Some Canadian Citizens and Permanent Residents Will Receive Invitations to Apply for Sponsoring Their Parents and Grandparents for Permanent Residency in Canada. On March 7, 2025, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) announced that it will issue Invitations to Apply (ITA) for potential sponsors this year. However, in January 2025, they had previously stated that no new ITAs would be sent under the Parents and Grandparents Program (PGP) in 2025. Instead, they planned to focus on processing applications submitted in 2024.

This new announcement suggests that Canadian citizens or permanent residents who submitted a sponsorship interest form for the PGP in 2020 may receive an ITA in 2025. The government has not yet provided an official timeline for when the invitations will be sent, but they have assured that further details will be shared in the coming months. Notably, IRCC will use a lottery system to randomly select potential sponsors from the existing PGP pool.

So far, all ITAs have only been issued to individuals who submitted sponsorship interest forms in 2020. The PGP is not currently open for new applications. If you did not submit a sponsorship interest form in 2020, you will need to wait for future announcements from the government regarding when the program will reopen.

Additionally, Canadian citizens and permanent residents who are unable to sponsor their parents and grandparents through the PGP may consider the Super Visa Program as an alternative to bring their loved ones to Canada.

Overview of the Parents and Grandparents Sponsorship Program (PGP)

The Parents and Grandparents Sponsorship Program (PGP) is a key family reunification initiative that allows Canadian citizens and permanent residents to sponsor their parents and grandparents for permanent residency in Canada.

To qualify for the program, sponsors must meet minimum income requirements and other eligibility criteria, while their sponsored family members must be admissible to Canada. However, sponsors cannot apply directly; instead, they must wait to receive an Invitation to Apply (ITA) from the government. Eligible sponsors are selected randomly from the pool of applicants.

The PGP has received significant interest from the public, particularly when the 2020 intake opened. Since then, new intake rounds have not been announced. Each year following 2020, the government has only issued ITAs to those who submitted sponsorship applications in 2020.

Source: https://www.cicnews.com/2025/03/canada-will-send-invitations-to-apply-for-parents-and-grandparents-pr-pathway-in-2025-0352504.html?fbclid=IwY2xjawI7Z0FleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHddCxLIb2BMtl8tmmzmOz3VsxLoTZm6UliOYpdTzs25tV1S7MN862-gz5g_aem__dmS_ZsFD6L1gNYZ8H8Idg#gs.kv57bz