You cannot start a new parent or grandparent sponsorship right now. IRCC stopped receiving new applications on 1 January 2026 and paused interest-to-sponsor intake on 15 July 2026. Files already in the queue keep moving. For everyone else, the super visa is the realistic route.
Our charges include applicable taxes. Disbursements are extra and billed at cost — itemized upfront, in writing, never hidden.
From $3,388.87 taxes included
IRCC is not accepting new interest-to-sponsor forms and is not receiving new parent or grandparent sponsorship applications. The pause has no announced end date. Anyone telling you they can file a new sponsorship today is selling you something that cannot be filed.
Applications already submitted are still being processed. IRCC has said it intends to approve roughly 15,000 people for permanent residence through the program in 2026, in line with the 2026-2028 Immigration Levels Plan. Nothing about the pause cancels a file already in the system.
The pause is done through Ministerial Instructions under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, which is how intake for this category has been controlled for years. Instructions can be replaced at any time, which is exactly why getting your income record clean now matters.
The income test sinks most sponsors. You must show minimum necessary income plus 30% for three consecutive taxation years before you apply, proved with Canada Revenue Agency records rather than pay stubs or employer letters. Your spouse or common-law partner can co-sign to combine incomes. Nobody else can.
Minimum necessary income moves with family size, and family size counts more people than you expect: you, your spouse or partner, your dependent children, the parents and grandparents you want to sponsor plus their dependants, and anyone still covered by an undertaking you signed in the past. Miscounting by one person is a routine cause of refusal.
You must be 18 or older, a Canadian citizen, permanent resident or a person registered under the Indian Act, and living in Canada. Sponsors receiving social assistance for a reason other than disability, or in default on a previous undertaking, are barred.
Sponsoring a parent means signing an undertaking to support them for 20 years from the day they become a permanent resident. If they receive social assistance in that period, the province can require you to repay it. The debt survives divorce, job loss, and a falling-out with the person you sponsored.
Quebec runs its own undertaking, with its own length and its own income test through the provincial immigration ministry. If you live in Quebec, the federal step is only half the process.
Read the undertaking before you sign it, not after. We go through it line by line, because it is the single obligation clients most often say nobody explained to them.
A super visa lets a parent or grandparent visit for up to five years at a time on a multiple-entry visa. It is temporary status, not permanent residence: no work permit, no health card in most provinces, and no credit toward citizenship. But it is available today, it is decided in months rather than years, and the income bar is lower.
The super visa income rules got easier on 31 March 2026. You can now qualify using either of the two taxation years before you apply, and if your household reaches a set percentage of the threshold, your visiting parent's own income can make up the remainder.
If your goal is to have your mother at the table this Christmas, the super visa is the answer. If your goal is a permanent resident card, the honest advice is to get your income record clean and be ready to file the week intake reopens.
No. IRCC stopped receiving new parent and grandparent sponsorship applications on 1 January 2026 and paused the interest-to-sponsor pool on 15 July 2026. There is no announced reopening date, and an application filed now would simply be returned. We will tell you this before you pay us anything.
No. Files already in the system continue to be processed, and IRCC has said it aims to approve about 15,000 people through the program in 2026. Keep your address, passport details and family information current with IRCC while you wait, and tell them promptly about a birth, death, marriage or separation.
Minimum necessary income plus 30%, for three consecutive taxation years, based on your family size. The figures are published annually and change every year, so the number that mattered last year is not the number that will matter when you file. We test your actual CRA records against the current table before you commit to anything.
No. It is a visitor visa with a long permitted stay. It does not lead to permanent residence on its own, and time spent in Canada on it does not count toward citizenship. It is the practical way to have your parents here while the permanent route is closed.
A flat fee, taxes included, published before you start. Government fees, biometrics, medical exams and courier costs are billed separately at cost and estimated in writing first. If nothing can be filed for you right now, we say so at the outset rather than opening a file.
Open your file tonight — a licensed Ontario lawyer will confirm everything with you by tomorrow.