2020 is about to come and January is expected to bring new opportunities for Canadian residents and Permanent residents in Canada to express their interest for sponsoring their parents and grandparents under Canada’s Parents and Grandparents Program, or PGP. You will also find many other short term programs like Canada super visa.

However, the time for the opening of the window for PGP and its exact application process in 2020 is up in the air. There are some challenges which require some innovative solutions to improve the PGP. As compared to other social immigration streams like Canada spouse visa, Canada dependent visa, it offers less economic benefits. This is because of the fact that the entry of spouses and other dependents at a younger age are more productive to the growth of the economy. Moreover, they contribute to taxes which help to subsidize health care. Whereas, parents and grandparents fall into the group which require the health care benefits the most.

However, this is just one side of the coin as on the other side, parents and grandparents provide child care which allows working family members to work for extra hours. Moreover, they also contribute to the household income of family by working in Canada themselves. According to the 2016 Census, it has observed that homeownership rates and household incomes of immigration families were nearly similar as of Canadian-born families.

Under the 2019-21 immigration plans, the government has been targeting the influx of 21,000 immigrants. However, in January 2019 only, around 100,000 people tried to access a request to sponsor form for 21,000 PGP spots which have certainly become a source of widespread frustration. Earlier, the first-come, first-served model was in practice to review the PGP applications and it produced a backlog of about 165,000 PGP applications by 2011. So, in 2011, the government announced to freeze new applications under PGP as well as increase the size of intake from 15,000 annually to 25,000 people in 2012 and 2013.

In 2017, the lottery system was introduced for PGP applications in which the government randomly selected applications for PGP and invite them to apply for sponsorship. Interested sponsors had 30 days to submit an expression of interest. However, this approach had several shortcomings like some of the applications were randomly selected where applicants were not found to be so serious in sponsoring their parents and grandparents and didn’t want to apply for the same.

So in 2019, the government adopted its first-come, first-served model again for PGP applications. The PGP Interest to Sponsor form has made available online. However, as stated above, 100,000 people tried to access the form at the same time so, the submission window remained open for 10 minutes only before the quota was met.

The federal government should not be afraid to innovate

So, it is assumed that the government will bring new innovative solutions or another revamped version of PGP in 2020 to overcome previous problems or issues. The following is the list of some measures which may overcome the challenges presented by the PGP in recent years.

First, the government can use the application-based model instead of Expression of interest model for PGP. For that, the information of the opening of the window for PGP should be provided in advance to applicants as well as the proper amount of time should be provided to sponsors to submit applications either through online or paper-based mode. To avoid the applications from applicants who are not so serious in sponsoring their parents or grandparents, the government can ask for thesponsorship fee from sponsors in full upfront.

Second, the federal government can adjust its size of influx according to the number of application it receives.

Third, the government can plan to promote Canada’s Super Visa which allows the entry of parents and grandparents of Canadian citizens and permanent residents to visit the country multiple times for a period of up to 10 years. The greater use of Canada’s Super Visa would reduce the pressure of PGP.

Fourth, the federal government can explore other innovative approaches for managing the longstanding challenges like backlogs. The Express Entry program is one of the innovative solutions of managing backlogs of immigration applications.

Parents and Grandparents Human Capital Pilot:

Among the new innovative solutions for managing the PGP applications, the introduction of human capital-based approach can help in a better way. The federal government could launch an Economic Class pilot which prioritizes the entry of parents and grandparents who are younger in age as well as possess higher levels of education, work experience, and English or French proficiency. Under the Parents and Grandparents Human Capital Pilot, the government could welcome up to 2,750 principal applicants per year.

This pilot may help the candidates under federal Express Entry-managed programs who receive fewer points after crossing a certain age bar (above 40). Moreover, by allowing the entry of parents and grandparents at a younger age could help to change the perception about PGP that it only strengthens the Canadian society; not it’s economy. Selected or invited parents and grandparents will more likely to contribute to the labour market of Canada as workers as well as help in subsidizing the health care benefits that they will require eventually.

Currently, all the things about PGP 2020 are uncertain besides the fact the government will face difficulty in managing the program with the applications of around of 100,000 for just 21,000 spots.

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