Canada’s parents & grandparents visa to accept applications in October

The Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has officially announced that it will commence the acceptance of a maximum of 15,000 complete applications for the Parents and Grandparents Sponsorship program in October 2023.

Eligible applicants from Nigeria who have obtained Canadian citizenship can then proceed to apply for this visa on behalf of their parents or grandparents to enable them to reside in Canada permanently.

This online medium gathers that as of the 10th of October, the IRCC will start sending invitations to apply to a total of 24,200 prospective sponsors will receive up to 15,000 fully completed applications.

These invitations will be distributed for weeks, commencing on October 10, 2023.

Instead of launching a new interest-to-sponsor form, the IRCC will extend invitations to apply to arbitrarily selected potential sponsors from the existing pool of submissions from 2020.

This approach was employed for both the 2021 and 2022 intakes. Therefore, anyone who completed an interest-to-sponsor application in 2020 but did not receive an invitation to apply in either 2021 or 2022, needs to check the email address they provided in 2020.

For those who are invited to apply for the 2023 intake, the submission of their applications will be done electronically through either the Permanent Residence Portal or the Representative Permanent Residence Portal.

General Eligibility

To be eligible to sponsor your parents and grandparents for Canadian Permanent Residency (PR), you must meet the following criteria:

You must be at least 18 years old and fall into one of these categories: a Canadian citizen, a permanent resident of Canada, or a person registered in Canada as an Indian under the Canadian Indian Act.

You must demonstrate that you have sufficient financial means to support the family you wish to sponsor, with valid proof of income for the past three years, meeting the financial requirements set by the IRCC.

The amount of money for each family member is stated on the website.

Canada Super Visa, an option

Individuals who aspire to reunite with their parents and grandparents in Canada but have been unable to participate in the sponsorship program since 2020 have the option to apply for a super visa which is valid for up to 10 years and allows multiple entries.

CN had earlier reported that the super visa allows holders to stay in Canada for a maximum of 5 years at a time, with the possibility to extend their stay by up to 2 years without needing to leave the country.

These changes make it easier for Canadian citizens and permanent residents to have the opportunity to reunite with their parents and grandparents.