IRCC pauses new intakes for the parent and grandparent sponsorship program

by Michael Scott

Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Lena Metlege Diab announced on July 25, 2026, that her department would no longer be accepting any new interest-to-sponsor submissions for parents and grandparents’ sponsorship until further notice. The announcement is a step beyond the recent practice of IRCC to limit yearly invitations to their existing inventory. The move is another step in limiting immigration and addressing complaints about housing shortages, infrastructure need and health costs. There are some who would also blame rising gas prices at the pump as another reason to limit admissions to the country. The moratorium on sponsorship will not come as a pleasant surprise for Canadians who were waiting for a chance to sponsor parents and grandparents under the family reunification process.

There are 60,500 applications in progress already and wait times for processing are around 33 months, or up to 66 months in Quebec. The processing goals are current to approved 15,000 admissions annually through 2028. IRCC says that the pause will help reduce wait times. The move is in line with the department’s intention to reduce admission targets, with a total of 380,000 permanent residents per year between 2026 and 2028. It also cut the number of temporary work and student visas issued in 2026 to almost half the numbers issued in 2025.

The overall goal of the adjusted immigration plan is that population growth is expected to remain flat for the second year in a row. The opposition federal Conservatives say the system is broken and challenge the Liberals assertion that immigration is a net positive for the country.

IRCC has noted that their own polling show that Canadian support for immigration dropped in 2023 and 2024 to a low not seen in 30 years. In November 2024 more than half of the Canadians polled said they felt there were too many immigrants coming into the country. Minister Diab was quoted as saying the government is “working to restore control and sustainability to our immigration system.”

The pause on accepting any sponsorship of parents and grandparents adds another barrier to adding to the backlog in applications in all streams. As of April 30, IRCC had more than 2.1 million applications in all streams and a declared backlog of 922,000 impacting on the department’s service standards. Less than half of the existing applicants were being processed within service standards, according to the immigration department’s own numbers. Between January and April of the current year 112,900 people became permanent residents.

The pause in accepting any new applications to sponsor parents and grandparents would be one step in the immigration plan to reduce the backlog and meet their service standards. The department has long encouraged Canadians to bring in parents and grandparents temporarily under the Super Visa option to visit for five years at a time, and for 10 years in total on a temporary basis. It you are frustrated by the pause and sponsorship limits, then the Super Visa is something to consider.

In this time of world crises, wars, famines and other manmade and natural disasters, that freeze of parent and grandparent sponsorship is just another example of things that are going wrong. It is a trying time for many but a good time to take stock of the options you can pursue, such as vacationing inside Canada and not going south or using the Super Visa option. There are things we can do differently, but the first is not to throw your hands up in despair but to focus on proactive steps and being positive. A pause in submissions is not an end in itself. As a country we have survived much worst and will overcome this challenge.

Michael Scott is a Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant (RCIC, R525678) who has 30 years of experience with Immigration Canada and the Manitoba Provincial Nominee Program. He currently works as a licensed consultant with Immigration Connexion International Ltd. Contact him at 204-691-1166 or 204-227-0292. E-mail: mscott.ici@gmail.com.