the child or grandchild of the applicant must be able to prove that they can meet the income requirements, identified by the Low-Income Cut Off (LICO) in the table below. The purpose of the income requirement is to assess the child or grandchild’s ability to financially support their family members, especially since the responsibility that can come with supporting an elderly family member can be large.