Canadian citizens and permanent residents can once again sponsor their parents or grandparents to Canada.
The program, suspended in November 2011, re-opened January 2, 2014. There are a number of important changes. I would recommend perusing Operational Bulleting 561.
1. CIC has imposed a cap of 5,000 complete applications;
2. The sponsor needs to meet higher income thresholds (30% above current) to be established only with documents issued by CRA (no more T4's) and for 3 years prior to the application;
3. CIC will process applications on the first in, first out principle - that means these new applications will be placed in queue after the applications submitted pre-Nov 2011;
4. No appeals to the Immigration Appeal Division for applications rejected because sponsor does not meet income eligibility or applications returned because the cap has been reached; and
5. No change (yet) as to the age limits for accompanying dependents of the applicants (brothers and sisters of the sponsor).
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