Canada’s Parents and Grandparents Sponsorship Introduces Lottery System for Year 2019!

First-come first serve method to invite applicants under Parents and Grandparents sponsorshi.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada says it will discard its controversial randomized selection process for its Parents and Grandparents Program in 2019 and instead first-come, first-served approach to invite interested sponsors will apply.

The news release was published on August 20 stating IRCC will accept 20,000 new sponsorship applications next year through Parents and Grandparents Program (PGP)

The current method of randomizing selecting applicants to PGP was introduced in 2017 that was widely taken as unjust despite the government’s claim of making system more fair and transparent.

At that time, the Canadian government said a randomized approach would level the visas and will give everyone the same opportunity to be selected to sponsor their parents and/or grandparents.

IRCC said, “At least one petition was created to oppose the lottery, which it said left family reunification to “chance.” “The government is making further changes to the application intake process that will streamline access to the program and improve client experience.”

The Canadian Immigration Minister, Ahmad Hussen said the changes are evidence of the Government of Canada’s ‘commitment to helping families live, work and thrive together, in Canada.”

Reduced backlog of applications will allow increase quota

IRCC said the backlog of PGP applications was at 26,000 in June 2018, reduced from 167,000 in 2011 and this reduction has allowed the government to increase its intake quota to 20,000 in 2019. Source Link