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2020 PARENT SPONSORSHIP PROGRAM OPENS OCTOBER 13, 2020

Immigration Newsweek

By Atty. Henry Moyal

The much anticipated Parent / Grandparent Sponsorship (PGP) program is set to open October 13, 2020 for only a three week period. Readers will remember that the program was suppose to start January 2020 but technical difficulties caused IRCC to delay its opening. Then Covid-19 came and the PGP was put on hold and set as a low priority. To their defense, IRCC has always indicated that the 2020 would open and not pushed over the next year. As promised, IRCC has now announced that 10,000 applications will be selected at random making this sort of a lottery system. The good news is that sponsors are no longer required to wait by the computer for the program to open and hope to “get in” before it closes. It is trite to say that last year’s system of selection was ridiculous, unfair and discriminatory to those who did not have computers or high speed internet. Current sponsors with disabilities or who cannot access online forms can submit on paper.

The current selection process gives sponsors some much deserved breathing room to submit their interest forms within a three week window. The unfortunate reality is that it is a lottery and the chances of being selected will be about 1 in 15 based on previous numbers.

To those who are not selected should not despair. IRCC has announced that in 2021 ( perhaps in January 2021) another selection program will start where 30,000 applications will be selected.

Another positive aspect of the program is that it provides leniency to sponsors may have been financially impacted by the exceptional circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic. As such, IRCC is introducing a temporary public policy that will reduce the income requirement for the 2020 tax year to the minimum necessary income, instead of the minimum necessary income plus 30%.

Attorney Henry Moyal is a certified and licensed immigration lawyer in Toronto, Ontario.
The above article is general advice only and is not intended to act as a legal document.
Send questions to Attorney Moyal by email canada@moyal.com or call 416 733 3193