Many families in Brampton have the same conversation at some point. A mother is getting older and living alone overseas. A father has had a health scare. Grandchildren are growing up knowing their grandparents mostly through a phone screen. Someone in the family eventually asks, “Can we just bring them here for good?”
The honest answer has two parts. Canada has a permanent residence program for exactly this situation, but it is not open to new applications right now. IRCC has paused intake until further notice and has given no reopening date. Files already in the system continue to be processed. For most families, then, the practical question is what can be done in the meantime, and how to be ready if the program returns.
This article is general information about how the program works and is not legal advice for your family. Immigration programs change, sometimes with very little warning, so confirm the current status and requirements on the IRCC website before you make plans or spend money.
What the Pause Actually Means
The Parents and Grandparents Program normally runs on invitations. A person in Canada submits an interest to sponsor form, IRCC selects from that pool, and those invited may then file a full application. A person cannot simply mail in a sponsorship package whenever they feel ready.
Under the pause, IRCC is not accepting new interest to sponsor forms, is not issuing invitations, and is not accepting new applications. The department’s notice of July 15, 2026 says this continues until further notice, and that the goal is to work through applications already in the inventory.
Three practical points follow from this:
- If your application is already in process, it should keep moving. Keep your contact details current with IRCC, respond to requests on time, and tell IRCC about changes in the family, such as a marriage, a death, or a new dependent child.
- If you never got an invitation, there is nothing to file at the moment. Anyone who offers to get your parents “into the program” during a pause should be asked to explain exactly how, and you should check that person’s licence.
- If you are hoping for a future intake, nobody can tell you when or whether it will reopen, or on what terms. Past rules are a useful guide for planning, and nothing more.
Who Could Sponsor Under the Program’s Rules
The rules below describe the program as IRCC sets it out while intake is paused. They could change before any reopening.
A sponsor must be at least 18, live in Canada, and be a Canadian citizen, a permanent resident, or a person registered under the Indian Act. The person being sponsored must be the sponsor’s parent or grandparent, by blood or adoption. In-laws do not qualify directly, although a spouse who is the biological or adopted child can be the sponsor, with the other spouse co-signing.
The sponsor also has to clear a list of disqualifying circumstances. The most common ones include being in prison, owing an unpaid immigration loan, performance bond, or court-ordered support, being an undischarged bankrupt, or receiving social assistance for a reason other than disability. Certain convictions are also a barrier, including violent offences, offences against a relative, and sexual offences. If you have an old default on a previous sponsorship or support arrears through the Family Responsibility Office, deal with it long before any application. These are often fixable with time, but rarely at the last minute.
The Income Test Is Stricter Than People Expect
This is where many otherwise strong families run into trouble. For parents and grandparents, IRCC has required the sponsor to show income at the minimum necessary income level plus 30 percent, for each of the three consecutive tax years before the application. The base figure comes from Statistics Canada’s low income cut-off for a large urban area, and it rises with family size.
Family size is the part people get wrong. It counts more than the people who live under your roof. You generally have to include yourself, your spouse or partner, your dependent children, the parents or grandparents you are sponsoring, their spouses and dependent children even if those people are not coming to Canada, and anyone you previously sponsored and are still responsible for. A household that seems comfortable can come up short once everyone is counted.
Income is measured using Canada Revenue Agency notices of assessment, which leads to a common problem for self-employed people in Brampton, including truck owner-operators, tradespeople, and small retailers. The figure that matters is what you reported after legitimate business deductions. A business with healthy revenue and a low net income on the tax return may not qualify, and a sponsor cannot usually fix that afterward with bank statements or a letter from an accountant.
A spouse or common-law partner can co-sign, which lets the couple combine income. The co-signer takes on the same legal responsibility and has to meet the same eligibility rules, so this is a real commitment, and it deserves more thought than a line on a form.
If a future intake is a realistic goal, the planning steps are fairly plain. File your taxes every year, on time. Keep each notice of assessment. Talk to your accountant about how your business income is reported, and understand the trade-off between lower tax now and meeting an income test later.
A Twenty-Year Promise
The sponsorship undertaking is the part of this process that deserves the most serious family discussion. Outside Quebec, a sponsor of a parent or grandparent signs an undertaking lasting 20 years from the day the person becomes a permanent resident. In Quebec the period is 10 years, and Quebec has its own additional requirements.
During that period, the sponsor promises to provide for the person’s basic needs and to repay certain social assistance they receive. IRCC is direct about how binding this is. The undertaking cannot be cancelled or shortened once the person becomes a permanent resident. It carries on if your relationship breaks down, if your parent becomes a Canadian citizen, if someone moves to another province or country, or if you lose your job or fall into debt.
Consider a hypothetical. A Brampton son sponsors his widowed father, who later moves in with another relative after a family falling-out and applies for Ontario Works. The son could still be responsible for repaying that assistance, and an unpaid debt could stop him from sponsoring anyone else, including a future spouse. No one expects a falling-out when they sign, and that is why the undertaking is worth thinking through while everyone is getting along.
Siblings sometimes offer informally to share this burden. That can be a good family arrangement, but only the people who signed the undertaking answer to the government.
Medical and Other Admissibility Checks
Passing the income test does not end the review. Parents, grandparents, and their accompanying family members must each be admissible to Canada, and that means medical examinations, background checks, and police certificates where required. A non-accompanying dependant usually needs to be examined as well, and leaving a family member off the forms can cause serious problems later.
Health is a sensitive subject here. An applicant can be refused if their condition might reasonably be expected to cause excessive demand on health or social services, subject to the cost thresholds and rules IRCC publishes. Older applicants are more likely to have conditions that need to be looked at closely. Telling the truth about medical history is essential, because concealing a condition can create a misrepresentation problem far more serious than the condition itself.
If an application is refused, the sponsor may have a right of appeal to the Immigration Appeal Division, generally within 30 days of receiving the decision. There are important exceptions, so read any refusal letter promptly and get advice quickly.
The Super Visa as the Practical Alternative
With permanent residence intake paused, the parent and grandparent super visa is the option most Brampton families are looking at. It is a temporary resident visa, which means it offers visiting status and no path to permanent residence by itself. It does offer something useful: stays of up to five years at a time, with multiple entries over a period of up to 10 years, and the possibility of applying to extend while in Canada.
The main requirements include:
- A child or grandchild in Canada who is a citizen, permanent resident, or registered Indian
- A signed letter from that host promising financial support for the length of the visit
- Proof that the host meets the minimum necessary income for the family size
- Private health insurance from a Canadian company, or from a foreign insurer approved by the minister, valid for at least one year from entry
- A completed immigration medical exam
The income bar is lower than the sponsorship test because there is no 30 percent top-up and no three-year look-back. IRCC also changed the calculation so that, as of March 31, 2026, the host can rely on either of the two tax years before the application. If the host and any co-signer meet a required minimum percentage, the income of the visiting parents or grandparents can be added to cover the rest. Check IRCC’s current super visa instructions for the percentage and the income table, and gather the documents that prove whichever route you are using.
A super visa is still a discretionary decision. The officer must be satisfied that the person is a genuine visitor who will leave at the end of the authorized stay. Parents who own property, have other children abroad, or have a history of following visa rules usually have more to show than those who have sold everything before applying. Also keep in mind that dependants cannot be included, and a visitor is not automatically entitled to OHIP, which is why the insurance matters. Have the family think through what would happen if a serious illness occurred and how long the coverage would really last.
For shorter trips, an ordinary visitor visa may be simpler. IRCC itself suggests a regular visitor visa for visits of six months or less.
Choosing Between Them
The two options solve different problems. Permanent residence offers lasting status, a route to citizenship, and access to public health coverage, at the cost of a long undertaking, a tough income test, and, for now, no way to apply. A super visa offers long visits with lower requirements and no 20-year obligation, but the parent stays a visitor. Visitors cannot work without authorization, have to keep up private insurance, and rely on continued admissibility each time they enter.
Many families treat the super visa as the plan for now and keep their paperwork ready in case permanent residence reopens. Those two approaches do not conflict. A parent who visits and returns on time also builds a clean travel record.
If your situation is more complicated, for example a parent with a past refusal, a previous overstay, or a health condition, speak with someone before filing rather than after a refusal. Our immigration law page outlines the kinds of matters a lawyer can help with, and the permanent residence page covers the wider family and economic routes.
Getting Ready Without Knowing the Date
Waiting without a date is difficult, especially when a parent’s health is the reason for asking. A sensible plan does not depend on a reopening. Keep the tax record clean. Collect proof of the family relationship now, while older relatives can still help locate birth certificates, school records, or corrected documents. Sort out any spelling differences in the family’s names across passports and certificates. Discuss the undertaking openly among siblings. Then look seriously at whether a super visa can bring the family together sooner.
Be careful about online rumours, too. Community chat groups often circulate confident claims about when intake will open or who is being invited. The only reliable place to confirm the status of the program is IRCC itself.