What changed
- IRCC paused intake to the Parents and Grandparents Program on 15 July 2026.
- No new interest to sponsor forms are received and no invitations are issued, until further notice.
- Applications already filed are still processed, with up to 15,000 approvals planned for 2026.
The notice
IRCC's notice of 15 July 2026 pauses intake of new applications under the Parents and Grandparents Program. The department will not receive new interest to sponsor forms, and will not invite potential sponsors to apply, until further notice.
Existing applications continue to be processed. The department plans to approve up to 15,000 people for permanent residence through the programme in 2026, in line with the 2026 to 2028 Immigration Levels Plan.
The stated reason is that interest in the programme continues to exceed the spaces available under that plan.
Does the pause stop a file already submitted?
These are two different things and the difference decides what somebody should do. A file already submitted is in the queue and is being worked on. A person who has not yet been invited has nothing to submit and no date on which that changes.
No reopening date has been published. A pause is also not a promise about what reopens: programmes that pause intake sometimes return with different criteria, sometimes with a cap, and the department has announced none of those here.
The super visa is the route that is open
A super visa lets parents and grandparents visit for five years at a time, with multiple entries for up to ten years. It is a visitor visa, so it gives no status and no path to permanent residence, and it carries no undertaking.
It also became more accessible on 31 March 2026, when IRCC changed how the host's income is calculated. Either of the two taxation years before the application can now be used, and in some cases the visiting parent's own income can be added to the host's.
A super visa can be applied for while a sponsorship application is waiting for a decision, and IRCC's own guidance says a sponsorship application can be withdrawn at any time in favour of one.
If you were waiting to be invited
Waiting is now a decision without a horizon, and it is worth setting against what a family actually needs. Where the aim is time together, the super visa delivers that now. Where the aim is permanent residence for a parent, there is no open route to it through this programme today.
The parent and grandparent page on this site sets out what the undertaking commits a sponsor to, how long it runs, and what the income test asks for when an intake does open.
The detail sits on Parent and grandparent sponsorship, which is kept current as the rules move.
