Here’s How Many New Immigrants Will Be Coming into Canada Over the Next Few Years

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Published August 21, 2018 at 8:16 pm

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The federal government is officially making it easier for new Canadians to bring select relatives to Canada.

The federal government recently announced plans to improve the application intake system and accept more sponsorship applications for parents and grandparents, effectively reuniting new Canadians with family members.

Ahmed Hussen, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, says the federal government will accept up to 20,000 applications for the sponsorship of parents and grandparents, in 2019. That’s four times the number of applications accepted when the program reopened in 2014, when the cap was set at 5,000 applications.

The government says the decision to increase the number of applications that Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) will accept for processing is a result of continually high demand in the Parents and Grandparents (PGP) Program and the fact that Canada significantly reduced the inventory of applications.

The government says the inventory has dropped from a peak of 167,000 people in 2011, to just under 26,000 people in June 2018.

“Over the last few years, we have made substantial improvements to the parents and grandparents sponsorship process and eliminated the backlog of applications,” Hussen said in a news release.

“Now, by accepting even more applications this year and next as well as enhancing the intake system, the Government of Canada is demonstrating its commitment to helping families live, work and thrive together, in Canada.”

After increasing the 2018 cap to 17,000 complete applications, IRCC sent a second round of invitations to randomly selected potential sponsors who submitted an Interest to Sponsor form in early 2018.

Those invited to the second round have until October 5, 2018, to submit a complete application.

“In 2019, as in previous years, the Interest to Sponsor form will be available online, at the beginning of the year, so eligible potential sponsors can let IRCC know they wish to sponsor their parents and grandparents to come to Canada,” the federal government said in a news release.

“However, instead of randomly selecting the sponsors to apply, we will invite them to submit an application to sponsor their parents and grandparents based on the order in which we receive their Interest to Sponsor forms. This process will continue until we reach the 2019 cap of 20 000 complete applications.”

Parents and grandparents admission levels will increase to 20 500, in 2019, and 21 000, in 2020.

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