On January 4, 2016 the Parent and Grandparent Program for Canadian Immigration opened up to receive new applications for this year’s cycle.
On January 4, 2016 the Parent and Grandparent Program for Canadian Immigration opened up to receive new applications for this year’s cycle. Within 3 days 14,000 applications had already been submitted, much surpassing the cap of 5,000 applications the Government indicated on their website to take in this year, and still over the promised cap of 10,000 applications by the Liberal Government. Though many skeptics have begun to question the feasibility of the Liberal Government’s Parent and Grandparent promises, Minister of Immigration John McCallum maintains that the goal of 10,000 will be processed by the end of the year. On an interview with CBC news Friday evening McCallum stated, “We’ve kept the first 10,000 — so those 10,000 will be up and running, so we are certainly honouring that commitment.”
The following requirements are for the most recent application cycle and must be met by the sponsor in Canada:
- Be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident
- Be 18 years of age or older
- Exceed the minimum necessary income level for this program. This can be done by submitting notices of assessment issued by the Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA) in support of their sponsorship. Sponsors must be able to demonstrate that they have met the minimum necessary income level for three consecutive years. If married or in a common-law relationship, the income of both persons can be included
- An undertaking to repay any provincial social assistance benefits paid to the sponsor and accompanying family member(s), if any, for a period of 20 years, if necessary, must be signed by the sponsor. An additional ‘undertaking’ must be signed if the sponsor resides in Quebec
One of the main focuses Minister McCallum states is on the current Liberal agenda are the wait times for popular reunification programs such as the Parent and Grandparent program. As the latest data coming out of Immigration Department’s website stated the government was still working on applications from Nov. 2011 for the program, many can’t help but agree, ”The wait times are way too high,” McCallum said Friday, “and this is one of the issues we have to address.”
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FWCanada is a Montreal-based immigration law firm that provides professional legal services on Canadian immigration. For more tips and updates on Canadian immigration follow FWCanada on Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin.
