Canada Pauses New Application For Parents and Grandparents Program In 2025

In yet another worrying move for Indian immigrants living in Canada, the Canadian federal government has announced that it will not accept any new applications for sponsoring parents and grandparents for permanent residence in 2025. The Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) said that in 2025, it will only process family sponsorship applications that were submitted in 2024 under the Parents and Grandparents Program.

The IRCC intends to process a maximum of just 15,000 sponsorship applications over the course of 2025, according to a report by Canadian immigration news website CIC. 

What Other Options Do Immigrants Have?

Canadian citizens and permanent residents, who want to call their parents and grandparents to stay in Canada for an extended period, can still sponsor their relatives for a super visa. A super visa allows relatives of Canadian citizens and permanent residents to visit them for up to five years at a time. 

What is the Parents and Grandparents Sponsorship Programme?

The Parents and Grandparents Program (PGP) allows Canadian citizens, permanent residents and registered Indians to sponsor their parents and grandparents to immigrate to Canada. Parents and grandparents approved under this program receive Canadian permanent residence and may eventually be able to apply for Canadian citizenship.

People sponsored through PGP can enjoy the full benefits of Canadian permanent residence including being able to work in Canada, obtain health care, get full protection under Canadian law and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and apply to become a Canadian citizen once they meet the eligibility criteria.

As there are a lot more sponsors interested in the PGP programme than there are available spots, the IRCC uses a lottery system to issue invitations to apply to those who have submitted an interest to sponsor form. Per the CIC report, between 2020 to 2024, IRCC issued invitations to sponsors who had submitted forms during the 2020 intake.

Reason To Pause PGP

IRCC has shrunk the permanent resident targets by 20 per cent for 2025. Part of this cut included a reduction in the allocation for landings under the PGP. In the earlier Immigration Levels Plan, published in 2023, IRCC targeted to let 34,000 foreign nationals get sponsored in 2025 under PGP. However, the new target for 2025 is 24,500 landings through the PGP.