Canada is one of the best destinations to settle especially if you are planning to immigrate with your family including your parents or grandparents. Canada provides a lot of social benefits for the elderly where they can mingle with people of their own culture, age, wavelength and make new friends. Apart from that the modernized infrastructure and high standards of living in Canada there also have provisions to make life much more suitable for the elderly generation than in another country. Also, healthcare facilities are impeccable so there will be good facilities available for them in the health sector as well and they can continue their life with better living conditions.
How can you help your parents or grandparents immigrate to Canada?
Apart from the parents or grandparents filling a separate Permanent Residency (PR) status application for their immigration, there are two popular ways through which the Canadian citizen or Permanent Residency (PR) status holder can bring his/her parents or grandparents to Canada and they are – Family Class Sponsorship / Super Visa Program and Parent and Grandparent Program (PGP).
To become a sponsor for the parents or grandparents especially under the Parent and Grandparent Program (PGP), it is highly pertinent that the candidate needs the following important requirements.
- He/She should be at least 18 years of age.
- He/She must be a Canadian Citizen or a Permanent Residency (PR) status holder
- The candidate should earn more than the necessary minimum wage in Canada to be able to sponsor new immigrants. The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) should provide the document to prove the solvency of the candidate.
- He / She needs to sign an undertaking to reimburse any provincial social assistance benefits paid to the sponsor or an accompanying family member for a period of 20 years.
- In case the candidate resides in Quebec, then a separate undertaking needs to be signed for the province.
Please note that while the Parent and Grandparent Program (PGP) is for the Permanent Residency (PR) status of the parents and Grandparents, the Super Visa Program is a multiple-entry visitor visas which is provided for a long-term and at times lasts for up to 10 years as well. For this the requirements from the candidate are completely different from the Parent and Grandparent Program (PGP).
What is the latest update of 2018 with respect to elderly immigration in Canada?
To qualify in any of the two programs, the candidate will have to fill a form with the IRCC (Immigration Refugee and Citizenship Canada) declaring his intentions of sponsoring his parents or grandparents to Canada. The form can be filled and submitted online without much hassle. For the year 2018, the application forms cycle was from 2nd January, 2018 to 1st February, 2018. For the year 2018, the IRCC (Immigration Refugee and Citizenship Canada) claims that it received 10,000 fresh applications through the Parent and Grandparent Program (PGP)
However, a candidate should remember at all times that filling the form is only declaring the intention of bring parents or grandparents to Canada and thus the first step towards their immigration. Rest, after the process there are 60 days times given to the candidate from the time of receiving an invitation to apply to submit and complete the processing and also submit all the necessary documents.