Program delivery update: Intake process for family class applications to sponsor parents and grandparents

January 28, 2019

The Family class: Parents and grandparents program delivery instructions (PDIs) have been updated to provide guidance on the new intake process for family class applications to sponsor parents and grandparents. These PDIs took effect on January 28, 2019, and replace Operational Bulletin 634, which expired on the same date.

On August 20, 2018, the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship announced changes to the intake management process for the Parents and Grandparents Program (PGP Program) beginning in 2019. The changes include the elimination of the randomized selection process that was used in 2017 and 2018 and the move to a first-in intake process, which accepts a limited number of interest to sponsor forms when the PGP Program opens. Sponsors must submit an interest to sponsor form and are invited to submit a complete application based on the order their interest to sponsor form is received by the department.

The Ministerial Instructions that came into force on January 1, 2019, support the implementation of a first-in intake process and specify the number of complete applications the department accepts annually.

New PDIs for the intake process for family class sponsorship applications for parents and grandparents have been added. These new PDIs provide guidance on the new intake process specific to the following:

• Interest to sponsor form
• Supporting documents
• Changes to the interest to sponsor form after submission
• Determining the basis for the first-in intake process
• Duplicate submissions
• Sending invitations to apply
• Procedures for accepting sponsorship applications for processing
• Procedures for accepting parent and grandparent applications within the cap for processing
• Sponsorship eligibility requirements

New instructions

• Intake process for family class applications for parents and grandparents