Immigration News: Canada announces update to Parents & Grandparents Program

Hong Kong will discontinue Special Arrangement for Applications for Extension of Stay from January 1, 2024.

Canada announces update to Parents & Grandparents Program 2023: Immigration, Refugee & Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has announced that this year it will accept 15,000 applications under the Parents & Grandparents Program (PGP). Between October 10 and 23, IRCC will begin sending invitations to apply to 24,200 interested potential sponsors, aiming to receive up to the 15,000 complete applications.

PGP is a program to sponsor parents and grandparents to become permanent residents of Canada.

Eligible applicants will be chosen from the 2020 pool of interested eligible sponsors. Individuals who submitted an Interest to Sponsor form in 2020, but did not receive an ITA in 2020, 2021, or 2022 are encouraged to check their emails, including spam and junk folders. According to IRCC, individuals who have lost their confirmation number or access to the email address provided on their Interest to Sponsor form will be able to retrieve their confirmation numbers or provide a new email address once all ITAs have been sent (roughly two weeks after the program's opening day).

If you’re invited to apply to sponsor your parents and grandparents, there are two applications:

• You must apply to become a sponsor.
• Your parents or grandparents must apply for permanent residence.

Who is eligible? 

You can sponsor your own parents and grandparents, related by blood or adoption. In case of divorce, you’ll need to submit separate applications if you sponsor divorced parents and grandparents. If your divorced parents or grandparents have a current spouse, common-law partner or a conjugal partner, these people become dependents on the application and can immigrate to Canada with your parents and grandparents, if approved.

Who you cannot sponsor:  You can’t sponsor

• your spouse’s parents and grandparents (your in-laws). However, you can be a co-signer on your in-laws’ application
• someone who is inadmissible to Canada. One can be inadmissible into Canada for various reasons, including security reasons, human or international rights violation as well as medical or financial reasons and misrepresentation.

Hong Kong to discontinue Special Arrangement for Applications for Extension of Stay: Effective January 1 2024, Hong Kong will discontinue Special Arrangement for Applications for Extension of Stay. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Immigration Department (ImmD) has, since 8 April 2022, started to accept applications of extension of stay from eligible non-permanent residents who are outside Hong Kong and are unable to return to Hong Kong in time.

However, under the new rules, with effect from 1 January 2024, the requirement of physical presence of eligible non-permanent residents in Hong Kong for seeking an extension of stay will be fully restored. For extension of stay applications from eligible non-permanent residents having reached the ImmD on or after January 1, 2024, the applicants are required to be physically present in Hong Kong, namely both at the time of application and at the time of collection of the “e-Visa” for extension of stay.

Before January 1, 2024, eligible non-permanent residents who are admitted into Hong Kong under the following immigration policies / schemes and whose limit of stay is about to expire (generally, within four weeks) but are presently outside Hong Kong may continue to apply for an extension of stay under the above mentioned special arrangement, provided that the application could reach the ImmD before  January 1, 2024:

• General Employment Policy (including both employment and investment as entrepreneurs);
• Admission Scheme for Mainland Talents and Professionals; Quality Migrant Admission Scheme;
• Immigration Arrangements for Non-local Graduates;
• Admission Scheme for the Second Generation of Chinese Hong Kong Permanent Residents;
• Technology Talent Admission Scheme;
• Capital Investment Entrant Scheme;
• residence as dependents; and
• students enrolled in full-time study programmes.

US proposes rule to modernise H-2 Temporary Visa Programs: The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has taken steps to strengthen protections for temporary workers through the H-2A temporary agricultural and the H-2B temporary nonagricultural worker programs (H-2 programs). DHS has proposed modernizing and improving the H-2 programs by providing greater flexibility and protections for participating workers, and improving the program’s efficiency. This would include strengthening protections for workers from exploitative conduct by employers, including the addition of whistleblower protections.

Under the proposed regulations, employers who violate H-2B program requirements, including employers who fail to demonstrate an ability and intent to follow the program requirements, may be ineligible for the limited number of available visas. This rulemaking would also offer several benefits to employers, including making H-2 portability permanent, which would allow employers who are facing worker shortages to hire H-2 workers who are already lawfully in the United States while the employer’s H-2 petition for the worker is pending.

The H-2 programs allow certain U.S. employers or agents to bring foreign nationals to the United States to fill temporary jobs for which there are not enough U.S. workers who are able, willing, qualified and available to do the temporary work.