Immigration Newsweek
By Atty. Henry Moyal
The Federal government is getting rid of the unpopular lottery system for those who wish to sponsor their parents and grandparents. In addition, Canada is increasing the number of sponsorship applications it will accept next year in 2019.
It started with a 5000 cap in 2014 and then it was raised to 10,000. Now, starting in the year 2019, Canada Immigration will accept 20,000 sponsorship applications next year, up from the current cap of 17,000 introduced last month.
The sponsorship applications will also be processed on a first-come, first-serve basis the way it was done for decades before the lottery system was implemented years ago. Under the lottery system, sponsors were randomly selected to submit their applications. It drew criticism when it was introduced because many felt it was too random, unfair and unpredictable.
In 2019, sponsors will indicate their willingness to sponsor a parent or grandparent by filling out an “interest to sponsor” form online. Instead of randomly selecting people from this list for sponsorship, applications will instead be invited based on the order in which the forms are received until the 20,000 cap is reached.
The announcement was welcomed by all after the federal government announced that the new process will help families “live, work, play and thrive together.”
“We recognize that families just want to be together and that children benefit from continued support from their elders and loved ones,” . “Our government recognizes the important role parents and grandparents play in our society and I’m so very glad that we’re able to reunite even more families under this program.”
In more good news, the backlog of applications left by the Harper government has been reduced where processing times for sponsorship applications is now about one year. It was not long ago where such applications were taking an average of 60 months. The extensive delays caused stress to many sponsors as parents and grandparents were getting older and where many died during processing.
Statistically, in 2011, the backlog peaked at 167,000 applications and, as of June 2018 the inventory of applications is approximately sitting at 26, 000.
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
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