New and improved intake process for sponsorship of parents and grandparents to launch on January 28, 2019 at noon EST.

The new intake process includes a requirement for potential sponsors to upload a copy of a status in Canada document when submitting their interest to sponsor form.

The interest to sponsor form has also been enhanced from previous years to include features that will help IRCC detect duplicate submissions and potential fraud.

Potential sponsors should submit an interest to sponsor form as soon as possible once it’s available online, after confirming that they meet the necessary minimum income requirements. The onus is on potential sponsors to ensure they are eligible before submitting an interest to sponsor form.

Given the continuing interest in the program, IRCC has increased the annual cap on applications it will accept in 2019 to 20,000 – 4 times the number of applications accepted in 2015. This increase was made possible by an over 80% reduction of the application backlog and processing times that have been shortened from 7 to 8 years, to about 2 years.