Parents and grandparents sponsorship is paused. What to get ready now

If you plan to bring your parents or grandparents to Canada permanently, the first fact to absorb is that the door is shut for now. IRCC's own page says: "We've paused this program. We will not accept new interest to sponsor forms or invite potential sponsors to apply until further notice." There is no form to fill in, no pool to join and no date to circle.

That is not the same as having nothing to do. The program has always been a lottery with a short deadline, and the families who lose out when it reopens are the ones who had months of warning and used none of it. The income test looks back three tax years, the undertaking runs twenty years, and the documents come from two countries. All of that can be checked today.

What the pause means, and what it does not

The pause covers new sponsors. IRCC states it "will not accept new interest to sponsor forms or invite potential sponsors to apply until further notice", and in the same breath that "We'll keep processing existing applications." If you were invited in a previous intake and filed on time, your application is still moving. If you were never invited, you are not in any queue, and nobody can put you in one: no priority list, no agent who can register your interest, no advance payment that buys a place.

The pause says nothing about the super visa, a separate temporary route that IRCC points to on the same page. We come back to it below.

How the program worked when it was open

IRCC describes the program as an annual invitation round: "Each year, we invite potential sponsors to apply." A would-be sponsor submitted an interest to sponsor form, and IRCC selected at random from the forms it held. For the 2025 intake, selection was from forms submitted in 2020, invitations went out from 28 July 2025, and IRCC states: "The last day to apply was October 9, 2025. We're no longer accepting applications."

Read the gap between those dates: a little over two months to assemble a complete application for people on two continents, submitted online through the Permanent Residence Portal by the parent or grandparent as principal applicant, following the IMM 5772 guide.

IRCC has not said how or when the next intake will run, or whether it will again draw from the 2020 forms. Anything that claims to know is a guess. Expect another invitation round with a fixed deadline.

Who will be allowed to sponsor

The sponsor is the person in Canada. You must be "at least 18 years old" and "a Canadian citizen, a permanent resident of Canada, or a person registered in Canada as an Indian". The residence rule is stricter than many expect: "Your primary residential address must be in Canada when you submit your application and until we make a decision." A citizen living abroad cannot sponsor a parent from there, and a sponsor who moves away mid-process puts the application at risk.

IRCC also limits who can be sponsored: your "biological or adopted parents and grandparents". Parents-in-law are not listed. A couple where only one is a citizen or permanent resident has one eligible sponsor, for that person's own parents. The other spouse helps differently: "you may have a spouse or common-law partner co-sign the application to combine your incomes".

Then there are the bars: jail, a removal order, an undischarged bankruptcy, social assistance for a reason other than a disability, an unpaid immigration loan, performance bond or court-ordered family support, a broken earlier sponsorship agreement, and convictions for violent, sexual or family offences. Several are fixable with time, and a pause is the time to fix them.

The income test: three tax years, not one

This is where most cases are won or lost, and the part you can do the most about now. IRCC's rule is that you "must have enough money to support all the people you'll be financially responsible for", proven with tax records: "For the 2025 intake, we'll assess sponsors and co-signers on their income for tax years 2024, 2023 and 2022." The evidence is specific: "The sponsor and the co-signer (if there is one) must each submit 3 notices of assessment, or equivalent documents, issued by the minister of National Revenue."

The income thresholds IRCC published for the 2025 intake are below: the minimum income a sponsor must show in each assessed year, by the number of people counted. Treat them as the shape of the test rather than the number you will face. The years will move when the program reopens and the amounts with them.

The count is of everyone you will be responsible for, not only the parents; the IMM 5772 guide sets out who is included. Each year is tested on its own, so one weak year sinks the application. And a past tax year cannot be repaired, so what you earn and declare now is already part of the next file.

The undertaking is twenty years

IRCC states: "The undertaking period to sponsor your parents and grandparents is 20 years. If you live in Quebec, it's 10 years." It begins on the day the sponsored people become permanent residents, not the day you apply.

Once your sponsored family members become permanent residents, there is no way to cancel or shorten the undertaking period.

IRCC, Sponsor your parents and grandparents: Sponsor responsibilities

During those years you commit to providing for basic needs, including food, clothing, shelter, dental care, eye care and health needs the public system does not cover, and to making sure the people you sponsor do not need social assistance. If they receive it anyway, IRCC says "you'll have to re-pay the amount. You won't be able to sponsor anyone else until you've re-paid it." Have that conversation inside the family now, not after an invitation lands.

What a family outside Canada can gather now

The sponsor's side of the file is Canadian paperwork. The parents' side is foreign paperwork, and that takes months. IRCC's guidance refers to medical examinations, police certificates for applicants aged 18 and over, photographs and biometrics. None of these happen before the application stage, but the documents that feed them can be checked now.

1. Confirm the relationship documents exist and match. Birth certificates must link the sponsor to the parent and, for a grandparent, the parent to the grandparent, with names spelt the same way everywhere.
2. Confirm every passport will stay valid well beyond any plausible filing date. Renewals in some countries take longer than an intake window.
3. Find out how police certificates are issued in each country your parents have lived in since turning 18, and how long they take. Do not apply yet, because certificates have limited validity.
4. Identify a certified translator for any document not in English or French.
5. Gather the sponsor's proof of status: the citizenship certificate or permanent resident card.
6. Download the last three notices of assessment for the sponsor and any co-signer, and check them against the published thresholds.
7. Decide who the principal applicant will be, since the parent or grandparent submits through the Permanent Residence Portal.

If the sponsor lives in Quebec

Quebec runs its own assessment. IRCC's eligibility page says: "If we approve your sponsorship application, we'll ask you to submit an undertaking application to the Quebec ministry in charge of immigration", and not to submit it until IRCC says so. The Help Centre states that "the Ministère de l'Immigration, de la Francisation et de l'Intégration (MIFI) will assess your income." The undertaking there is ten years. The federal pause applies to Quebec sponsors too.

Meanwhile: the super visa and the visitor route

For a family that wants parents in Canada this year, permanent sponsorship is not the tool. The super visa is a visitor document for parents and grandparents that, in IRCC's words, "lets them stay in Canada for 5 years at a time". It has its own host income test and a medical insurance requirement, and it does not lead to permanent residence. We cover it in our super visa guide. For a short visit, an ordinary visitor visa or eTA may be enough.

Neither route counts against a future sponsorship. What gets families into trouble is a parent who overstays while waiting for the program to reopen. Keep status valid and the paperwork current, and when IRCC announces the next intake you will be ready on the first day rather than the last.

Can I submit an interest to sponsor form now so I am in the pool when it reopens?

No. IRCC states that it will not accept new interest to sponsor forms until further notice. There is no pool to join and no way to reserve a place. Anyone offering to register you is not offering something IRCC provides.

We applied in the 2025 intake. Does the pause affect us?

Not according to IRCC, which says it will keep processing existing applications. The pause is on new interest forms and new invitations. Watch your account for requests from IRCC and respond by their deadlines.

Can I sponsor my spouse's parents?

IRCC's eligibility page lists your biological or adopted parents and grandparents. Parents-in-law are not listed. If your spouse is a citizen or permanent resident living in Canada, they would sponsor their own parents, and you could co-sign to combine incomes.

Which tax years will the income test look at next time?

IRCC has not said. For the 2025 intake it assessed 2024, 2023 and 2022, so the pattern is the three tax years before the intake year. Your current earnings are likely already part of the next test.

I am a Canadian citizen living abroad. Can I sponsor my parents and move back later?

Not for this program. IRCC requires the sponsor's primary residential address to be in Canada when the application is submitted and until a decision is made. Unlike spousal sponsorship, there is no provision for a citizen abroad to sponsor on a plan to return.

If you want to know whether your last three years of income would pass the test, or which of your parents' documents will be slow, have it assessed while the program is paused rather than when an invitation arrives. Book a consultation

Last updated October 6, 2026.

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