The Parents and Grandparents Program is paused: no new interest-to-sponsor forms or invitations until further notice. How the invitation, income, and 20-year undertaking work when intake resumes, plus the other-relatives stream and the super visa.
Applies in: across Canada
You cannot start a new parents and grandparents sponsorship right now. On July 15, 2026, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) paused intake of new applications under the Parents and Grandparents Program. It will not receive new interest-to-sponsor forms or invite potential sponsors to apply until further notice, while applications already submitted keep being processed. IRCC said it plans to approve up to 15,000 people for permanent residence through the program in 2026, in line with the 2026 to 2028 Immigration Levels Plan.
This guide explains how the program works so you are ready when intake resumes, what the income and undertaking commitments are, and which other routes exist in the meantime. It covers parents and grandparents and, separately, other relatives. It does not cover sponsoring a spouse or partner: that stream has its own guide on this site, and this guide contains no spouse-sponsorship content. This guide gives process information only. It does not advise you on whether you qualify, and a case with any complication is exactly when a licensed immigration consultant (RCIC) or an immigration lawyer earns their fee.
The Parents and Grandparents Program lets you sponsor your own parents and grandparents, related by blood or adoption, to become permanent residents of Canada. The sponsored person must also be eligible: admissible to Canada and able to meet the medical, criminality, and other requirements that apply to permanent residence applicants.
You can sponsor your parents and grandparents if you are invited to apply, are at least 18 years old, live in Canada, are a Canadian citizen, a permanent resident of Canada, or a person registered in Canada as an Indian under the Canadian Indian Act, have enough money to support the people you sponsor, and meet all other requirements under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and its regulations. Your primary residential address must be in Canada when you submit the application and until a decision is made. A Canadian citizen living outside Canada cannot sponsor parents or grandparents; that abroad exception applies only to spouses, partners, and dependent children.
You may not be eligible to sponsor if you are in jail, prison, or a penitentiary; did not pay back an immigration loan, a performance bond, or court-ordered family support payments such as alimony or child support; did not provide the financial support you agreed to under an earlier sponsorship agreement; declared bankruptcy and are not discharged; receive social assistance for a reason other than a disability; were convicted of a violent criminal offence, any offence against a relative, or any sexual offence inside or outside Canada; or cannot legally stay in Canada because you received a removal order. There may be other reasons. If IRCC determines you are not eligible to sponsor, it tells you why.
If they are eligible, you can sponsor your own parents and grandparents, related by blood or adoption; the dependent children of your parents and grandparents, for example your siblings, half-siblings, or step-siblings, and their dependent children; and, if your parents or grandparents are divorced, their current spouse, common-law partner, or conjugal partner. Submit separate applications for divorced parents, one application per parent. If your parents or grandparents are separated but not divorced, submit one application, because they are still married.
On each application, one sponsored parent or grandparent is the principal applicant, and their spouse is listed as a dependant. Your parent must be the principal applicant on their own application, because they are the person related to you; a step-parent cannot be the principal applicant. Siblings can be included only if they qualify as dependent children. If they are older than the age limit or do not meet all the requirements, they cannot be included and would have to immigrate on their own.
You cannot sponsor your spouse or common-law partner's parents and grandparents, your in-laws. You cannot transfer your invitation to another person, including your spouse or partner, for them to sponsor their own parents and grandparents. You cannot sponsor someone who is inadmissible to Canada.
When the program is open, sponsorship starts with an interest-to-sponsor form, submitted during a short intake window. IRCC then reviews the submissions, removes duplicates, and randomly selects and invites potential sponsors to apply. Invitations are emailed, and the invitation status is posted on the IRCC website.
The last interest-to-sponsor window ran from October 13 to November 3, 2020. Every intake since has drawn from that pool. For the 2025 intake, IRCC invited potential sponsors starting July 28, 2025, sending 17,860 invitations over approximately two weeks with the goal of accepting 10,000 complete applications. The last day to apply was October 9, 2025. Do not prepare an application unless you are invited: if you apply without being invited, IRCC returns the application without processing it.
While the program is paused, there is no new pool to join and no invitation to wait for. The useful work is confirming your own eligibility, keeping your tax filings current, and checking the program page for the next intake announcement.
Outside Quebec, sponsors and co-signers must meet or exceed the minimum necessary income, which is the low income cut-off plus 30 percent, for each of the three taxation years immediately before the date of the application. The requirement applies to applications received on or after January 1, 2014. Failing any one of the three years is enough to fail the test.
For the 2025 intake, IRCC assessed tax years 2024, 2023, and 2022. The published table for that intake, for sponsors living in any province or territory except Quebec, is:
| Family size | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 people | $47,549 | $44,530 | $43,082 |
| 3 people | $58,456 | $54,743 | $52,965 |
| 4 people | $70,972 | $66,466 | $64,306 |
| 5 people | $80,496 | $75,384 | $72,935 |
| 6 people | $90,784 | $85,020 | $82,259 |
| 7 people | $101,075 | $94,658 | $91,582 |
| Each additional person, add | $10,291 | $9,636 | $9,324 |
Family size is counted on a yearly basis, and it includes you, your spouse or common-law partner, your dependent children, the parents or grandparents you are sponsoring and their dependants, and anyone still covered by a previous undertaking you signed or co-signed. Count each person in the year they became part of your family. If someone is no longer part of your family when you apply, for example because of death, legal divorce, or an expired undertaking, do not include them in your family size for any of the three tax years.
Your spouse or common-law partner may co-sign the application to combine your incomes. Each of you must submit three notices of assessment, or equivalent documents, issued by the Minister of National Revenue for the three tax years immediately before the date IRCC receives the application. Alternatively, a sponsor or co-signer can provide their Social Insurance Number and consent for IRCC to obtain income tax information directly from the Canada Revenue Agency. IRCC starts from total income on line 15000 of the notice of assessment and applies the exclusions set out on its income page; read that page before you add up your own figures, because not every dollar on the assessment counts.
If you live in Quebec, the Ministère de l'Immigration, de la Francisation et de l'Intégration assesses your income under Quebec's own rules, and the federal table above does not apply to you.
Check current processing times on IRCC's processing-times tool before you plan around a date. This guide states no processing-time figure, because the figure moves with inventory and destination, and Quebec-destined applications run on a different timeline from applications destined elsewhere.
To become a sponsor, you must sign an undertaking and a sponsorship agreement. In the undertaking, you commit to financially supporting the people you sponsor for the undertaking period, and to repaying any provincial social assistance they receive during that period. The undertaking period for parents and grandparents is 20 years, or 10 years if you live in Quebec, starting on the day the sponsored person becomes a permanent resident. Once they are permanent residents, there is no way to cancel or shorten the undertaking period. You remain responsible for the entire period even if your relationship changes, the sponsored person becomes a Canadian citizen, or your financial situation gets worse. You can only request to withdraw a sponsorship application before the sponsored person becomes a permanent resident.
In the sponsorship agreement, you agree to provide for the basic needs of the people you sponsor: food, clothing, shelter, and other needs for everyday living. The people you sponsor agree to make every effort to support themselves and their accompanying family members.
If you live in Quebec, there is one extra step. If IRCC approves your sponsorship application, it asks you to submit an undertaking application to the Quebec ministry in charge of immigration, and you must also meet Quebec's immigration sponsorship requirements. Do not submit the Quebec undertaking application until IRCC tells you to: if you do not wait for confirmation, Quebec will not process it.
The parents and grandparents program does not cover every relative. A separate stream, under Guide 5196, covers adopted children and other relatives. Under it, you may be able to sponsor an orphaned brother, sister, nephew, niece, or grandchild who is under 18, or one relative of any age if you have no living relative in a listed set — spouse, common-law partner, conjugal partner, child, parent, grandparent, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, nephew, or niece — whom you could sponsor, and none of those relatives is a Canadian citizen, a permanent resident, or a person registered as an Indian under the Indian Act. The length of undertaking for another relative is 10 years, in Quebec as well as elsewhere. This stream has its own eligibility page, its own forms, and its own fee table, and applications are made online. Read the other-relatives eligibility page before assuming a relative qualifies: the one-relative rule turns on relatives you do not have, not only on the relative you want to sponsor.
IRCC's own program page points uninvited sponsors to the super visa. The super visa lets parents and grandparents stay in Canada for five years at a time, and holders can apply for two-year extensions to their stay while still in Canada. It is a visitor route, not permanent residence: it does not lead to permanent resident status on its own, and it does not carry the sponsorship undertaking. This guide states no super visa income, insurance, or fee figures, because none could be verified on an IRCC page. If the super visa is the route you need now, start from IRCC's super visa pages and verify the income, medical insurance, and medical exam requirements there before you apply.
This guide states no Parents and Grandparents Program fee figure, because no fee figure could be verified on the program page; check the IRCC fee list on the day you pay. It states no processing-time figure, because processing times move with inventory and destination; check IRCC's processing-times tool. It states no super visa income, insurance, or fee figures, because none could be verified on an IRCC page. Recheck this guide on the next Parents and Grandparents Program intake announcement, and sooner if IRCC lifts the pause.
No, not under the Parents and Grandparents Program. IRCC paused intake of new applications on July 15, 2026, and said it will not receive new interest-to-sponsor forms or invite potential sponsors to apply until further notice. Applications already submitted keep being processed, and IRCC said it plans to approve up to 15,000 people for permanent residence through the program in 2026. If your parents or grandparents want to come to Canada while the program is paused, IRCC points uninvited sponsors to the super visa, which lets parents and grandparents stay for five years at a time. Check the program page for the current status before you prepare anything, because the pause ends only when IRCC says so.
It runs in two stages. First, eligible people submit an interest-to-sponsor form during a short intake window. Then IRCC randomly selects from that pool and emails invitations to apply. The last interest-to-sponsor window ran from October 13 to November 3, 2020, and every intake since has drawn from that pool. The most recent intake started July 28, 2025, when IRCC sent 17,860 invitations over about two weeks, aiming to receive 10,000 complete applications, with October 9, 2025 as the last day to apply. You cannot transfer an invitation to anyone else, including your spouse or partner, and you cannot apply without one. If you were never in the 2020 pool, there is currently no way to join it.
Outside Quebec, you must meet or exceed the minimum necessary income, which is the low income cut-off plus 30 percent, for each of the three taxation years immediately before the date you apply. Meeting it in one or two of those years is not enough. IRCC assesses the 2025 intake on tax years 2024, 2023, and 2022, and the published table for that intake runs from $47,549 for a family of two in 2024 up to $101,075 for a family of seven, with $10,291 added for each additional person. Your family size counts you, your spouse or common-law partner, your dependent children, the parents or grandparents you sponsor and their dependants, and anyone still covered by an undertaking you signed or co-signed. Your spouse or common-law partner can co-sign to combine incomes. You prove income with three notices of assessment, or by giving your Social Insurance Number and consent for IRCC to obtain the information from the Canada Revenue Agency. If you live in Quebec, Quebec's immigration ministry assesses your income under its own rules instead.
You cannot sponsor your spouse or common-law partner's parents or grandparents. Only your own parents and grandparents, related by blood or adoption, can be sponsored under this program, although your spouse or partner can co-sign your application and combine incomes with you. If your spouse or partner receives their own invitation, they can sponsor their own parents with you as co-signer. Step-parents enter through your own parent's application: you sponsor your parent as the principal applicant, and their spouse is listed as your parent's dependant. The same pattern applies to a parent's dependent children, such as your siblings, half-siblings, or step-siblings, who can be included only if they qualify as dependent children. Divorced parents need separate applications, one per parent, while separated parents who are not divorced go on one application because they are still married.
The undertaking is a signed promise to financially support the people you sponsor for 20 years, or 10 years if you live in Quebec, starting on the day they become permanent residents. During that period you agree to provide for their basic needs, including food, clothing, shelter, and other everyday needs, and to repay any provincial social assistance they receive. The period cannot be cancelled or shortened once they are permanent residents, even if your relationship changes, the sponsored person becomes a Canadian citizen, or your own financial situation gets worse. You can only withdraw a sponsorship application before the sponsored person becomes a permanent resident. Because the commitment outlasts most mortgages and many careers, read the undertaking page in full before you sign anything, and get advice from a licensed immigration consultant or an immigration lawyer if any part of it is unclear.
A separate stream covers other relatives, and it is much narrower than the parents and grandparents program. You may be able to sponsor an orphaned brother, sister, nephew, niece, or grandchild who is under 18. You may also be able to sponsor one relative of any age if you have no living spouse, common-law partner, conjugal partner, child, parent, grandparent, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, nephew, or niece you could sponsor, and none of those relatives is a Canadian citizen, a permanent resident, or a person registered as an Indian under the Indian Act. The undertaking for another relative is 10 years. Applications in this stream follow a different guide, [Guide 5196](https://www.ircc.canada.ca/english/information/applications/family.asp), and are made online. Do not file a parents and grandparents application for a relative who belongs in this stream: the programs have different eligibility rules, different forms, and different fees, and the wrong stream comes back.