I reckon one of the biggest pieces of news in Canadian immigration is that on July 15, 2026, IRCC paused the Parents and Grandparents sponsorship Program (PGP).

IRCC has announced that it will not accept new interest to sponsor forms or invite potential sponsors to apply until further notice, and it will keep processing existing applications.

The reason for this pause is to help reduce processing times and improve predictability for families, as part of the effort to maintain a well managed, sustainable immigration system that works for newcomers and Canadians alike.

In fact, for years, IRCC has only invited potential sponsors who submitted an interest to sponsor form in 2020 to apply for each year’s limited intake. If you missed that window, you were never in the pool to begin with.

IRCC has directed the interest to the super visa, which allows parents and grandparents to visit their children or grandchildren for 5 years at a time and provides multiple entries to Canada for up to 10 years. To facilitate this, IRCC has made the super visa more accessible by implementing changes to the income and health insurance requirements.

Income:
1. Extending the income assessment period. The host can qualify in either one of the two taxation years preceding the time of application.
2. Allowing the income of the visiting parent or grandparent to be added, limited to 25% of the income requirement. The host still needs to cover at least 75% on their own.

Health insurance: the policy no longer needs to be purchased from a Canadian health insurance provider. An eligible private health insurance policy from a company outside Canada also works.

The message from IRCC is not subtle. One door closed, and another one got wider. Families who have been waiting on the PGP since 2020 should take a serious look at whether the super visa now fits their situation better than waiting for a program that may not reopen for years.