.png){kind=small}
The Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) announced major changes to the Parental and Grand-parental Sponsorship process. The new system will move away from a first-come, first-served process to one that is a lottery.
These changes come into force on January 1, 2017.
These changes will affect those who prepared their application in anticipation of the old system which required a full application to be submitted to apply. The old system caused a mad rush to submit applications, where the quota would typically be filled within the first hour of accepting applications. The new system alleviates this rush and streamlines the process.
Under the new system, candidates will express and interest in sponsoring their parent(s) or grand-parents(s) over a 30 day period from January 3rd, 2017 (12pm) till February 2, 2017 (12pm). After the expression of interest period closes, the IRCC will randomly select 10,000 candidates and issue them a Invitation to Apply (ITAs).
Candidates who are issued an ITA will have 90 days to submit their complete application package for sponsorship.
