If you’re planning to sponsor your parents or grandparents for permanent residence in Canada, the first thing to know for 2026 is this: IRCC is not accepting new Parent and Grandparent Program (PGP) applications this year. A lot of immigration content still describes the PGP as an annual-lottery program you can enter — that description is out of date. Here’s what’s actually happening, who is still being processed, and what to do if you want your parents or grandparents in Canada sooner than a reopened intake would allow.
What changed for 2026
The PGP has historically worked through an “interest to sponsor” pool: IRCC opens a short window each year, prospective sponsors submit an expression of interest, and IRCC draws a limited number of invitations to apply. For 2026, IRCC confirmed it is pausing new PGP sponsorship and permanent residence intake entirely — no new expressions of interest and no new invitations to apply — as part of recalibrating the government’s 2026–2028 Immigration Levels Plan, per IRCC’s own notice on responsibly managing the Parent and Grandparent Program.
This isn’t a cancellation of the program itself — it’s a pause on new intake while IRCC works through the existing backlog. IRCC has said it plans to approve up to 15,000 people for permanent residence through the PGP in 2026, but all of those approvals will come from applications already submitted by people who received an invitation to apply in 2025, not from any new intake this year.
Who’s still in the pipeline
If you already received an invitation to apply in 2025 and submitted your sponsorship application, IRCC continues to process it — you don’t need to do anything differently, and you’re part of the group the 15,000-approval target for 2026 is meant to serve. If you were only on the “interest to sponsor” waiting pool but never received an invitation, you are not currently in an active queue; there is no confirmed date for when a new intake window (and a fresh interest-to-sponsor pool) will open.
Every PGP sponsorship, when approved, still requires the sponsor to sign a 20-year undertaking — a legally binding commitment to financially support the sponsored parent or grandparent for two decades, regardless of changes in the sponsor’s own circumstances. That obligation hasn’t changed; only the ability to start a new application has.
The income test that still applies to anyone eventually approved
Sponsors must meet a Minimum Necessary Income (MNI) threshold — a family-size-adjusted income test — for three consecutive tax years immediately preceding the application. For applications tied to the 2025 invitation round being processed through 2026, IRCC assesses income from the 2023, 2024, and 2025 tax years using Notice of Assessment or Option C tax printouts. Family size for this calculation includes the sponsor, their dependants, the people being sponsored, and those people’s own dependants — so a larger household needs proportionally higher income to qualify, not a flat minimum.
What to do instead right now: the Super Visa
If you want a parent or grandparent in Canada in the near term and can’t wait for the PGP to reopen, the realistic alternative is the Super Visa — a long-validity visitor visa built specifically for parents and grandparents of Canadian citizens and permanent residents. It isn’t a path to permanent residence, but it solves the more immediate problem for most families: being physically together.
- Multiple entries for up to 10 years, with each individual stay lasting up to 5 years at a time (extendable in some cases) — see our full Super Visa guide for the complete eligibility and document list.
- Income test, but calculated differently from PGP. Starting March 31, 2026, IRCC changed how it calculates the family income requirement for Super Visa eligibility, per IRCC’s official notice on the Super Visa income calculation change, intended to make the visa accessible to more sponsoring families than the PGP’s stricter three-year MNI test.
- Private medical insurance is mandatory for the duration of the stay, purchased from a Canadian-approved insurer, and this is checked at the port of entry — budget for it as a real cost, not a formality.
- No 20-year undertaking, no permanent residence — the trade-off for faster access and a much lighter income bar is that it’s temporary status, renewable but never converting automatically into PR.
Other options worth ruling in or out
- A private sponsorship for a different family category. If your situation also involves a spouse, partner, or dependent child, those sponsorship streams are unaffected by the PGP pause — see our spousal sponsorship guide if that applies.
- Watching for a reopened intake. When IRCC does reopen PGP intake, it publishes new ministerial instructions and an interest-to-sponsor window on canada.ca before accepting anyone — there is no way to “get ahead” of that announcement through a third party, and paying anyone to secure a spot in advance of an official window is a red flag.
- Provincial or family-reunification programs. A small number of jurisdictions occasionally run their own family-linked streams, but none currently substitutes for a federal PGP application — verify directly on canada.ca rather than assuming a provincial route exists.
FAQ
Is the Parent and Grandparent Program cancelled? No. It’s paused for new intake in 2026, not eliminated — IRCC is still processing and approving applications from the 2025 invitation round.
Can I submit an “interest to sponsor” form right now? Not currently. There is no open interest-to-sponsor window as of this update; check canada.ca’s PGP eligibility page directly for the current status before relying on any third-party claim that a window is open.
Does the Super Visa lead to permanent residence? Not directly. It’s a temporary, long-validity visitor status. Some Super Visa holders separately pursue PR later through whichever program becomes available (including a future PGP intake), but the Super Visa itself doesn’t convert.
How is the Super Visa income test different from the PGP’s? The PGP uses a stricter three-consecutive-tax-year Minimum Necessary Income test tied to family size. The Super Visa’s income calculation was changed as of March 31, 2026 specifically to be more accessible — the two tests are not interchangeable, so meeting one doesn’t guarantee you meet the other.
This is preparation guidance, not legal advice — IRCC intake status, income thresholds, and levels plan targets change with each ministerial instruction, so confirm the current status directly on canada.ca before making a decision. Join the VisaMet waitlist to get notified the moment PGP intake reopens and for help building a Plan B in the meantime.
Sources: IRCC — Responsibly managing the Parent and Grandparent Program; IRCC — Changes to the Super Visa income requirement calculation; IRCC — Sponsor your parents and grandparents: eligibility.