To help reunite even more parents and grandparents with their families in Canada, the Government of Canada announced that we will accept up to 20 000 applications for the sponsorship of parents and grandparents, in 2019. This is 4 times the number of applications accepted when the program reopened in 2014, when the cap was set at 5000 applications.

This decision to increase the number of applications that Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) will accept for processing is a result of continually high demand in the Parents and Grandparents (PGP) Program and the fact that we have significantly reduced the backlog of applications. The inventory has dropped from a peak of 167 000 people, in 2011, to just under 26 000 people, in June 2018.

After increasing the 2018 cap to 17 000 complete applications, IRCC sent a second round of invitations to randomly selected potential sponsors who submitted an Interest to Sponsor form in early 2018. Those invited to the second round have until October 5, 2018, to submit a complete application.

Minister Hussen also announced that, as a result of listening to stakeholders and closely examining the PGP Program, the government is making further changes to the application intake process that will streamline access to the program and improve client experience.

Using this modified intake process will give the government more flexibility in the application process, ensuring that we receive as many applications as possible.

In 2019, as in previous years, the Interest to Sponsor form will be available online, at the beginning of the year, so eligible potential sponsors can let IRCC know they wish to sponsor their parents and grandparents to come to Canada. However, instead of randomly selecting the sponsors to apply, we will invite them to submit an application to sponsor their parents and grandparents based on the order in which we receive their Interest to Sponsor forms. This process will continue until we reach the 2019 cap of 20 000 complete applications.

Further details of these improvements to the system will be announced this fall.