Can you still sponsor parents to Canada from Pakistan? (2026)

What IRCC has actually said

There is a lot of noise about this programme, so start with the published words rather than the commentary around them.

The pause

As of 2 November 2026, IRCC’s Parents and Grandparents Program page shows the status as paused. It says IRCC is not currently accepting applications, that it has paused the programme, that it will not accept new interest to sponsor forms or invite potential sponsors to apply until further notice, and that it will keep processing existing applications.

The notice behind that page is dated 15 July 2026 and says IRCC is pausing the intake of new applications under the Parents and Grandparents Program. It also says interest in the programme continues to exceed the spaces available under the levels plan.

The number behind the decision

The same notice says IRCC 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. That is an approvals figure for people already in the queue. It is not an opening, and nobody can be added to it.

What a paused programme means for a family in Lahore

It means there is no application to make and no form to submit, however strong the case. A sponsor cannot register an interest, cannot pay a fee and cannot hold a place. Anyone who says otherwise is selling something that does not exist.

How the intake worked when it was open

Understanding the mechanism matters, because it tells you what to expect if the programme reopens.

Interest to sponsor, then an invitation

The programme has not been a first come, first served application for years. A potential sponsor submitted an interest to sponsor form, and IRCC then invited a set number of those people to file a full application. Only an invited sponsor could apply.

The 2025 intake, in IRCC’s own numbers

IRCC says that starting 28 July 2025 it invited potential sponsors who had submitted an interest to sponsor form in 2020 to apply for the 2025 intake. It sent 17,860 invitations over approximately two weeks, with a goal of 10,000 complete applications, and the last day to apply was 9 October 2025.

Read that date pair again. The 2025 round drew from forms submitted in 2020. A sponsor who filled in the interest form the year the pandemic started waited five years to be invited, and the programme then closed to new forms altogether.

Who could sponsor, when it reopens

The sponsor conditions are the family class conditions, and they have not changed because the programme is paused.

The basic requirements

A sponsor must be at least 18 years old, must be a Canadian citizen, a permanent resident of Canada or a person registered in Canada under the Canadian Indian Act, and must live in Canada. A permanent resident living outside Canada cannot sponsor.

Co-signers

IRCC’s guide for this application says a co-signer must meet the same eligibility requirements as the sponsor, must agree to co-sign the undertaking, and must agree to be responsible for the basic requirements of the sponsored people for the validity period of the undertaking. The co-signer is equally liable if the obligations are not performed. A co-signer may withdraw before the sponsored people are issued a permanent resident visa, and not after.

In practice a co-signer is usually the sponsor’s spouse, and the point of adding one is to combine incomes against the table below. Both people take on twenty years of liability.

Default has consequences

IRCC says that if a sponsored family member receives provincial, territorial or municipal social assistance during the undertaking period, the sponsor will not be allowed to sponsor other members of the family class until the amount has been repaid.

The income requirement

This is the real gate on this route, and it is the clearest difference from a spousal case, where IRCC says there is usually no income requirement at all. For a comparison, the guide to Canadian spousal sponsorship sets out how different the two routes are.

Three straight tax years

The sponsor must meet the income requirement for each of the three consecutive tax years immediately preceding the date of the application. For the 2025 intake, those were the 2022, 2023 and 2024 tax years. One weak year sinks the application, which is why this route is often lost on a year when someone changed jobs or started a business.

The published table

The table below is the one IRCC published for sponsors applying in 2025. It applies to residents of all provinces and territories except Quebec. No table for 2026 applications is published while the programme is paused, so treat these as the shape of the test rather than the figures that will apply at the next intake.

Counting the family size

The family size is not the household in Canada. It counts the sponsor, the sponsor’s spouse or partner, their dependent children, anyone the sponsor has sponsored before and is still responsible for, and the parents or grandparents being sponsored along with their own dependants. A couple sponsoring both parents is usually a family size of four before any children are counted.

What the income is proved with

Income is assessed from the Canada Revenue Agency’s notices of assessment or an equivalent CRA document for each of the three years. Pay slips and bank balances do not substitute for the tax record, which is why a sponsor whose income is real but undeclared cannot use it.

The twenty-year undertaking

This is the single most important paragraph in this guide for a family deciding between sponsorship and a super visa.

Twenty years, and it cannot be shortened

IRCC’s undertaking page says the undertaking period to sponsor parents and grandparents is twenty years, and ten years if the sponsor lives in Quebec. It starts on the day the sponsored people become permanent residents. IRCC says there is no way to cancel or shorten the undertaking period once that has happened.

What is promised

The sponsor commits to supporting the sponsored people financially and to making sure they will not need to ask the government for social assistance. Under the sponsorship agreement that means food, clothing, shelter and other needs for everyday living, and dental care, eye care and other health needs that are not covered by public health services.

Parents arriving in their sixties will be in their eighties before the undertaking ends. The health costs that are not publicly covered tend to arrive in exactly those years. That is a serious commitment, and a family should price it honestly rather than treat it as a formality on a form.

Fees and processing time

The published fees

As of 2 November 2026, IRCC’s fee list shows CAD 1,260 to sponsor a parent or grandparent, which includes the sponsorship fee, the processing fee and the right of permanent residence fee. Without the right of permanent residence fee it is CAD 660. Including the spouse or partner of the parent or grandparent is a further CAD 1,260, and a dependent child of the parent or grandparent is CAD 180.

The processing time

IRCC’s processing times tool, last updated 9 October 2026, showed about 28 months for the parents or grandparents category where the sponsor lives outside Quebec. IRCC says this is how long it expects to take on an application received today, based on current inventory and staffing, and that it is not a maximum and not a guarantee.

Add the pause to that figure and the honest picture is this. A family that is not already in the system has no date at all, because the clock has not started and there is no form to start it with.

The super visa, which is open

For most Pakistani families reading this, the super visa is the practical answer. It is a temporary resident visa, not permanent residence, but it allows a long stay and it is available now.

What it allows

IRCC says a super visa lets parents and grandparents visit children or grandchildren for five years at a time, with multiple entries for a period of up to ten years, and that they can apply for two-year extensions to their stay while they are still in Canada. The fee starts from CAD 100.

The host income test

The host in Canada must meet or exceed the published minimum necessary income. The table below is the one on IRCC’s page for proof of financial support, headed as updated 29 July 2025.

IRCC sets out two ways to meet it. Either the host’s total income meets or exceeds the minimum in one of the two tax years before the application is submitted, or the host’s income in the year before was at least 75 per cent of the minimum and the applicant’s own income makes up the difference.

The insurance condition

The private health insurance must be valid for a minimum of one year from the date of entry, provide a minimum emergency coverage of CAD 100,000, and be valid for each entry to Canada. The super visa guide goes through the eligibility, the invitation letter and the medical in detail.

Super visa against sponsorship, honestly

Quebec is a different process

If the sponsor lives in Quebec, the province assesses income under the Canada and Quebec Accord, not IRCC, and the federal income table above does not apply. The undertaking is ten years rather than twenty. IRCC also publishes a separate processing time for Quebec cases. A family comparing offers from two consultants should check which province the advice assumed.

The scams that follow every intake announcement

A paused programme is a seller’s market for false hope. The pattern repeats every time Canada says anything about this route.

• an agent offering to register an interest to sponsor form while intake is closed;
• a fee to secure a place, a priority slot or a guaranteed invitation in the next draw;
• a forwarded screenshot announcing a reopening that does not appear on IRCC’s own page;
• a package that quotes one lump sum with no breakdown of the government fees;
• anyone who promises an outcome, which no one can do.

Before paying anyone for a Canadian file, read the guide to checking a visa consultant in Pakistan. Under section 91 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, only members of a Canadian law society, the Chambre des notaires du Québec or the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants may be paid to represent or advise you on an application.

What to do now, step by step

There is no application to file today, so the useful work is checking, preparing and choosing the route that is open.

1. 1

   Check whether the programme is accepting anyone

   Open IRCC’s Parents and Grandparents Program page first. As of 2 November 2026 it says the programme is paused, that IRCC is not accepting applications, and that no new interest to sponsor forms will be accepted until further notice. Nothing else in this process matters until that line changes.

2. 2

   Work out whether the sponsor would qualify at all

   A sponsor must be at least 18, a Canadian citizen, a permanent resident or a person registered under the Indian Act, and must live in Canada. The same bars that apply to any family class sponsorship apply here, including arrears on an immigration loan or court-ordered support, an undischarged bankruptcy and certain convictions.

3. 3

   Test the income against three straight tax years

   Unlike a spousal case, this route has a real income requirement, and it is tested for each of the three consecutive tax years immediately before the application date. Pull the Canada Revenue Agency notices of assessment for those years and compare them with the table IRCC publishes for the intake year, counting every person in the family size.

4. 4

   Read the undertaking before anyone signs

   The undertaking for a parent or grandparent runs for 20 years, or 10 years in Quebec, from the day they become permanent residents. IRCC says there is no way to cancel or shorten it. It commits the sponsor to food, clothing, shelter and other everyday needs, plus dental, eye and other health costs not covered by public health services.

5. 5

   Use the super visa while the programme is closed

   The super visa is open and is a separate application. It lets a parent or grandparent visit for five years at a time with multiple entries over up to ten years, subject to the host meeting the published minimum income and the applicant holding private health insurance valid for at least one year from the date of entry with at least CAD 100,000 of emergency coverage.

6. 6

   Keep the file ready for the next intake

   If the programme reopens with an interest to sponsor form, the window is short. Keep the sponsor’s notices of assessment, proof of status in Canada, the parents’ passports and their civil documents current, so a filing does not fail on an expired passport or a missing tax year.

7. 7

   Check the official page, not a forwarded message

   Intake announcements are published by IRCC. Every reopening attracts messages offering a place in the draw for a fee. There is no place to buy. Verify any claim about an intake on IRCC’s own page before you pay anyone anything.

What goes wrong most often

Paying for a place in a closed programme

There is no queue to join while intake is paused and no form to submit. Money paid to hold a place buys nothing.

Counting only the strongest tax year

The test is three consecutive years, each on its own. A sponsor who earned well last year and poorly two years ago does not pass by averaging.

Getting the family size wrong

Families routinely count the people in the Canadian household and forget the parents being sponsored, their spouse, and anyone previously sponsored and still under an undertaking. The required income then turns out to be a band higher than the one they planned around.

Signing a twenty-year undertaking without pricing it

Dental, eye and other care not covered by public health services sits on the sponsor for two decades. That is the commitment, and it should be a family decision taken with eyes open, not a tick box at the end of a form.

Ignoring the super visa for two years, waiting for news

Parents who could have spent those years visiting on a super visa sometimes spend them waiting for an announcement instead. The super visa is open, and the time apart does not come back.

A realistic example

This is a hypothetical illustration, not a real client. Imagine Nadia, a Canadian permanent resident in Calgary, and her husband. Her parents are in Faisalabad, in their early sixties, and she has wanted them with her since she landed.

• She checks the programme. IRCC’s page says paused, no new interest to sponsor forms until further notice. There is nothing to file, so she stops looking for an application.
• She tests the income anyway. Counting herself, her husband, their two children and both parents, the family size is six. She compares her and her husband’s notices of assessment for the last three years against the published table, so she knows where she stands if it reopens.
• She reads the undertaking. Twenty years, no way to shorten it, covering everyday needs plus dental and eye care. She and her husband talk about it properly before deciding they would still do it.
• She applies for super visas instead. Her income clears the published minimum for a family of six. She buys insurance valid for a year from entry with CAD 100,000 of emergency cover, writes the invitation letter, and her parents apply.
• She keeps the file warm. Passports renewed, tax records filed on time, documents kept current, so that if an interest to sponsor form reopens she can file inside the window.

The outcome is not permanent residence. It is her parents in Calgary for long stretches, lawfully, while the permanent route stays shut.

Key takeaways

Frequently asked questions