Parent and Grandparent Program for Canadian Immigration Reaches Intake Threshold

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Parent and Grandparent Program for Canadian
Immigration Reaches Intake Threshold 
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The Parent and Grandparent Program (PGP), a
Canadian family reunification immigration
program, has reached its application intake
threshold for the most recent application cycle.
The PGP reopened for receipt of new applications
on January 4, 2016, and the cap of 5,000 new
applications was reached by January 7. Demand for
this program has outpaced supply over recent
years. Consequently, the fact that the program
cap was reached within days is not a major
surprise. More than 14,000 applications were
submitted from January 4 to January 7. 
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In its announcement this morning, Immigration,
Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC, formerly
known as CIC) stated that Canada is committed to
reuniting families and the Government of Canada
is seeking to increase the intake of parent and
grandparent sponsorship applications from 5,000
to 10,000 per year. In light of this commitment,
IRCC will retain the first 10,000 complete
applications. IRCC added that more information
on this increase will be forthcoming, including
information on when applications not added to the
inventory would be returned to applicants. The
doubling of the cap for the PGP was an election
pledge of the Liberal Party of Canada, which
recently took office in Ottawa. The PGP formed
the subject of Attorney David Cohens blog
earlier this week.