IRCC Carries Out Lottery Draw For Parents and Grandparents Program

The lottery draw for the 2020 Parents and Grandparents Program has been carried out by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.

IRCC is to notify the 10,000 sponsors selected to apply to the program over the next 10 days.

The lottery selection program comes after prospective sponsors filled out the interest to sponsor form in the fall.

The opening of the PGP has attracted significant controversy in recent years. IRCC has struggled to find a format considered fair by potential applicants.

In 2019, it opened an online first-come, first-served process of submitting the interest to sponsor form. However, many potential sponsors claimed they could never access the form after the program allocation was filled within eight minutes.

Many argued the process favoured sponsors with better internet connections, better computers and who were more able in using a computer.

In 2018, the government opened a month-long window for submitting the form, and received more than 100,000 forms for just 10,000 places.

Do I Qualify to Sponsor My Parents and Grandparents?

Sponsors must:

Be at least 18 years old
Live in Canada
Be a Canadian citizen, permanent resident, or be a person registered in Canada as an Indian under the Canadian Indian Act
Have enough money to support the people you want to sponsor. Canada has lowered income requirements for 2020 to offset the impact of coronavirus. The income required is be the minimum necessary income, instead of the minimum necessary income plus 30 percent.

PGP Income Requirements for Last 3 Tax Years

Total number of people you’ll be responsible for	2020	2019	2018
2 people	$32,899	$41,007	$40,379
3 people	$40,445	$50,414	$49,641
4 people	$49,106	$61,209	$60,271
5 people	$55,695	$69,423	68,358
6 people	$62,814	$78,296	$77,095
7 people	$69,935	$87,172	$85,835
If more than 7 people, for each additional person, add:	$7,121	$8,876	$8,740

Parents and Grandparents Program 2020: Process

Submit the interest to sponsor form
The interest to sponsor form is available here until November 3, 2020
Receive an invitation to apply
Immigration officials will randomly select and invite potential sponsors. Canada aims to receive 10,000 applications in 2020.
Receive the application package
Those receiving an ITA will also receive an application package.
Pay your application fees
Submit your application
The complete application must be received with 60 days of the date of the ITA.

Colin Singer

Colin Singer is an international acclaimed Canadian immigration lawyer and founder of immigration.ca featured on Wikipedia. Colin Singer is also founding director of the Canadian Citizenship & Immigration Resource Center (CCIRC) Inc. He served as an Associate Editor of ‘Immigration Law Reporter’, the pre-eminent immigration law publication in Canada. He previously served as an executive member of the Canadian Bar Association’s Quebec and National Immigration Law Sections and is currently a member of the Canadian Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. Colin has twice appeared as an expert witness before Canada’s House of Commons Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration. He is frequently recognized as a recommended authority at national conferences sponsored by government and non-government organizations on matters affecting Canada’s immigration and human resource industries. Since 2009, Colin has been a Governor of the Quebec Bar Foundation a non-profit organization committed to the advancement of the profession, and became a lifetime member in 2018.