Interest to Sponsor Form Canada: How the PGP Lottery Actually Works

The Parents and Grandparents Program doesn't work the way most immigration programs do. There's no application you submit and wait for a decision. There's no points system you can optimize. There's no queue you join by applying first. You submit a short form expressing interest, and then IRCC draws names at random from the pool.

Whether you get selected depends on luck. Whether your application succeeds after selection depends entirely on preparation.

What the Interest to Sponsor Form Is

The Interest to Sponsor (ITS) form is a short online form that establishes your place in the PGP lottery pool. It is not an application for permanent residency — it's a declaration that you are eligible and interested in sponsoring a parent or grandparent if selected.

The ITS form collects basic information:

• Your name and date of birth
• Your contact information
• Confirmation of Canadian citizenship or permanent resident status
• Confirmation that you meet basic eligibility (living in Canada, 18 or older)
• Information about the parents or grandparents you wish to sponsor

Submitting the form does not guarantee selection. It only places you in the draw. IRCC does not charge a fee to submit the ITS form.

The 2020 Pool and Why It Still Matters

Here's the critical context: the last time IRCC accepted new ITS forms was in October and November of 2020. That window produced approximately 203,213 submissions. Since then, every PGP cycle has drawn exclusively from that 2020 pool.

As of early 2026, roughly 72,000 forms remain undrawn. IRCC has announced that no new ITS intake will open in 2026.

What this means in practice:

• If you submitted an ITS form in 2020, you are in the pool and eligible to be selected
• If you did not submit a form in 2020 — because you weren't yet a permanent resident, because you didn't know about the window, or for any other reason — you are not in any pool right now
• There is currently no mechanism to enter the PGP lottery for people outside the 2020 pool

How the Draw Works

When IRCC decides to issue invitations for a given cycle, the department conducts a random draw from the 2020 pool. The number of invitations issued is set by the annual immigration target for the PGP.

In 2025, IRCC issued 17,860 invitations with a target of 10,000 completed applications. In 2024, approximately 21,000 invitations were issued. The draw is random — every eligible form in the pool has an equal probability of being selected in any given draw.

There is no way to improve your odds in the lottery. There is no points system, no category preference, and no mechanism to accelerate selection. If you're in the pool, you wait.

What Happens When You're Selected

When your form is drawn, IRCC sends an Invitation to Apply (ITA) to the contact information you provided in your ITS form. The ITA initiates a strict 60-day countdown.

Within those 60 days, you must submit a complete application package through the IRCC Permanent Residence Portal. The package includes forms for the sponsor (you) and forms for the principal applicant (your parent or grandparent). Everything must be correct, signed, and uploaded within the window.

If you miss the 60-day deadline or your package fails the completeness check, your invitation is forfeit. You return to waiting — and with the program currently paused for new intake, "waiting" could mean years.

Confirming Your Information Is Current

If you submitted an ITS form in 2020 and have not yet been selected, your form remains in the pool. You do not need to re-apply or refresh your submission. However, you should ensure:

Your contact information is accurate. IRCC sends the ITA to the email address on file. If you've changed email addresses since 2020, the invitation could go to an account you no longer monitor. Update your contact information through your IRCC secure account.

Your status in Canada is valid. If you were a permanent resident in 2020 and have since obtained citizenship, that's a positive change and doesn't affect your pool eligibility. If your PR card has expired but your residency rights are intact, that's also fine — what matters is whether you still live in Canada and intend to continue living here.

Any life changes are documentable. If you've married, had children, divorced, moved provinces, or had a change in income since 2020, you don't need to update the ITS form — but when you receive an invitation, you'll need to provide a Letter of Explanation for material differences between your 2020 submission and your current circumstances.

If You're Not in the 2020 Pool

If you became a permanent resident after October 2020 or otherwise never submitted an ITS form, the PGP is not currently available to you. The program hasn't announced a new intake window, and the current 2026-2028 Immigration Levels Plan doesn't suggest one is imminent.

This leaves the Super Visa as the primary option for families in this situation. The Super Visa allows parents and grandparents to stay in Canada for up to five years per entry (with the possibility of a two-year extension from inside Canada) without being in any lottery pool. It's a temporary residency path, not permanent — but for many families it's the difference between living together and living apart while waiting for policy to change.

When a new ITS window eventually opens — likely 2027 or 2028 based on the current pool depletion rate — the window will be short. The 2020 window was open for roughly a week before reaching capacity. Being ready to submit immediately when the window opens is the only strategy.

The Preparation Argument

Whether you're in the 2020 pool waiting for your number to come up, or you're outside the pool waiting for a new intake, the waiting period is productively used for preparation.

Police certificates from countries like India, Nigeria, or China take four to eight weeks to obtain. Birth certificates from some countries require official requests months in advance. Having these documents staged before an invitation arrives is the only way to realistically navigate the 60-day submission window without a crisis.

Similarly, understanding your income history across three tax years — and identifying any family size complications from previous undertakings or mid-year life changes — is work that takes time and is far better done before the clock is running.

The Canada Parent/Grandparent Sponsorship Guide includes a pre-lottery readiness protocol that walks through exactly what to gather before the invitation arrives, so that the 60-day window is used for assembly rather than discovery.

The Bottom Line

The ITS form is your ticket to the PGP lottery. If you submitted one in 2020, you're still in the draw — stay reachable and prepare your documents. If you didn't, the PGP isn't currently available to you, but a new intake window will eventually open. Either way, the time between now and when you actually apply is best spent getting ready to move fast when the invitation arrives.

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