Parents and Grandparents Program (sponsorship for permanent residence) - paused

The sponsor must be at least 18, be a Canadian citizen, a permanent resident of Canada, or a person registered in Canada as an Indian, and have been invited to apply. Applications sent without an invitation are returned. The sponsor's main home address must be in Canada when the application is submitted and until a decision is made.

IRCC's page states: "We're not currently accepting applications." A notice dated 15 Jul 2026 says IRCC is pausing the intake of new applications and will not accept new interest to sponsor forms or invite potential sponsors to apply until further notice. For the 2025 intake, IRCC invited potential sponsors who submitted an interest to sponsor form in 2020: it sent 17,860 invitations over about 2 weeks from 28 Jul 2025, aiming to accept 10,000 complete applications. The last day to apply was 9 Oct 2025.

The sponsor must show enough income for each of the 3 tax years before the date of application, using IRCC's income table for the family size. A spouse or common-law partner can co-sign to combine incomes. For the 2025 intake the tax years were 2024, 2023 and 2022; for a family of 2 the amounts were $47,549 (2024), $44,530 (2023) and $43,082 (2022), and for a family of 4 $70,972, $66,466 and $64,306. Quebec residents must meet Quebec's own income requirements.