Canada Parents and Grandparents Program (PGP)
How PGP's interest-to-sponsor lottery intake, Minimum Necessary Income test, and multi-year sponsorship undertaking generally work — and why it is a permanent-residence route, not the Super Visa.
Start with the distinction that matters most: the Parents and Grandparents Program (PGP) is a permanent-residence sponsorship, while the Super Visa — covered in our companion piece, Canada Super Visa for Parents and Grandparents Explained — is a temporary, long-stay, multiple-entry visa that never converts into permanent residence on its own. A family that ends up on a Super Visa has not started down the PGP path, and a family in the PGP process is not simply waiting on an extended-stay visa. They are different legal instruments with different outcomes, different eligibility gates, and — critically for PGP — a decades-long financial commitment attached that the Super Visa does not carry. Getting this distinction stated plainly, early, in every client conversation is worth more than most other advice in this file.
A note on the figures in this article: PGP's basic structure — a limited-intake lottery, a Minimum Necessary Income test tied to LICO tables, and a multi-year sponsorship undertaking — has been broadly stable, but the specific numbers inside that structure move constantly. The annual intake cap and how many invitations IRCC issues, the MNI dollar thresholds for each family size, and processing times are all figures IRCC sets and periodically revises, and IRCC has changed how it runs PGP intake more than once in recent years — including periods where no new interest-to-sponsor forms were accepted at all. A direct fetch of canada.ca's PGP page was blocked by network egress while researching this article. What follows is drawn from web search results and cross-checked across multiple independent secondary sources — immigration law firms, regulated Canadian immigration consultant (RCIC) sites, and immigration news outlets describing figures they attribute to IRCC's own published guidance. Where those sources agreed consistently, that is noted as a widely reported figure, not a confirmed IRCC rule. Always verify current intake status, income thresholds, and processing times directly against IRCC's own guidance, or with a qualified immigration professional, before relying on any of it for a real case.
What PGP structurally is
The Parents and Grandparents Program lets a Canadian citizen or permanent resident sponsor their parent or grandparent for Canadian permanent residence. If the sponsorship is approved and the sponsored person's own application clears the standard admissibility requirements — background and security checks, medical examination, and the rest of the permanent-residence process — the parent or grandparent becomes a permanent resident of Canada. That is the outcome the whole program is built toward, and it is the piece that separates PGP from every temporary-status route a family might otherwise consider, including the Super Visa.
A permanent-residence sponsorship, not a visa
The Parents and Grandparents Program (PGP) is a family-class sponsorship route: a Canadian citizen or permanent resident sponsors their parent or grandparent for permanent residence. If approved, the sponsored parent or grandparent becomes a permanent resident of Canada — a structurally different outcome from the Super Visa, which is a temporary, multiple-entry visitor visa that never leads to permanent residence on its own.
Intake runs through an interest-to-sponsor lottery
Rather than accepting full applications on demand, IRCC has generally opened PGP intake through a limited window in which interested sponsors submit an interest-to-sponsor (ITS) form. IRCC then randomly draws a subset of those forms and invites only that subset to submit a full sponsorship application — meaning submitting an ITS form has generally been an entry into a random draw, not a guarantee of ever being invited to apply.
The sponsor must clear a Minimum Necessary Income test
A sponsor generally has to demonstrate income at or above a Minimum Necessary Income (MNI) threshold, tied to Canada's Low Income Cut-Off (LICO) tables and scaled to family size, assessed across the most recent consecutive tax years. This article does not state a specific current dollar figure, since both the threshold and the family-size table are set by IRCC and reviewed periodically.
The sponsor signs a multi-year legal undertaking
Once a sponsorship is approved, the sponsor signs an undertaking committing to financially support the sponsored parent or grandparent for a multi-year period — historically reported around 20 years outside Quebec — during which the sponsor remains responsible for the sponsored person's basic needs, largely regardless of how the sponsor's own circumstances change.
The interest-to-sponsor intake and the invitation lottery
PGP has not generally worked as an open-ended application window that a sponsor can file into whenever they are ready. Instead, IRCC has periodically opened intake through a two-step structure. First, during a defined submission period, anyone interested in sponsoring a parent or grandparent submits an interest-to-sponsor (ITS) form — a short registration of intent, not a full sponsorship application, and generally not itself subject to the income test described below. Second, once that submission window closes, IRCC has generally drawn a subset of the submitted ITS forms at random and sent invitations to only that subset, who are then given a limited period to submit a complete PGP sponsorship application, at which point the income requirements and full documentation come into play.
The practical effect for a sponsor is that submitting an ITS form has functioned as entering a random draw, not joining an ordered queue — being an early submitter within a given intake window has not generally improved the odds of being drawn, and a sponsor who is not selected in one cycle has had to wait for a future cycle to open, with no guarantee of when that happens or how many more invitations that future cycle will carry. IRCC has also, in at least one recent cycle described across multiple sources, drawn invitations from a pool of ITS forms submitted years earlier rather than opening a brand-new submission window in that year — which matters enormously for a family trying to judge their own odds, since a form submitted in an earlier year may still be sitting in an active pool long after it was filed. Whether a submission window is currently open, whether invitations are currently being issued, and from which pool, are exactly the kind of live status details that should be confirmed directly against IRCC's current PGP page before telling a prospective sponsor anything about their chances.
This is also the single biggest practical reason families frequently pursue the Super Visa in parallel with — or instead of — PGP: the Super Visa's own requirements are demanding in their own right, but it does not depend on being randomly drawn from a capped invitation pool the way PGP intake has. A consultancy fielding a client who wants to bring an aging parent to Canada should generally present both routes side by side early, rather than defaulting to whichever one the client asks about by name, since the honest odds and timelines of the two are not comparable.
The Minimum Necessary Income (MNI) and LICO test
Once invited to apply, a sponsor generally has to demonstrate that their income meets or exceeds a Minimum Necessary Income (MNI) threshold before the sponsorship can proceed. Multiple independent sources describe the MNI as derived from Canada's Low Income Cut-Off (LICO) tables, with an additional percentage added on top of the base LICO figure, and scaled upward as family size increases — with the sponsor's family unit generally counting the sponsor, their dependents, and the parent or grandparent being sponsored, along with that person's own dependents where applicable. A larger sponsored family, in other words, generally means a higher income bar for the sponsor to clear, not a fixed threshold that applies regardless of how many people are actually being sponsored.
Sources also consistently describe the MNI test as applied across more than a single year of income — commonly described as the sponsor's most recent consecutive tax years, generally the three most recent years available at the time of assessment, rather than a snapshot of current earnings alone. This matters practically: a sponsor whose income has grown substantially in the most recent year but was below threshold in an earlier assessed year may still not clear the test, depending on exactly how IRCC weighs the years involved. This article deliberately does not state a specific current dollar figure for any family size, or confirm precisely which tax years are currently being assessed, because both are IRCC-set figures that shift as each year passes and as published tables are updated. A consultancy should pull the current MNI table for the specific family size in question directly from IRCC guidance before telling a prospective sponsor whether they qualify — a stale figure quoted from an earlier case, or from a competitor's marketing page, is not a safe substitute.
The multi-year sponsorship undertaking
Approval of a PGP sponsorship is not the end of the sponsor's obligation — it is the start of a new one. Once approved, the sponsor signs an undertaking: a legally binding commitment to financially support the sponsored parent or grandparent for a defined period after that person becomes a permanent resident. Multiple independent sources describe this undertaking period as historically running around 20 years outside Quebec, with Quebec reported as applying its own shorter period, commonly cited at around 10 years. This article treats those figures as commonly reported rather than confirmed current fact, since the exact current length — and any conditions or exceptions attached to it — are program settings that should be verified directly against current IRCC guidance, and against current Quebec guidance for Quebec-based sponsors, before a family relies on either number.
What the undertaking actually obligates the sponsor to do
The undertaking is a binding legal commitment, not a formality attached to the application. For its duration, the sponsor is generally responsible for the sponsored parent or grandparent's basic needs — food, clothing, shelter, and other essentials — and if the sponsored person receives provincial social assistance during that period, government sources describe the cost as potentially being recovered from the sponsor. This is the single most consequential figure in the whole program for a family's long-term planning, and it deserves to be stated plainly rather than glossed over in a client conversation.
The undertaking generally can't be shortened, paused, or cancelled
Multiple independent sources describe the undertaking as running for its full term regardless of later events — a breakdown in the relationship between sponsor and sponsored parent, a change in the sponsor's income or employment, the sponsored person becoming a Canadian citizen, or the sponsor renewing their own PR card. None of those events restart, shorten, or end the undertaking early on their own. A consultancy should walk a prospective sponsor through this before they sign, not after.
To be direct about why this section is longer than the space it might seem to need: an undertaking that runs for roughly two decades is not a line item to mention once during onboarding and move past. A sponsor's income, family situation, and relationship with the sponsored parent or grandparent can all change substantially over 20 years, and multiple sources describe the undertaking as continuing regardless — it does not appear to shorten, pause, or end early because any of those things change. A consultancy that walks a prospective sponsor through what the undertaking actually commits them to, in plain terms, before they sign, is doing that family a genuine service that a purely transactional application-filing process would not.
What a consultancy should verify before advising a client
Given how much of PGP rests on figures and program mechanics IRCC sets and has changed before — whether an interest-to-sponsor window is currently open, how many invitations a given cycle carries, the current MNI thresholds by family size, which tax years are currently assessed, and the exact current undertaking length — the practical discipline is to verify each of these directly against current IRCC guidance before every client conversation, not to reuse what was true for a case filed a year or two earlier. This is also a good moment to confirm with the client whether PGP is genuinely the right route to pursue at all given current intake conditions, or whether the Super Visa — or another family-sponsorship route entirely, such as the spousal or common-law sponsorship track — better fits their actual timeline and goals.
Since the intake cap, income thresholds, and undertaking length sit outside a consultancy's control, the practical value a consultancy adds is in tracking, for each prospective sponsor, what has actually been confirmed against current IRCC guidance versus what is assumed, and in helping a family assemble a well-documented income file — three consecutive years of tax returns, employment evidence, and family-size documentation — ready to go the moment an invitation arrives. Our Canada PR consultant software page covers how VisaBOS helps a consultancy manage family-sponsorship cases like PGP alongside PNP streams, Quebec CSQ, and rural PR pathways on one connected case record, including tracking a sponsor's ITS submission, invitation status, and income documentation over what can be a multi-year — sometimes multi-cycle — waiting period. It remains a case-management tool, not a source of immigration law, so it does not replace confirming live intake status and income requirements with IRCC.
To be direct about what this article will not do: it will not state a specific current MNI dollar figure for any family size, a specific current interest-to-sponsor intake cap or invitation count, a specific current application fee, a specific current processing time, or a single confirmed undertaking length, because none of those specifics were verified directly against canada.ca during drafting — the site was blocked by network egress — and because IRCC has changed several of these figures and mechanics before. Repeating an unverified number to a family planning around a decades-long financial commitment risks genuine harm to their case and their finances.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Parents and Grandparents Program (PGP)?
The Parents and Grandparents Program (PGP) is a Canadian family-class sponsorship route under which a Canadian citizen or permanent resident sponsors their parent or grandparent for permanent residence. If the sponsorship and the accompanying application are approved, the sponsored parent or grandparent becomes a permanent resident of Canada. This makes PGP structurally different from a visitor visa: it is aimed at a permanent outcome, not an extended visit, and it carries a long-term financial commitment from the sponsor that a temporary visa does not.
How is PGP different from the Super Visa?
These are two separate programs built for the same general audience — parents and grandparents of people settled in Canada — but they lead to genuinely different outcomes, and our companion piece, the Canada Super Visa for Parents and Grandparents explainer, covers the visa route in full. The Super Visa is a long-stay, multiple-entry temporary resident visa: the parent or grandparent visits and stays in Canada for extended periods but never becomes a permanent resident through it. PGP is the opposite in structure — it is a permanent-residence sponsorship, gated by a lottery-style intake and a multi-year financial undertaking, that results in the parent or grandparent actually becoming a permanent resident if approved. Many families pursue the Super Visa specifically because PGP's intake has historically been so limited and competitive, while continuing to hope for a PGP invitation in parallel.
How does PGP intake actually work?
PGP intake has generally not worked like an open-ended application window. Instead, IRCC has periodically opened a limited period during which interested sponsors submit an interest-to-sponsor (ITS) form — essentially registering their interest rather than filing a full sponsorship application. Once that submission window closes, IRCC has generally drawn a subset of the submitted ITS forms at random and sent invitations to only that subset, who are then given a window to submit a complete PGP sponsorship application. Submitting an ITS form has therefore functioned, in practice, as an entry into a random draw rather than a queue position, and a sponsor who is not drawn in one cycle has generally had to wait for IRCC to run another cycle, with no guarantee of when — or whether — that next cycle opens.
Is PGP currently open for new interest-to-sponsor submissions?
This is exactly the kind of detail that changes and must be verified before telling a client anything specific — IRCC has both opened and paused PGP intake at different points, and has in at least one recent cycle drawn invitations from an existing pool of previously submitted interest-to-sponsor forms rather than opening a fresh submission window. Multiple independent secondary sources, cross-checked against each other since a direct fetch of canada.ca was blocked while researching this article, describe periods where no new ITS forms were being accepted and where IRCC instead worked through a backlog of forms submitted in an earlier cycle, alongside a stated cap on how many complete applications would be processed from that pool in a given year. None of that should be treated as a fixed, permanent state of the program — a consultancy should check IRCC's own current PGP page for whether an ITS window is open right now, whether any invitations are being issued, and from which pool, before setting any client's expectations.
What is the Minimum Necessary Income (MNI) requirement for PGP?
A sponsor generally needs to demonstrate income at or above a Minimum Necessary Income (MNI) threshold before a PGP sponsorship can proceed. Multiple secondary sources describe the MNI as calculated from Canada's Low Income Cut-Off (LICO) figures with an additional percentage added on top, scaled to the size of the sponsor's family unit — which generally includes the sponsor, their dependents, and the parent or grandparent being sponsored, along with that person's own dependents where applicable. This article does not state a specific current dollar figure for any family size, since the underlying LICO tables, the added percentage, and the exact family-unit counting rules are all set by IRCC and reviewed periodically. A consultancy should pull the current table directly from IRCC guidance for the specific family size in question rather than reuse a number quoted for an earlier case.
How many years of income does IRCC assess for a PGP sponsor?
Sources consistently describe the MNI test as applied across the sponsor's most recent consecutive tax years — commonly described as the three most recent years available at the time of assessment — rather than a single year's income or a point-in-time snapshot. Because the specific tax years used shift as each year passes and IRCC updates its published tables, this article does not state which exact tax years currently apply. A consultancy should confirm the specific tax years IRCC is currently assessing, and whether the sponsor needs to meet the threshold in every one of those years or on some other basis, directly against current IRCC guidance before advising a family on whether they qualify.
What is the sponsorship undertaking, and how long does it last?
Once a PGP sponsorship is approved, the sponsor signs an undertaking — a legally binding commitment to financially support the sponsored parent or grandparent for a defined period after they become a permanent resident. Multiple independent sources describe this undertaking period as historically around 20 years outside Quebec, with Quebec applying its own shorter period reported at around 10 years, though the exact current length, and any conditions attached to it, are program settings that should be confirmed against current IRCC — and, for Quebec cases, current Quebec — guidance rather than assumed from a general description. For the duration of the undertaking, the sponsor is generally responsible for the sponsored person's basic needs, and government sources describe social assistance paid to the sponsored person during that period as potentially recoverable from the sponsor.
Can the sponsorship undertaking be cancelled, shortened, or paused?
Generally, no. Multiple sources describe the undertaking as continuing for its full term regardless of later changes in circumstance — including a breakdown in the relationship between the sponsor and the sponsored parent or grandparent, a change in the sponsor's income or employment situation, the sponsored person becoming a Canadian citizen, or the sponsor renewing their own permanent resident card. None of those events restart, shorten, or end the undertaking early on their own under the general description sources provide. This is arguably the detail most worth confirming and explaining clearly before a prospective sponsor commits, since it is a long-term legal and financial obligation, not a formality attached to the paperwork.
Who can be sponsored under PGP — only parents and grandparents?
PGP is built specifically around the parent-child and grandparent-grandchild relationship, including step-parents and step-grandparents in many circumstances, sponsored by a Canadian citizen or permanent resident child or grandchild who meets the program's sponsor eligibility and income requirements. It is a separate program from spousal or common-law partner sponsorship and from dependent-child sponsorship, which run on their own eligibility rules — a consultancy handling a client's broader family-sponsorship plans should treat each route on its own terms rather than assuming requirements carry over between them.
Should a consultancy quote a specific MNI figure, intake cap, or processing time to a client?
No — this article deliberately does not state a specific current MNI dollar figure for any family size, a specific current interest-to-sponsor intake cap or invitation count, a specific application fee, or a specific processing time, because all of these are figures IRCC sets and has revised before, and because a direct fetch of IRCC's own PGP page was blocked while researching this article. What is presented here is cross-checked across multiple independent secondary sources — immigration law firms, regulated consultant sites, and immigration news outlets — rather than confirmed directly against canada.ca. Quoting a stale intake cap, income threshold, or undertaking length to a family planning around a decades-long financial commitment risks real harm to their case and their finances. Always verify current figures directly against official IRCC guidance, or with a qualified immigration professional, before relying on them for a real client.
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