Immigration department pauses applications to sponsor parents, grandparents to settle in Canada

Immigration department pauses applications to sponsor parents, grandparents to settle in Canada MARIE WOOLF OTTAWA PUBLISHED 1 HOUR AGO COMMENTS SHARE SAVE FOR LATER The federal immigration department is facing calls to rethink a key family reunification program after it paused applications to sponsor grandparents and parents to settle in Canada as permanent residents, leaving thousands waiting years for their loved ones to join them. On Wednesday, IRCC announced on its website that it will not accept any new formal expressions of interest to sponsor parents and grandparents to settle in Canada until further notice. It said it would also pause invitations to potential sponsors to apply to bring their parents and grandparents here to settle. In a statement, Taous Ait, a spokesperson for immigration minister Lena Metlege Diab said the measures are “part of broader efforts to restore balance across immigration programs and support timely processing, while maintaining public confidence in Canada’s immigration system.” Immigration department suddenly suspends citizenship of scores of ‘Lost Canadians’ She said decisions to open or pause new intakes to the program follow assessments of the number of people in “its inventory and application inventory, each year.” “IRCC will continue processing up to 15,000 individuals this year who have already applied, in line with our Immigration Levels Plan,” she added. The Parents and Grandparents Program (PGP) is a lottery-like pathway to permanent residence for family members who are foreign nationals. Demand to settle here under the program has far outstripped the number of permanent residence spots available under the government’s immigration targets. In the 2026-2028 Immigration Levels Plan, published in last year’s budget, the government cut its target for new permanent residents under the parents and grandparents program to 15,000 in each of the three years. In the previous 2025-2027 plan, its target was to admit 21,500 under the program this year. Ottawa has allowed parents and grandparents living overseas to join family here for years. But in 2020, IRCC established a system creating a pool of expressions of interest-to-sponsor parents and grandparents. There were more than 200,000 responses in 2020. IRCC invited applications to settle here from this pool in subsequent years. IRCC has previously been criticized for not opening up the pool to allow other immigrants to bring their parents and grandparents to…