IRCC: pausing new applications to shorten processing times

According to the notice IRCC published on July 15, the department is pausing the intake channel for new Parents and Grandparents Program applications, effective immediately, in order to maintain a "well-managed and sustainable" immigration system. Until new instructions are issued, IRCC will not accept new interest-to-sponsor forms and will not invite potential sponsors to submit formal applications. The department said public interest in the program continues to exceed the spaces available under the Levels Plan, and that pausing new intake will help shorten processing times and give families greater predictability throughout the process.

At the same time, IRCC committed to continue processing applications already submitted, and said it plans to approve up to 15,000 people for permanent residence through the PGP during 2026. That target is aligned with the federal government's 2026-2028 Immigration Levels Plan, under which the annual admissions target for the parents and grandparents category is set at 15,000 and held at that level across all three years, 2026, 2027 and 2028.

Notably, this is not the first time the PGP has "closed its doors" in 2026. In fact, IRCC had already paused intake of new PGP applications through ministerial instructions since early 2026; the July 15 announcement formally confirms and continues that freeze rather than introducing a brand-new, sudden measure.

From a lottery to paused invitations: the PGP's long-running backlog

The Parents and Grandparents Program has long faced a structural mismatch between demand and available spaces. The program was suspended entirely from 2011 to 2013; when it reopened in 2014 it carried an annual cap of 5,000 applications, which filled within roughly three weeks. IRCC subsequently raised the cap to 10,000 in 2016 and introduced random selection -- a lottery -- as the screening method; in 2019 the cap rose further to 20,000.

In October 2020, IRCC launched an online interest-to-sponsor form for prospective sponsors to register; after removing duplicates, about 203,000 unique submissions remained, forming a large pool of interested applicants. The key fact since then is this: IRCC has not opened a new interest-to-sponsor intake since 2020, and every draw from 2021 through 2025 has been made randomly from that same 2020 pool. In other words, the announcement's statement that it "will not accept new interest-to-sponsor forms" effectively continues a state of affairs that has held for five years; what is genuinely being halted this time is the step of "issuing invitations" from the pool.

The scale of recent draws is shown in the table below.

Table: PGP invitations and application targets in recent years

Taking 2025 as an example, IRCC issued 17,860 invitations over about two weeks beginning July 28 of that year, aiming to ultimately receive 10,000 complete applications. Over the years, the random-lottery system has drawn repeated criticism from applicants: because selection comes down to luck, many families who registered in 2020 waited year after year without ever receiving an invitation -- a process criticized as lacking certainty and fairness.

Over a longer horizon, the PGP's annual admissions target has clearly risen and then fallen in recent years. According to successive Levels Plans, the target for the parents and grandparents category climbed to around 32,000 near 2024, then dropped to 24,500 (for 2025) under the 2025-2027 Immigration Levels Plan, and was compressed further to 15,000 in the latest 2026-2028 Immigration Levels Plan. Compared with 2025, the 2026 target represents a cut of roughly 39%.

Impact and alternatives: super visa requirements eased as the Levels Plan tightens overall

For families still in the queue, IRCC stressed that applications already in process are unaffected and will continue to be handled. According to figures released by the department, roughly 40,400 PGP applications remain in process outside Quebec, with another roughly 10,500 within Quebec, for a total of about 50,900 applications still in the processing queue. Some analysts note that PGP processing times have long remained high, and that pausing new intake is aimed more at preventing the backlog from growing further than at quickly clearing the existing inventory in the short term.

While pausing new PGP applications, IRCC has positioned the super visa as the main alternative for family reunification. The super visa allows parents and grandparents to visit their children or grandchildren in Canada, with stays of up to five years per entry; it is a multiple-entry visa valid for up to 10 years. Recently, IRCC has also lowered the barriers to applying in two respects. On medical insurance, since January 28, 2025, applicants may purchase qualifying coverage from insurers based outside Canada (previously only Canadian insurers were permitted), with policies required to provide at least CAD $100,000 in coverage and remain valid for at least one year. On income, since March 31, 2026, IRCC has adjusted how family income is calculated: sponsors may use income from either of the two tax years preceding the application to meet the requirement, and may include the income of the visiting parent or grandparent, giving more families a chance to qualify. It should be emphasized that these adjustments are intended to make the calculation more flexible and inclusive rather than to lower the income threshold directly -- in fact, the minimum income standard underlying the super visa was even raised slightly in 2025.

This PGP change can also be understood against the broader backdrop of Canada tightening its overall immigration levels. Beginning with the 2025-2027 Immigration Levels Plan, the federal government lowered its annual permanent-resident admissions target from a previously planned 500,000 to 395,000 for 2025; in the 2026-2028 Immigration Levels Plan, the total permanent-resident target is stabilized at 380,000 per year, with the family class 2026 total set at about 84,000, of which parents and grandparents account for 15,000. Analysts suggest that, amid an overall pullback in immigration volumes and a policy focus on reducing the temporary-resident population, the sharp reduction in PGP spaces reflects the real trade-offs that family-reunification immigration faces within a limited allocation.