How does IRCC choose sponsors through the Parents and Grandparents Program?

Every year Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) selects Canadian sponsors (permanent resident and citizens) looking to sponsor their older loved ones, through the Parents and Grandparents Program (PGP).

How IRCC picks these sponsors is not always clear due to the department’s special lottery system, which is used in PGP selections. However, recent published instructions from the government reveal more about IRCC’s process regarding PGP selections.

Sponsor your parents and grandparents for Canadian immigration

What is IRCC’s method for choosing sponsors through the PGP?

For recent intakes of the PGP, IRCC has selected potential sponsors from a randomized list of interest to sponsor forms submitted in 2020. An IRCC agent uploads a selected number of email addresses to a bulk email tool, starting with the first sequential entry that has not already been invited. This bulk email tool sends out invitation to apply (ITA) letters to potential sponsors, inviting them to submit a sponsorship and permanent residence application package.

For the 2024 intake, IRCC sent out 35,700 ITA letters with the goal of accepting 20,500 complete applications. The higher number of ITAs accounted for the likelihood that not all recipients will submit an application.

A note on the 2024 PGP

Because IRCC chose to draw from the 2020 pool of sponsors who submitted an interest to sponsor form, certain conditions are in place even for those who received an ITA through the PGP this year. These rules were also in place in previous years that IRCC considered sponsors from the 2020 pool and may be enforced in the future as well.

Documentation Requirements

Sponsors invited to submit a sponsorship application for the 2024 intake had to include a copy of the same “status in Canada” document that was submitted with their 2020 interest to sponsor form. If there was any discrepancy between the information provided in the interest to sponsor form and the sponsorship application, the potential sponsor has to provide an explanation for the change and satisfactory evidence demonstrating that the application pertains to the same individual identified on the 2020 form.

Priority of Processing

IRCC processes applications to sponsor parents and grandparents on a first-in, first-out basis. This means that new applications submitted for the 2024 intake were placed in the queue behind the applications currently in the existing inventory of sponsorship applications for parents and grandparents. This ensures a systematic and fair processing order, giving priority to those who have been waiting the longest.

2024 marks the fourth year in a row that the PGP has drawn from the 2020 pool of interested sponsors. While the program is set to grow in admissions allocations (rising from 32,000 this year to 34,000 in both 2025 and 2026), demand for the program has consistently outpaced available space. The environment created by these slim allocations, coupled with extended service standards have even led to prominent criticism of IRCC’s family reunification initiatives.

For example, after the 2023 PGP intake, there were still 108,000 interest to sponsor forms in IRCC’s backlog; meaning that the department could still spend the next three years (including 2024) working through the 2020 pool of sponsors, despite growing numbers of new sponsors from subsequent years.

Sponsor your parents and grandparents for Canadian immigration