Thousands of Canadians to start receiving invitations to apply to sponsor parents and grandparents

A reveller carries a Canada flag on the Halifax Waterfront during Canada Day celebrations in Halifax on July 1, 2025. (Darren Calabrese / The Canadian Press)

Thousands of Canadians will soon receive invitations to apply to sponsor their parents and grandparents as permanent residents.

The 2025 intake will open for a few weeks starting July 28 for 17,860 potential sponsors who submitted an interest-to-sponsor form in 2020, according to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) in a notice published online Wednesday.

IRCC said its goal is to accept up to 10,000 complete applications under the federal Parents and Grandparents Program.

If you receive an invitation to apply in the 2025 intake, you can submit your applications online through the Permanent Residence Portal or the Representative Permanent Residence Portal, according to IRCC.

What if you didn’t get an invitation?

Those who submitted an interest-to-sponsor form in 2020 but didn’t receive an invitation to apply should check their email, including their junk and spam folders, IRCC added. It said IRCC will only send invitations to apply to potential sponsors from the 2020 pool of submissions and won’t be opening a new interest-to-sponsor form.

Those who don’t receive invitations for the 2025 intake can apply for a super visa, a multi-entry visa valid for up to 10 years. The super visa would allow parents and grandparents to stay in the country for five-year periods. Parents and grandparents visiting on a super visa can apply to stay an extra two years at a time while they’re still in Canada.

While the federal government is reducing the numbers of temporary and permanent residents who will be allowed in the country, family reunification makes up 22 per cent of all permanent resident admissions, according to IRCC.