Carney government to prioritize seniors for immigration
The federal immigration department will start issuing invitations later this month to thousands of Canadians interested in sponsoring their parents or grandparents for permanent residency.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) announced that it will start issuing invitations later this month to thousands of Canadians interested in sponsoring their parents or grandparents for permanent residency.
The department plans to accept up to 10,000 migrant parents and grandparents for 2025 alone.
“Starting on July 28, 2025, and over the course of approximately two weeks, IRCC will send invitations to apply to interested potential sponsors,” the department said in a notice published Wednesday.
Invitations will be sent to 17,860 individuals who submitted “interest to sponsor” forms in 2020 but have not yet been selected.
IRCC confirmed it will not open a new intake this year, citing the large number of existing applications.
Applicants not selected may consider the “super visa,” valid for up to 10 years, which allows parents and grandparents to stay in the country for five-year periods and apply for two-year extensions while in Canada.
The timing of the program’s reopening has drawn criticism amid broader concerns over housing shortages, emergency room wait times, and pressure on the country’s already exhausted health-care system.
“At a time of housing shortages, full emergency rooms, when many Canadians can’t find family doctors, Liberals plan to admit tens of thousands of mostly elderly foreigners in a new vote-buying scheme,” Toronto lawyer Ryan O’Connor wrote on X.
“Everybody: Canada is broken, our healthcare system is an international embarrassment and immigration is making everything 1000x worse.
Liberals: Let’s import some more seniors!” wrote journalist and Juno News founder Candice Malcolm.
“It’s like they’re deliberately mocking us,” added Free Press columnist Rupa Subramanya. “Why on earth would you invite elderly people to live in Canada, folks who’ve never worked or paid taxes in the country, just to strain an already collapsing healthcare system?”
The federal government has not said when or if it plans to open a new intake pool for the Parents and Grandparents program beyond 2025.
The last time Canadians were able to register interest was five years ago, in 2020.
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This beggars belief. Not even individuals, who are likely to be seriously employable. Just more drain on the system. This cannot be just incompetence on the government's part. It's intentional.
Our Health Care systems are a joke and very, very broken.
They currently don't work at all for the people who are here.
So what is our Government going to do??
Bring in more people whose age will require even more attention from our very broken systems?
OH... And give them benefits that regular hard working Canadians could only dream of?
Really????