Canada To Once Again Use PGP Lottery Selection
Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) will once again use a randomized selection process, also known as the PGP lottery selection process for parents and grandparents’ sponsorship next year.
Canada’s immigration department announced that there will be only one selection round of invitations to apply for the Parents and Grandparents Program (PGP) as part of the 2020 intake, in a new program release.
The three-week intake time for Interest to Sponsor forms for 2020 closed on Nov. 3. Now the immigration ministry has to randomize the submission, remove duplicates, and send invitations to apply.
They expect that there will not be enough time for sponsors, parents, and grandparents to complete their applications before 2021. As a result, sponsorship applications arising from the fall 2020 intake period will be accepted in early 2021.
According to ministerial instructions, IRCC will accept a maximum of 10,000 sponsorship applications next year for the 2020 PGP program.
Any applications accepted before the end of Dec. 2020 will be counted toward the application cap of 10,000. In 2021, the intake may go up to 30,000. This maximum will be changed with any subsequent instructions provided by the Minister for immigration.
People who lodged an interest to sponsor in 2020, but who are not invited to apply this year, maybe given consideration in the upcoming year if they reapply.
The immigration ministry is continuing to process PGP sponsorship applications on a first-in, first-out basis. This means that new applications lodged when the program reopens will be placed behind the applications in the existing inventory of PGP sponsorship applications.
The intake dates for next year PGP has not been set. Potential sponsors should let the department know that they wish to sponsor their parents or grandparents by lodging an interest to sponsor form when it becomes available.
They will have to upload a copy of their status in Canada along with their form so that the department can identify duplicate submissions.
The interest to sponsor form is not an application for the Parents and Grandparents Program. The IRCC will invite people to apply for the PGP if they have lodged the interest to sponsor form during the allotted intake time.
Future sponsors have sixty (60) days from the date of their invitation to apply letter to lodge their sponsorship application and permanent residence applications package.
The invitation to apply is not transferrable to other future sponsors or applicants. If the immigration department can’t reach sponsors by email, agents will print out the email and mail it to the sponsor’s mailing address.
