Parents Sponsorship Canada

Bringing your parents or grandparents to Canada permanently runs through the Parents and Grandparents Program (PGP), and in 2026 that program is closed to new applications. Nobody can submit an Interest to Sponsor form, and no new invitations are going out. For most families the practical route right now is the Super Visa, which stays open and was made easier to qualify for in March 2026. If you are not sure which option fits your situation, start with a free assessment before you spend money on documents.

This page explains exactly what the pause does and does not mean, who qualifies to sponsor when the program reopens, what the process costs, and how the Super Visa compares.

Parents and Grandparents Program Status in 2026

The PGP is paused for all new applications.

Two separate steps created the current situation:

• January 1, 2026: Ministerial instructions came into force stating that no new permanent residence applications from parents or grandparents of a sponsor, and no sponsorship applications tied to them, are to be received for processing until further instructions are issued. This is the same annual mechanism IRCC has used at the start of each of the past several years.
• July 15, 2026: IRCC publicly confirmed that it is pausing intake under the program, will not receive new Interest to Sponsor forms, and will not invite potential sponsors to apply until further notice.

What continues: IRCC keeps processing applications already in its inventory and plans to approve up to 15,000 people for permanent residence through the program in 2026, in line with the 2026 to 2028 Immigration Levels Plan.

What stops: new entries into the program. If you were not invited in the 2025 round, there is no form to submit, no waiting list to join, and no announced reopening date.

The wording matters. The instructions say "until further instructions are issued," which is the same conditional language used in previous years before intakes reopened. The program has not been cancelled or removed from the family class regulations. It is closed to new intake with no timeline.

Who Can Sponsor Their Parents or Grandparents

When the PGP is open, you can sponsor your biological or adopted parents and grandparents for permanent residence if you meet the following eligibility requirements:

• Age and residence: You must be at least 18 years old and your primary residential address must be in Canada when you submit your application.
• Status in Canada: You must be a Canadian citizen, a permanent resident of Canada, or a person registered as an Indian under the Canadian Indian Act.
• Invitation to apply: You must have received a valid invitation to apply from IRCC. Applications without an invitation will be returned.
• Income: You must meet the Minimum Necessary Income (MNI) for each of the three consecutive tax years immediately before you apply.
• Undertaking: You must sign an undertaking committing to financially support the people you are sponsoring.

Who Is Not Eligible to Sponsor

You may not be eligible to sponsor parents or grandparents if you:

• are in jail, prison, or a federal penitentiary;
• have not repaid an immigration loan, a performance bond, or court-ordered support payments such as alimony or child support;
• did not meet your obligations under a previous sponsorship undertaking;
• have declared bankruptcy and have not been discharged;
• receive social assistance for reasons other than a disability;
• have been convicted of a violent criminal offence, a sexual offence, or an offence against a relative; or
• are subject to a removal order and cannot legally remain in Canada.

Some of these restrictions apply differently in Quebec. If any of these situations applies to you, consult a regulated immigration consultant or lawyer before concluding that you are ineligible.

Who Is Not Eligible to Sponsor Parents

You may not be eligible to sponsor if you:

• are in jail, prison, or a federal penitentiary;
• have not repaid an immigration loan, a performance bond, or court-ordered support payments such as alimony or child support;
• did not meet your obligations under a previous sponsorship undertaking;
• have declared bankruptcy and have not been discharged;
• receive social assistance for a reason other than a disability;
• have been convicted of a violent criminal offence, a sexual offence, or an offence against a relative; or
• are subject to a removal order.

Some of these bars are applied differently in Quebec, and several depend on your current status rather than your history. If one of them may apply to you, book a consultation with a regulated consultant before assuming you are ineligible.

Minimum Necessary Income for Parent Sponsorship

To sponsor parents or grandparents, you must meet the Minimum Necessary Income for your family size in each of the three consecutive tax years immediately before you submit the application.

The MNI is set at the Low Income Cut-Off (LICO) plus 30 percent, a stricter standard than the one applied to most other family sponsorship categories. Family size includes you, your spouse or common-law partner, your dependent children, anyone you already support under a previous undertaking, and every person you plan to sponsor.

Key points on proving income:

• The only accepted proof is the Notice of Assessment (NOA) issued by the Canada Revenue Agency. Employment letters, bank statements, and T4 slips are not accepted on their own.
• If your income alone falls short, your spouse or common-law partner can co-sign. Their income is added to yours, but they must also meet the other eligibility conditions and they take on the same legal responsibility.
• The dollar thresholds are updated every year, so the figures that applied to a previous intake will not be the figures that apply to the next one.

What the 20-Year Sponsorship Undertaking Means

The undertaking is a contract with the government, not a statement of intent. It commits you to providing basic needs including food, clothing, and shelter for the entire period.

Outside Quebec the undertaking runs 20 years from the day your parent or grandparent becomes a permanent resident. In Quebec it runs 10 years.

If the people you sponsor receive social assistance during that period, you can be required to repay it. The undertaking stays in force even if your financial situation changes, if you separate or divorce, or if the relationship breaks down.

Quebec residents sign a second undertaking with the province. If IRCC approves the federal sponsorship, you then submit a separate undertaking application to the Ministère de l'Immigration, de la Francisation et de l'Intégration, which sets its own conditions on top of the federal ones. Do not submit it until IRCC tells you to.

How the PGP Invitation and Application Process Works

The program is invitation-only and selection is random. When a round runs, the sequence is:

1. Interest to Sponsor form: IRCC opens a window for potential sponsors to submit a short online form. No documents are required at this stage. The pool created this way can be used for several years of draws.
2. Random selection: IRCC randomly draws names from the pool and issues Invitations to Apply. Everyone in the pool has the same odds regardless of when they submitted.
3. Document collection: invited sponsors gather proof of income (three years of Notices of Assessment), identity documents, and the invitation letter. Police certificates and translations can take weeks, so this starts immediately.
4. Online submission: the sponsored parent or grandparent is the principal applicant and submits the permanent residence application together with your sponsorship application through the IRCC Permanent Residence Portal.
5. Payment: all fees are paid online at submission. Paying the Right of Permanent Residence Fee upfront avoids a delay later.
6. Deadline: the completed application must reach IRCC by the date in the invitation letter, normally 60 days. There are no extensions.

PGP Invitation Rounds and the 2020 Pool

This is the part most pages leave out, and it changes who actually has a pathway.

The Interest to Sponsor form has not opened since the fall of 2020, when IRCC collected 203,213 submissions over a three-week window. Every round since then has drawn invitations from that same 2020 pool rather than accepting new forms.

The 2025 round opened on July 28, 2025 with a final submission deadline of October 9, 2025. Invitation numbers are always higher than the application target because a share of invited sponsors do not proceed, usually because they cannot meet the income test or cannot assemble documents inside the deadline.

The practical consequence: if your name was never in the 2020 pool, you have not been waiting in line. You have not been able to join one. Planning around the Super Visa is the realistic move until IRCC announces a new intake.

Why PGP Applications Are Returned

Applications are screened for completeness before processing begins, and incomplete files are returned without processing. The recurring causes are:

• missing forms or documents from the required checklist;
• income documentation that does not cover all three required tax years;
• a Notice of Assessment that is missing, since other income documents are not accepted in its place;
• biometrics fee not paid at submission;
• forms not signed as required;
• the invitation letter not uploaded;
• translated documents submitted without a translator's affidavit;
• application details that do not match the original Interest to Sponsor submission, without an explanation; and
• submission after the deadline in the invitation letter.

Requirements for Sponsored Parents and Grandparents

The sponsored person must satisfy the standard permanent residence requirements:

• Medical examination: completed by an IRCC-approved panel physician. Wait for IRCC's instructions rather than booking early, because results are valid for roughly 12 months and a long processing time can force a repeat exam.
• Police certificates: required from every country where the person lived for six months or more since turning 18. They are valid for one year from issue, so they are also better obtained after submission.
• Background and security checks: criminality and security screening must be cleared.
• Documents: valid passports, birth certificates, marriage certificates where applicable, proof of the family relationship to the sponsor, and certified translations with a translator's affidavit for anything not in English or French.
• Biometrics: required for applicants aged 14 to 79 after the fee is paid. IRCC sends a letter with a collection site, and biometrics must be given within 30 days of that letter.

What Changes Once Your Parents Become Permanent Residents

Approved parents and grandparents can live anywhere in Canada, work for any employer without a permit, study, and access provincial health coverage after any applicable waiting period. They can later apply for citizenship if they meet the residency and other requirements.

They also take on the residency obligation: at least 730 days of physical presence in Canada in every five-year period. Long absences put status at risk. As permanent residents they cannot vote and cannot hold a Canadian passport.

Parents and Grandparents Sponsorship Fees

The figures below reflect the IRCC fee schedule in effect since April 30, 2026. Fees change periodically and must be paid online, so confirm the current amounts before you pay.

The Right of Permanent Residence Fee can be paid at submission or later, before approval. It is charged at the rate in effect on the day you pay it, not the day you applied, and it is refunded if the application is refused or withdrawn. Third-party costs for medical exams, police certificates, and certified translations are extra and vary by country.

Super Visa: The Working Alternative While the PGP Is Paused

The Super Visa is a multiple-entry visa for parents and grandparents of Canadian citizens and permanent residents. Each entry allows a stay of up to five years, and the visa itself can be valid for up to 10 years. A standard visitor visa normally allows six months per entry, which is why the Super Visa is the practical choice for extended family stays.

Current requirements:

• The host in Canada must meet the minimum income threshold for the family size, including the visiting parents or grandparents.
• The applicant must hold private medical insurance with at least $100,000 in coverage, valid for at least one year from entry. Since January 2025 this can be purchased from a Canadian insurer or from a foreign insurer authorized by the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions.
• The applicant must complete an immigration medical exam.
• The host must provide a signed letter of invitation confirming financial support for the visit.

Holders can apply to extend their stay from inside Canada. They cannot work, they are not covered by provincial health plans, and the visa does not lead to permanent residence on its own. Time spent in Canada on a Super Visa does not reduce a parent's eligibility to be sponsored later if the PGP reopens.

New Super Visa Income Rules From March 31, 2026

IRCC relaxed the income test in two ways, effective March 31, 2026. Both apply to new applications and to applications already in processing on that date:

• Two-year lookback: the host, together with a co-signer if there is one, can meet the income threshold using either of the two tax years preceding the application, instead of only the most recent year. A single weak year caused by parental leave, a layoff, a career change, or seasonal work no longer sinks the application on its own.
• Visitor's own income counts: where the host meets a minimum portion of the required threshold, the visiting parent's or grandparent's own recurring income, such as a foreign pension or rental income, can be used to close the gap. IRCC has not published the exact minimum percentage the host must reach, so this option needs a careful file-by-file assessment.

The original single-year rule still exists. These are additional ways to qualify, not replacements. Full eligibility details are on our Super Visa service page.

When a Regular Visitor Visa Makes More Sense

If the visit is short, the travel date is close, or the host's income is not yet strong enough for a Super Visa, a standard visitor visa can serve as a bridge. It allows shorter stays, extensions are possible but not automatic, and approval depends on clearly documented travel purpose and ties to the home country. It also buys time to build a stronger Super Visa application.

Parents and Grandparents Program vs Super Visa

How Long Parent Sponsorship Takes

Published processing times move every month, so treat any figure as a snapshot rather than a promise.

As of the July 2026 updates, overall wait times for parent and grandparent sponsorship were sitting in the low thirties of months for applications destined outside Quebec, and far longer for Quebec-destined applications, which have moved past five years. For sponsors who applied during the 2025 round, IRCC's estimate of the remaining time was roughly 18 months outside Quebec and around 54 months for Quebec.

The gap exists because Quebec sets its own family class admission targets and applies its own undertaking process, which adds a full provincial stage to the file.

If your file is already in the queue, the pause does not affect it. Keep your contact details current with IRCC, respond quickly to any request for documents, and update medical exams or police certificates if they expire during processing.