The Canada administration is not opening its Parents and Grandparents Program (PGP) in 2026 either and continuing with the halt that it announced in 2025. The agency will process the applications received before 2025 and a maximum of 10,000 applications will be processed. As of now, the program is not open to accepting any new applications. Those who are looking to bring their parents and grandparents to Canada are being advised by immigration experts to opt for a super visa, which will not give parents or grandparents permanent residency in Canada but they can stay for upto five years in Canada, and the visa can be renewed.
Why Canada stopped the parent, grandparent program
A few years ago, the administration found that over 40,000 parent and grandparent sponsorship applications were still pending at the end of 2023. The huge backlog has to be cleared first to allow new sponsorships and so the halt was put in place in 2025 and will be continued in 2026 as well.
After announcing a halt on new applications on January 1, 2025, the IRCC invited potential sponsors who submitted an interest to sponsor for, in 2020 to apply for the 2025 intake. That process started from July 28, 2025 and ended on October 9, 2025. The IRCC said they sent 17,860 invitations over approximately 2 weeks but they will accept 10,000 complete applications.
The program was designed to reunite immigrants in Canada who have become permanent residents, which means only permanent residents in Canada could sponsor their parents and grandparents to enter Canada. This program also allows parents and grandparents to work in Canada and to get provincial healthcare, which the super visa does not.
The sponsors of this immigration program are canadian citizens who agree to financially support the sponsored individuals for 20 years, starting from the day the parents or the grandparents become permanent residents.
Canada plans to reduce the total number of new permanent residents in Canada by four per cent from last year, stating it will only grant permanent resident status to a total of 380,000 in 2026.
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