How does IRCC select Parents and Grandparents Program sponsors?
Annual intake Every year, IRCC selects Canadians, both permanent residents and citizens, for the Parents and Grandparents Program (PGP). One of the main factors that caused doubts, namely the selection process, which is based on the novelties—a rather ambiguous lottery—has been made clearer by the government’s instructions, published recently. The following conclusions help in developing a better perspective of how IRCC arrives at selections in the PGP.
How does IRCC determine sponsors through the PGP?
In the recent intakes for PGP, IRCC has developed a random table of interest to identify potential sponsors of the forms submitted in 2020. Here’s how it works:
- Randomised Selection: IRCC begins with the first name on the list to be invited while skipping till a name that has not been sent an invitation for a call yet.
- Bulk Email Tool: An IRCC agent transfers a set number of email addresses to a blunt mail instrument.
- Invitation to Apply (ITA): This particular tool forwards ITA letters to the above-mentioned potential sponsors to enable them to present a sponsorship and permanent residence application package.
About the 2024 round, IRCC issued 35,700 ITA letters with the expectation of receiving 20,500 completed applications. This higher number of ITAs is responsible for the fact that not all of the selected individuals will proceed with the actual applications.
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A Note on the 2024 PGP
Conditions for ITA Recipients
Three new conditions for persons who are receiving an ITA this year resulted from the IRCC’s decision to select the candidates from the pool of sponsor interests submitted during 2020. These conditions, which have been in place for previous years and may continue in the future, include:
1. Documentation Requirements:
- Sponsors must attach a photocopy of the same ‘ status in Canada’ document that the person has filed for the 2020 interest to sponsor form.
- Where there is any divergence between the information that was filed in the form applicable to the year 2020 and that which is on the current application, the sponsor is required to attach an explanation and acceptable evidence that the application relates to the same person.
2. Priority of Processing:
- Sponsorship of parents and grandparents is done on a first-come, first-served basis for IRCC.
- New application documents are filed behind those of the existing stock to guarantee an organized and equitable order of processing for each application of the 2024 intake.
Program Trends and Challenges
The PGP will use the list of sponsors interested in the year 2020 for the fourth year in a row in 2024. This year it accepted about 32,000 students; next year, 34,000; and the year after, also 34,000, but the number of students seeking to join the program has been rising, far outpacing the availability of spaces. This has therefore given rise to a lot of criticism of the present measures taken regarding family reunification of the IRC.
For instance, after the 2023 PGP intake, there remained a backlog of 108,000 interest-to-sponsor forms in IRCC’s possession. This backlog implies that the department could proceed to work through the pool of sponsors for the fiscal year 2020 for the following three years regardless of the volume of new sponsors emanating from successive years.
Thus, IRCC’s approach to choosing sponsors for the PGP is a simple drawn-based random selection from all the interest forms that have been tendered. Nevertheless, it seems that this process is rather obscure; however, recent instructions from the government have helped to outline the main stages. Thus, potential sponsors would be able to move around the PGP and increase their likelihood of getting back with their loved ones by comprehending these procedures. These selection criteria and processes are important for the intending sponsors to know as there is a high demand for the program.
