Yes — Canadian citizens and permanent residents can bring their parents to Canada permanently.
At Kingwell Immigration Law, we help families pursue parent sponsorship through the Parents and Grandparents Program (PGP), a permanent residence pathway that is competitive, strictly administered, and — when applications run into problems — appealable.
This guide walks you through every stage of the process, from eligibility to what happens if things go wrong.
Speak with our family sponsorship lawyer in Toronto to find out how we can help your family.
There are three main pathways for bringing your parents to Canada, depending on whether your goal is permanent residence or an extended visit. Each comes with its own requirements, timelines, and limitations.
The right pathway depends on your goals, your eligibility, and the current status of the PGP intake, which, as of early 2026, is closed to new applicants. We can help you assess which route makes the most sense for your family and identify the strongest path forward.
💡 Additional reading: | If my child is born in Canada, can I get permanent residency?
To sponsor your parents or grandparents for permanent residence, you must meet several requirements set out by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). You are eligible to apply as a sponsor if:
You will also be required to sign a sponsorship undertaking — a legal commitment to financially support your parents for 20 years from the date they become permanent residents (10 years if you live in Quebec). This is a binding obligation, and IRCC treats it seriously. If a sponsored parent later receives social assistance, the government can seek repayment from you.
If you are unsure whether you meet these requirements — or whether a past event could affect your eligibility — our team can review your situation before you apply.
You can sponsor your biological or adopted parents and grandparents, and in some cases their dependent children — for example, siblings or step-siblings who still qualify as dependents. A few important rules apply:
The inadmissibility point catches many families off guard. Even if your own sponsorship meets every requirement, your parents’ admissibility to Canada is assessed separately and independently, and a problem there can stop the application entirely. We address how to tackle inadmissibility issues further below.
Additional reading: if my child is born in Canada, can I get citizenship
The PGP does not operate on a first-come, first-served basis. It runs on an invitation-based lottery system with annual intake limits set by the federal government. Here is how the process works from start to finish:
Processing times for PGP applications regularly run into multiple years. We help families prepare complete, well-documented applications that minimize the risk of delays, requests for additional information, or avoidable refusals.
The 2025 PGP intake opened on July 28, 2025, with IRCC issuing 17,860 invitations to potential sponsors who had submitted an interest to sponsor form in 2020. The application deadline for that intake was October 9, 2025 — and that window is now closed.
As of early 2026, if you did not submit an interest to sponsor form in 2020, you are not eligible to apply for PGP sponsorship under the current cycle. IRCC has not yet announced whether — or when — a new expression of interest intake will open. Government instructions have left the door open for the program to return in 2026, but no date has been confirmed.
In the meantime, the Super Visa remains open year-round and is currently the most practical option for families who want to bring their parents to Canada for extended stays.
Not sure which option is right for your family? Book a consultation to get a clear assessment of your situation.
The Super Visa is a multi-entry temporary resident visa that allows parents and grandparents to stay in Canada for up to five years per visit. Extensions of up to two additional years can be granted from within Canada, and the visa itself is valid for up to 10 years from the date of issue.
To qualify for a Super Visa, your parents or grandparents must:
You, as the child or grandchild in Canada, must provide a signed letter of invitation and demonstrate that your household income meets the Minimum Necessary Income threshold for your family size.
The Super Visa does not lead to permanent residence on its own. For many families, however — particularly where parents want to spend long stretches of time in Canada rather than relocate permanently — it is a meaningful and flexible option while the PGP remains closed to new applicants.
If a Super Visa application is refused, that refusal can also be challenged, and we can advise on the best course of action.
Meeting IRCC’s income threshold is one of the most common hurdles in the PGP process. The requirement applies to each of the three tax years immediately before the date you apply — for the 2025 intake, that means tax years 2024, 2023, and 2022. You must meet the threshold in each year individually; it is not averaged across the three years.
The minimum income is calculated as the Low Income Cut-Off (LICO) plus 30%, based on family size. Family size includes yourself, your co-signer (if applicable), all dependents, and the parents or grandparents you are sponsoring. The table below reflects the 2025 intake MNI figures for the 2024 tax year.
| Family size | MNI for 2024 tax year |
|---|---|
| 2 people | $47,549 |
| 3 people | $58,440 |
| 4 people | $70,972 |
| 5 people | $80,457 |
| 6 people | $90,754 |
| 7+ people | $101,059 |
Source: IRCC income requirements for parent and grandparent sponsorship. Thresholds are updated annually.
If you do not meet the threshold on your own, you may be able to add a co-signing spouse or common-law partner to combine incomes, provided they also meet eligibility requirements.
If you live in Quebec, income is assessed separately by the Ministère de l’Immigration, de la Francization et de l’Intégration (MIFI), which applies its own thresholds and processes. We can help you work through how income is calculated for your specific household composition.
Inadmissibility is one of the most serious risks in parent sponsorship. Even a technically perfect sponsorship application will not succeed if your parents are found inadmissible to Canada under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.
Common grounds of inadmissibility that affect parents and grandparents include:
Depending on the circumstances, legal avenues may include a Temporary Resident Permit (TRP), criminal rehabilitation, a legal opinion letter, or a humanitarian and compassionate application.
Our team can assess your parents’ situation and identify the right approach before an inadmissibility finding derails the sponsorship.
A refusal is not the end of the road. If IRCC refuses your parents’ or grandparents’ permanent residence application, you have the right to appeal to the Immigration Appeal Division (IAD) of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. IRCC is required to notify you of the refusal and explain your right of appeal.
The IAD can review the decision on its merits, consider new evidence not presented in the original application, and weigh humanitarian and compassionate factors. If the IAD dismisses the appeal, a further pathway remains through a judicial review at the Federal Court.
📌 In A.H. v Minister of Citizenship and Immigration (2020 FC 530), we represented a couple whose overseas conjugal partner’s permanent residence application had been refused. The officer had improperly assessed their individual and relationship histories. We took the case to the Federal Court, which overturned the decision and ordered IRCC to return the application for processing.
While parent sponsorship and conjugal partner sponsorship involve different streams, this case illustrates how we approach every refusal: we examine the record, identify where IRCC has gone wrong, and pursue every available avenue to get the right outcome for our clients.
Many sponsorship applications proceed without complications. But there are situations where early legal guidance can make a significant difference to the outcome. We recommend speaking with our team if:
The earlier we are involved, the more options we have — and the better positioned your family will be, whether the program is currently open or you are preparing for when it reopens.
Bringing your parents to Canada permanently is one of the most meaningful goals you can pursue, and it should not be something you have to face alone.
At Kingwell Immigration Law, we have guided families through every stage of parent sponsorship — from building the strongest possible application to fighting refusals at the IAD and Federal Court.
With over 20 years of experience in complex immigration cases, we take the time to understand your situation and develop a strategy built around your family’s goals.
Call us at 416.988.8853 or book a consultation to speak with our team about bringing your parents to Canada.
PGP processing times in Canada regularly run between 24 and 36 months from the date a complete application is received, depending on IRCC’s intake volumes and the complexity of the case. This timeline does not include the time spent waiting to receive an invitation to apply, which can add years for those in the 2020 pool.
Our team helps families prepare complete, well-documented applications to avoid delays caused by missing documents or eligibility issues.
You can apply as a sponsor even if you became a permanent resident recently, but you must provide Notices of Assessment from the Canada Revenue Agency for each of the three tax years before your application date. If you have not filed three full years of Canadian tax returns, you will likely be unable to meet the income documentation requirement — regardless of your current income.
We can advise on your timeline and whether a co-signer could help bridge any gaps.
In Ontario and across Canada, a sponsorship undertaking is a legal obligation that runs for 20 years from the date your parents became permanent residents — and it does not end if your relationship with them breaks down. Even if contact is lost entirely, you remain financially responsible for repaying any social assistance your parents receive during that period.
Before signing an undertaking, we can walk you through exactly what you are committing to and what that means for your situation.
A Super Visa refusal cannot be appealed to the Immigration Appeal Division, as the IAD only handles certain permanent residence decisions. However, a refused Super Visa can be challenged through a judicial review at the Federal Court, or a new application can be submitted addressing the officer’s concerns.
If your parents’ Super Visa has been refused in Toronto or elsewhere in Canada, our team can review the refusal reasons and advise on the strongest path forward.
A removal order does not permanently bar someone from returning to Canada in all cases, but it does create a significant admissibility issue. Depending on the type of removal order — departure order, exclusion order, or deportation order — your parents may need an Authorization to Return to Canada (ARC) before they can re-enter.
A prior removal will also be scrutinized closely in any future sponsorship application. We regularly help families in Toronto and across Ontario work through removal order situations where re-entry and sponsorship are the goal.
