Parent and Grandparent Program for Canada Immigration to Reopen from January 4th 2016

This comes as good news for Canadian permanent residents or citizens who wish to bring their Parents or Grandparents to Canada. With effect from January 4, 2016, the Parent and Grandparent Program for Canadian immigration will reopen.

First let’s discuss about what is the Parent and Grandparent Program all about. Through the Parent and Grandparent Program, interested Canadian permanent residents or citizens can sponsor their parents or grandparents for immigrating to Canada under the Family class sponsorship or Super visa program.

Under the Family class sponsorship program, parents or grandparents receives permanent resident status after being sponsored by a Canadian permanent resident or citizen. After fulfilling the resident norms, the sponsored relative can apply for their citizenship status as well. Inorder to be eligible for the family class sponsorship program, the sponsor should be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, should be more than 18 years of age and should have a required income level to sponsor their parents or grandparents. If the sponsor is married, then he/she needs to show the income level of his/her spouse as well. Moreover, the sponsor and the sponsored relative should sign a sponsorship agreement mentioning that the sponsored relative will be responsible to make financial arrangements or else if required, the sponsor will provide the financial support to the sponsored relative for the period of 20 years.

Under the Super visa program, the parents or the grandparents are provided with a temporary visa permit valid for 10 years allowing them to stay for upto two years in Canada per visit. Canadian Super visa is bit different from the visitor visa. Visitor visa is normally valid for 6 months and can be extended by paying the charges while Canadian Super visa is valid for 10 years providing multiple entries to the applicant. To be eligible for the Canadian Super visa program, the sponsor must provide financial support to their parents or grandparents and a letter promising that he/she will be providing financial support to his/her sponsored relative. The sponsored relative should a medical insurance atleast for one year and also requires undergoing a medical checkup.

Citizenship and Immigration Canada has also made it clear that application received before January 4, 2016 will be rejected. So make sure that you apply for the Parent and Grandparent program as per the scheduled date. Moreover, only limited number of applications will be accepted during the intake.