'I'm frozen out': Canadians question immigration department's approach to parent, grandparent sponsorship

The federal government is inviting thousands of Canadians to apply to sponsor their parents and grandparents starting Oct. 10 — but many say its recent approach is leaving qualified Canadians behind, and could be making the immigration department vulnerable to ineligible applications.

Under the parents and grandparents program (PGP), the department only invites people to apply if they've formally submitted an interest in entering their names into the lottery system.

The problem for many, is the immigration department has not accepted new interest-to-sponsor (ITS) forms since 2020. Usually, there's an opportunity to do that each year.

"It is good for those who were lucky enough to get their names into the hats, basically in 2020," said Jatin Shory, a refugee and immigration lawyer in Calgary.

"But our biggest issue definitely, definitely, definitely comes for those who would qualify now if a brand new intake cycle opened up, but who are now just being left behind."

Harpreet Singh is one of those people. The 29-year-old living in Langley, B.C., didn't express interest in 2020 because his income was a little short.

He became financially eligible less than three months after the department stopped accepting ITS forms. That month, the federal government said there would be another opportunity to sign up in 2021, so he wasn't too worried.

But years later, he's still waiting for a fair chance to bring his mom from the United Kingdom to Canada.

"I listened to what the government was saying and now it's like, oh, OK, the pool is closed and I'm frozen out and I don't really know what's going on," said Singh.

Shory says out of desperation, some of his clients are filing applications for their families under humanitarian and compassionate considerations, which he says is risky, stressful and much more expensive.

Between Oct. 10-23, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) says it will invite 24,000 eligible Canadians to apply to reunite with their families, with the goal of receiving up to 15,000 complete applications.

People across the country have been raising concerns about the PGP for years. At least two petitions have been filed in the House of Commons to address the shortcomings of the immigration system.

Singh launched one of those petitions last year.

His biggest concern, raised in his petition to former immigration minister Sean Fraser, is that this approach could leave the immigration department vulnerable to ineligible applications.