Canada has announced that around 30,000 Canadian citizens and permanent residents will be able to sponsor their parents and grandparents for permanent Canadian immigration in 2021.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) will hold a lottery to invite Canadian permanent residents and citizens to sponsor their parents and grandparents to move to Canada under the Parents and Grandparents Program (PGP).
Sponsored parents and grandparents who are given the green light for Canadian immigration will have permanent resident status, and be able to apply for Canadian citizenship in the future.
The lottery will be held in the week of September 20, 2021, after which invitations to Canadian sponsors will be sent over two weeks, Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino said at a press conference.
Selected Canadians will then have 60 days to submit their sponsorship application for their parents and grandparents to the Canadian federal government.
IRCC will select 30,000 candidates who previously submitted interests to sponsor their parents and grandparents during last year’s PGP intake window, between October and November 2020.
In January 2021, IRCC randomly selected 10,000 sponsorship applicants in a lottery. The same lottery process will be held later this year to choose an additional 30,000 potential sponsors for the PGP 2021.
Sponsorship applicants for the PGP lottery draw need to meet the program’s eligibility requirements, which include candidates being at least 18 years of age, and a Canadian citizen or permanent resident.
Moreover, potential sponsors must also ensure that they are financially capable of supporting themselves and their parents and grandparents after Canadian immigration.
To ensure that sponsors can financially support themselves and their sponsored relatives after Canadian immigration, IRCC will assess each applicant’s Minimum Necessary Income (MNI), which is proof of the applicant’s necessary income to support their relatives in Canada.
Potential sponsors will have to submit their MNI only after expressing an interest in sponsoring their parents and grandparents via an online form.
IRCC will assess the MNI for the 2020, 2019, and 2018 tax years to verify that applicants can meet the MNI eligibility factor. Applicants can also count their Employment Insurance (EI) benefits and Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) towards their MNI for the 2020 tax year.
However, sponsors residing in Quebec will have to demonstrate that they have had sufficient financial resources in only the last 12 months – due to the COVID-19 pandemic – to support their relatives after Canadian immigration.
Both IRCC and the Government of Quebec will require sponsors to sign an undertaking, which sets out how long they will financially support their sponsored relatives from the time they obtain Canadian permanent residency.
The undertaking length for parents and grandparents is 20 years for all of Canada except for Quebec, where the length of the undertaking is 10 years.
