Canada pausing applications for parent, grandparent permanent residency sponsorships

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Minister Marc Miller speaks to reporters on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Dec. 5, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Patrick Doyle

OTTAWA — Canada will not accept new parent and grandparent permanent residency sponsorship applications until further notice, according to a ministerial directive.

The directive published in the Canada Gazette states the government remains committed to family reunification but will focus on processing applications received last year.

According to the directive, it's Immigration Minister Marc Miller's opinion that this will "best support" the government's goals around immigration and family reunification.

Other immigration streams have also seen new sponsorships paused in order to help clear the existing backlog.

Under the government's immigration levels plan, which sees an overall decrease 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 made in 2024 through the family reunification program will be processed.

Under the parent and grandparent program, 35,700 randomly selected people were invited to submit applications in 2024, with the goal of accepting 20,500 applications.

According to the 2024 annual report to Parliament on immigration, tabled by Miller, there were more than 40,000 parent and grandparent permanent residency sponsorships in the inventory as of the end of 2023.

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.