Mixed News: Parent Sponsorship 2023

IRCC announced the 2023 process for the Parent & Grandparents Program (which allows permanent residents and citizens to sponsor their parents or grandparents for permanent residence). It’s hugely popular for family reunification, but there are nowhere near as many spaces as there is demand. This year, IRCC is “aiming to receive up to 15,000 complete applications.”

Compare that to the 500,000 new permanent residents Canada aims to admit per year by 2025. You can make your own guesses about the supply/demand relationship.

As such, IRCC has been using a lottery system in recent years. The lottery replaced a contentious first-in-line program that had problems of its own.

Here we are in 2023. We’ve all been waiting to see what the program would look like this year. (Annual tinkering is the norm.) Announcements typically come in the fall.

The 2023 approach will be great news for some, but disappointment for many who have become eligible to sponsor since 2020. In 2023 people who submitted their interest to sponsor form in 2020 will have a third chance at an invitation. IRCC issued invitations from that pool in 2021 and 2022. This news will be very exciting news for that group of people.

Everyone else will be less happy.

IRCC Promotes Super Visas

As part of the announcement, IRCC issued a plug for the super visa program. It is good for disappointed people to keep in mind that the super visa program allows for parents to come to Canada and stay for up to five years at a time. That’s great for parents who need child care from a grandparent, but that grandparent will not gain the benefits that come with permanent residence.

Those of us who think about our parents’ health definitely think through these options carefully.