Notice – Invitations going out this week to selected potential sponsors of parents and grandparents

Ottawa, March 19, 2018 — Family reunification is a top immigration priority for the Government of Canada. In 2017, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) introduced a new application intake process for the Parents and Grandparents sponsorship program, which we are continuing to use in 2018.

From January 2 to February 1, 2018, interested potential sponsors were able to fill out an online interest to sponsor form to tell the Department they wanted to sponsor their parents and grandparents in 2018. IRCC has now reviewed the submissions, removed duplicates, and randomly selected interested potential sponsors. Starting on March 19, and spanning over a few days, invitations will be sent to those who have been selected. Potential sponsors will have 60 days from the date of their invitation to submit a complete application to sponsor their parents and grandparents.

We will send confirmation emails to those who have been selected. To make sure that interested potential sponsors don’t miss our email, we encourage everyone who submitted an interest to sponsor form to:

• check the same email account they used on the interest to sponsor form
• check the junk mail folder to see if the email from us is there

Find out what to do if you were randomly selected to submit an application.

As of March 19, potential sponsors can confirm whether or not they have been selected by looking up their unique confirmation number to compare it with the list of numbers that were randomly selected:

• if their number appears, they have been invited to submit their sponsorship application
• if their number doesn’t appear, they have not been selected

If potential sponsors are not sure what their unique confirmation number is, and want to confirm whether or not they were selected to submit a complete application, they can:

• complete the check if you were selected web form – we’ll respond to potential sponsors within 10 business days

If IRCC does not receive 10,000 complete applications, additional potential sponsors will be invited to apply later in the year. Everyone who submitted an interest to sponsor form in 2018 is encouraged to monitor their email accounts as well as IRCC’s website and Twitter and Facebook channels throughout the year in case additional rounds of potential sponsors are invited to submit complete applications.

Those who have a child or grandchild in Canada, and who wish to spend an extended period of time with their families in Canada, also have the option to apply for the Parent and Grandparent Super Visa, whether they are being sponsored for permanent residence or not. The Super Visa offers holders the option of staying in Canada for up to two years for their initial visit, whereas the regular visa provides a six-month maximum.