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Parent and Grandparents Sponsership Requirements
On October 5th Minister of immigration announced the opening if the 2020 Parents and Grandparents (PGP) programs to reunite families.
Since then, there has been a lot of confusion about the process and eligibility requirements. I will try to explain this program’s essential requirements for easy understanding and clarify the confusion surrounding it.
The first concern which I am coming across is who is eligible to apply for this stream. Only Canadian citizens, permanent residents of Canada, or a person registered in Canada as an Indian under the Canadian Indian Act are eligible to apply under this category.
If your status in Canada matches the above three categories, you could apply under this stream. You should also meet some additional requirements which are as follows:
- You’re at least 18 years old
- You live in Canada
- You have enough money to support the persons you want to sponsor
To prove that you have enough money to support the persons you want to sponsor, we must answer the following questions:
- What’s your family size?
- Do you meet the low-income threshold based on the income requirements?
A lot of people are getting confused about how to calculate family size. It’s a tricky question and requires an understanding of who should be included in calculating the family size and who meets family member definition.
As per the IRCC, a family member could be a spouse or common-law partner, dependent children, and children of dependent children.
To calculate the family size, one should know how many people you are sponsoring and their dependents, your immediate family members meeting the family class’s definition, any member-sponsored in the past.
Let’s understand the same using a few examples.
Example 1
Lex is married with one child, and she wants to sponsor her mother and father. Lex’s father has an 18-year-old daughter, Jenny. Jenny won’t immigrate to Canada with her father.
Lex on her has not enough income, and her husband will be co-signing the application to meet the income requirement.
Lex’s family size is 6: Lex, her husband, her child, her mother and father, her sister Jenny who is dependent on Lex’s parents because Jenny qualifies as a dependent child, she’s included in the family size, even if she’s not immigrating to Canada
Example 2
Ram and Sita had a baby in 2019. Sita wants to sponsor his mother on her own without the support of her husband. Sita’s mother doesn’t have a spouse, partner, or dependent children.
For 2019 and 2020, Sita’s family size is 4: Sita, her partner, Ram, her baby, her mother.
For 2018, For 2018, Sita’s family size was 3, because Sita’s baby wasn’t born yet, the baby is not included for that year.
So, for 2019 and 2020, Sita Juan must check if he meets the income requirement for four persons, while for 2018, Sita must check if she meets the income requirements for three persons.
Example 3
Abhinav and Anne got married in 2019 and had a baby in 2020. Abhinav wants to sponsor his mother and father. Abhinav’s father has a dependent child. Abhinav alone will not be able to meet the sponsorship requirement; hence Anne will be the co-signer.
If Abhinav wants to sponsor his parents in 2021, Abhinav and Anne (together) should meet the income requirements for 2018, 2019, and 2020.
In 2018, Abhinav’s family size was 4: Abhinav, His Parents, and their dependent child.
In 2019, Abhinav’s family size was 5: Abhinav, his wife, His Parents, and their dependent child.
In 2020, Abhinav’s family size was 6: Abhinav, his wife, their child, His Parents, and their dependent child.
Now we know how to calculate the family size. The next step is to understand the income requirements. For parents and grandparent’s income requirement is LICO (Low Income Cut off) plus 30% based on the family size. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic income requirement for the 2020 tax year has been reduced to the minimum necessary income (LICO only) instead of the minimum necessary income plus 30%.
Please refer to the below income requirements:
To prove that you meet the income requirements, you must include your Notice of Assessment from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) for the 2018,2019, and 2020.
I hope this will clarify some of the confusion you might have regarding essential qualification criteria about the Parents and Grandparents Program. If you need professional advice or further clarity, please feel free to write to the author.
FAQs
- Yes, If you want to sponsor one of your parents for permanent residency under grandparents and parent Sponsorship Canada, you can do it. However, you still need to include non-accompanying parents in income requirements and other admissibility assessments.
- In order to sponsor your parents and grandparents under the grandparents and parent Sponsorship Canada program, you need to meet the lico plus 30% income requirement for three years. If you don’t meet the income requirement on your own, your spouse could be become a cosponsor in your application to meet the income requirements.
- The grandparents and parent Sponsorship Canada program are ideal for people looking to sponsor their parents and grandparents permanently in Canada. However, applications are invitation based only.
If you don’t meet the income requirement, you may invite your parents on Super Visa or regular visitor visa. Super Visa under parents’ sponsorship Canada allows your parents and grandparents to stay in Canada for up to 7 years in a single visit while a visitor visa allows up to 6 months stay on a single visit.
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