Starting in 2019, IRCC will accept 20,000 Parents and Grandparents Program Applications and move to a first-come, first-serve system

August 20, 2018 – Brampton ON – To help reunite even more parents and grandparents with their families in Canada and make our immigration system more fair, today, MP Sonia Sidhu joined MPs Kamal Khera to announce on behalf of the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, that the Government of Canada will accept up to 20,000 applications for the sponsorship of parents and grandparents starting next year and that the lottery system would be ended.

“We heard Canadians clearly - we need to move toward an immigration system that works for everyone” said MP Sidhu. “That is why today our Government announced that we are making the Parents and Grandparents Program more fair by ending the lottery system and quadrupling the number of applications taken each year since the program reopened in 2014”.

In place of the lottery system, the Parents and Grandparents Program will now move toward a first-come, first-serve system. Other improvements include a reduction in the Parents and Grandparents backlog by 84%, with the total number of cases in the backlog dropping from a peak of 167,000 in 2011 to 25,800 in June 2018.

“Family reunification is one of our government’s core priorities and because we have reduced the backlog, we are better able to handle new applications” continued MP Sidhu. “When families are reunified it means newcomers are better able to integrated and families are able to succeed and realize their potential – something that is making our communities stronger and something that we can all be proud of”.

It was also announced that, as a result of listening to stakeholders and closely examining the PGP Program, the government is making further changes to the application intake process that will streamline access to the program and improve client experience.

Using this modified intake process will give the government more flexibility in the application process, ensuring that IRCC receives as many applications as possible.