How to be Eligible to Sponsor your Parents and Grandparents (PGP 2020)

Beginning October 13, 2020, the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) will open the application process that allows up to a maximum of ten thousand (10,000) certain candidates to sponsor their parents and grandparents to be Permanent Residents in Canada. If you submit the interest to sponsor form and you’re invited to submit a complete application, you can sponsor your parents and grandparents for immigration to Canada. For the application to be successful, one must prove that the sponsor can support them and their dependants financially, and ensure they don’t need social assistance from the government. Therefore, the primary qualification for sponsorship is to present proof that the Minimum Necessary Income (MNI) has been met. IRCC mandates that an Undertaking be signed and submitted by the prospective sponsors. The afore-stated Undertaking will thresh out the period covered by the financial responsibility of the sponsor with regards to the parents and/or grandparents that they are bringing to Canada. The length of commitment for the financial responsibility is 20 years (except Quebec which is 10 years).

Prospective sponsors have 3 weeks from October 13, 2020 to fill out online form expressing their interest to sponsor their parents and grandparents. The IRCC will conduct a random selection more like a lottery process to fill in 10,000 sought-after spots. Thereafter, the 10,000 applicants will be formally invited to apply. Applicants must pay the required application fees and submit a completed sponsorship application within 60 days. While the initial steps do not require potential sponsors to provide proof of income, those who are invited to apply later on would need to furnish notices of assessment from the Canada Revenue Agency for each of the three taxation years immediately preceding the date of their application.

It is imperative to note that the total number of people the sponsor will be financially responsible for includes not only the parent or grandparent that they want to sponsor, but also the interested sponsor, their spouse or common-law partner, their dependent children, an y other person the interested sponsor may have sponsored in the past for whom they’re still financially liable, any dependent children who won’t come to Canada with their parents or grandparents, their parent or grandparent’s spouse or partner even if they won’t be coming to Canada as well as their parent or grandparent’s separated spouse.

With this program in place, Canada takes another step further in trying to keep families together particularly during these difficult times. The Canadian government has greatly reinforced the program by providing a more equitable selection process, an increasing number of families who will be able to reunite and the reduction of the income requirement for sponsors due to the pandemic.

We will always be indebted to our parents’ unwavering love and support. Now is the perfect time to show them our gratitude. Bring them to a safe haven that is Canada. Let AJ Law LLP and our Filipino Lawyer in Toronto help you reunite with and sponsor your parents and grandparents to be Permanent Residents in Canada. We have a Filipino immigration lawyer ready to assist you throughout the sponsorship process. Call us at (+1) 416 409-5991.