OTAWA –
Canada will not accept permanent residency sponsorship applications for new parents and grandparents until further notice, according to a ministerial directive.
The directive published in the Canada Gazette states that the government remains committed to family reunification, but will focus on processing applications received last year.
According to the directive, Immigration Minister Marc Miller believes this will “better support” the government’s goals on immigration and family reunification.
Other immigration streams have also seen new sponsorships suspended to help clear the existing backlog.
Under the government’s immigration tiering plan, which foresees an overall decline in immigration over the next three years, the goal is to admit more than 24,000 people through the parent and grandparent stream this year.
The new directive says a maximum of 15,000 applications submitted in 2024 will be processed through the family reunification program.
Under the program for parents and grandparents, 35,700 randomly selected people were invited to apply in 2024, with the goal of accepting 20,500 applications.
According to the 2024 annual report to Parliament on immigration, presented by Miller, at the end of 2023 there were more than 40,000 permanent residence sponsorships from parents and grandparents in the inventory.
That report says the average processing time for a sponsorship application was 24 months.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 3, 2025.
