OTTAWA — The Carney government will accept no new applications to sponsor parents and grandparents for permanent residence in 2026 as it attempts to clear tens of thousands of files already in the immigration system.Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada announced Wednesday that the Parents and Grandparents Program will remain closed to new applications until further notice.The department said demand continues to exceed the number of spaces available under Ottawa’s immigration targets.Approximately 60,500 applications are already being processed.Applicants outside Quebec face estimated processing times of about 33 months, while those destined for Quebec could wait as long as 66 months.The federal government said the pause will allow immigration officials to concentrate on applications already in the system and reduce the existing inventory..Ottawa’s 2026–2028 Immigration Levels Plan sets a target of 15,000 admissions through the parent and grandparent category in each of the next three years.Those admissions will come from applications already submitted rather than a new round of sponsors.The current pool dates back to 2020, when more than 200,000 Canadian citizens and permanent residents submitted interest-to-sponsor forms.Ottawa has drawn names from that pool in subsequent years and invited selected sponsors to submit full applications. No new interest-to-sponsor forms will be accepted this year.The closure comes as the government attempts to reduce immigration inventories and slow population growth following years of record admissions.IRCC reported more than two million applications across its immigration and citizenship programs as of April 30, with hundreds of thousands taking longer than the department’s service standards.The department said it can approve only a fixed number of applications each year under the federal immigration plan. When applications exceed available admission spaces, files remain in the inventory and processing times increase.Canada’s permanent resident target has been set at 380,000 annually from 2026 through 2028.The plan assigns 84,000 spaces to family-class immigration this year, including spouses, children, parents and grandparents. Ottawa is also reducing planned arrivals of new temporary residents to 385,000 this year, including 230,000 workers and 155,000 international students.Canadians and permanent residents unable to sponsor a parent or grandparent for permanent residence can still use the super visa program.The visa permits eligible parents and grandparents to remain in Canada for up to five years per visit and allows multiple entries over a period of up to 10 years.Unlike the sponsorship program, the super visa does not grant permanent resident status and requires applicants to obtain qualifying private medical insurance.
