Permanent residence · Parents and grandparents
You cannot sponsor your parents right now, and nobody can
Intake closed on 15 July 2026 and IRCC has not said when it reopens. Existing applications are still being processed, which is why so many families believe it is open. It is not, and there is nothing anyone can file for you.
The short answer
IRCC paused the intake of new applications under the Parents and Grandparents Program on 15 July 2026 and said it will not receive new interest to sponsor forms or invite potential sponsors to apply until further notice. Applications already submitted continue to be processed, with up to 15,000 people planned for approval through the programme in 2026. No reopening date has been announced. The super visa, which allows a stay of 5 years at a time with multiple entries for up to 10 years, is the route that remains open.
Why so many families think it is still open
Because two true things sound like a contradiction. IRCC is processing parent and grandparent sponsorships, and IRCC is not accepting new ones. Both are in the same notice. A family hearing that a cousin's file is moving reasonably concludes the programme is running, and it is, for the people already inside it.
IRCC will not receive new interest to sponsor forms or invite potential sponsors to apply until further notice.
What this means about anyone asking you for money
What is actually open
The super visa, and IRCC points at it in the same notice. It lets parents and grandparents visit their children or grandchildren for 5 years at a time, with multiple entries for up to 10 years, and IRCC says it recently made the super visa more accessible by changing the income and health insurance requirements.
It is a visitor visa, not permanent residence. It does not lead to a PR card and it does not put anyone in a queue for one. For a family that wants a parent present for a grandchild's school years rather than a passport, that distinction matters less than it sounds. The super visa in full, including the income test and the insurance rule that most applications get wrong.
Source
Common questions
Can I sponsor my parents to Canada in 2026?
Not as a new applicant. IRCC paused the intake of new applications under the Parents and Grandparents Program on 15 July 2026, and stated that it "will not receive new interest to sponsor forms or invite potential sponsors to apply until further notice". Applications already submitted continue to be processed, and IRCC planned to approve up to 15,000 people for permanent residence through the programme in 2026. So the programme is running for people already in it and shut to anybody new, with no reopening date announced.
What can my parents do instead of sponsorship?
The super visa is what IRCC itself points to. It lets parents and grandparents visit their children or grandchildren for 5 years at a time and provides multiple entries for up to 10 years, and IRCC says it recently made the super visa more accessible by changing the income and health insurance requirements. It is a visitor visa rather than permanent residence, so it does not lead to a PR card, and it is the only route currently open to a family that has not already applied.
Should I pay a consultant to prepare a parents sponsorship now?
There is nothing to submit, so there is nothing to prepare. IRCC is not accepting interest to sponsor forms and is not inviting sponsors, which means no application exists for anyone to file on your behalf. Paying a fee now buys a place in a queue that does not exist. If a consultant offers to register you for the next round, ask them where the form is, because IRCC has not published one.
Parents and grandparents
If the answer is the super visa, we will file that properly.
We will not take a fee to prepare a sponsorship that cannot be submitted. What we can do is the super visa, including the insurance rule that refuses more of these applications than the income test does. Canadian applications are prepared under RCIC licence R710507.
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