2025 Will See No New PGP Applications
Canada has announced a pause on new applications for parent and grandparent permanent residency sponsorships until further notice. The directive, published in the Canada Gazette, emphasizes the government’s dedication to family reunification, while prioritizing the processing of last year’s applications. Immigration Minister Marc Miller believes this approach will better align with the government’s immigration and family reunification objectives.
What Is the Canada Parents and Grandparents Program (PGP)?
The PGP program allows Canadian citizens, permanent residents, and registered Indians to sponsor their parents or grandparents for permanent residency. This grants sponsored individuals access to Canadian healthcare and social services. Due to high demand, the program employs a lottery system where prospective sponsors submit an Interest to Sponsor form, and IRCC randomly selects individuals to invite for application.
From 2020 to 2024, invitations were extended to those who had applied during the 2020 intake period. The program has not accepted new sponsors since then.
Why the Pause on New Applications?
The suspension of new applications for 2025 is connected to IRCC’s revised immigration targets.
The department has lowered its annual permanent resident targets under the PGP for 2025. Key points include:
- 2025 Target: 24,500 PGP landings.
- 2024 Target: 32,000 PGP landings.
By focusing on pending applications, IRCC aims to balance its resources and improve processing efficiency.
This pause underscores the government’s effort to prioritize quality over quantity in its immigration programs.
Why is IRCC pausing new PGP applications in 2025?
IRCC plans to prioritize clearing the backlog of existing applications while managing the reduced immigration targets for 2025. Other immigration streams have also halted new sponsorships to assist in reducing the backlog. The government’s immigration levels plan, which forecasts an overall decrease in immigration over the next three years, aims to admit over 24,000 individuals through the parent and grandparent stream this year.
The new directive specifies that a maximum of 15,000 applications made in 2024 through the family reunification program will be processed. Under the parent and grandparent program, 35,700 randomly selected people were invited to submit applications in 2024, with a goal of accepting 20,500 applications.
According to the 2024 annual report to Parliament on immigration, tabled by Miller, there were over 40,000 parent and grandparent permanent residency sponsorships pending as of the end of 2023. The report also mentions that the average processing time for a sponsorship application was 24 months. This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Jan. 3, 2025.