Canadian Government may continue to limit sponsorship of parents and grandparents

Options to further limit sponsorship of parents and grandparents considered

Late last year, the Canadian Government put the sponsorship of parents and grandparents on hold due to a backlog of applications. Instead, they introduced the Super Visa, which is a 10-year, multiple-entry visa for temporary visits.

The program is currently under review as Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney launched national consultations on the subject.

According to this article in the Toronto Star, the government is currently considering several new restrictions when the program returns, including:

– Only allowing the sponsorship of parents or grandparents who are widowed.
– Only allowing applications for sponsoring parents or grandparents that demonstrate the person has exceptional needs, including being widowed or alone.
– Only allowing sponsors who are Canadian Citizens and not just permanent residents to sponsor parents and grandparents.
– Ensuring a parent or grandparent has at least half of their children already living in Canada before they are allowed to be sponsored.
– Ensuring that the sponsor is responsible for financially supporting the parents or grandparents and raising the sponsor’s income requirements.

According to Citizenship and Immigration Canada, the reason for the stoppage in accepting applications for sponsoring parents and grandparents was a backlog, and the program will return once a solution to the backlog will be found. But the above options that the government is considering are extremely restrictive towards sponsoring parents and grandparents at all.