Every year, far more Canadians want to sponsor their parents and grandparents for permanent residence than the program can accept. The Parents and Grandparents Program (PGP) operates through limited intake – in recent years, an invitation-based system drawing from a pool of interested sponsors – and many families wait year after year without ever receiving an invitation to apply.
If that is your situation, there is another way to bring your parents to Canada for the long term: the super visa.
It is not permanent residence, but for many families it delivers most of what they actually want – years of time together in Canada – without the lottery.
What is the super visa?
The super visa is a special visitor visa for the parents and grandparents of Canadian citizens and permanent residents. It differs from an ordinary visitor visa in two crucial ways:
- Long stays: A super visa holder can remain in Canada for up to five years on a single entry – with the ability to request extensions from within Canada – rather than the six months typical of ordinary visitor status.
- Long validity: The visa itself is a multiple-entry document valid for up to ten years, so parents can come and go throughout that period without reapplying.
For a family whose goal is simply for grandparents to live near their children and grandchildren, that combination can function, practically speaking, as a long-term solution – available year-round, with no invitation required and typically much faster processing than the PGP.
What does it take to qualify?
The application is assessed like a visitor application, but with additional requirements specific to the program:
- Proof of relationship to the Canadian citizen or permanent resident child or grandchild.
- A letter of invitation and financial commitment from the child or grandchild in Canada, promising support for the visit.
- The host’s income must meet a minimum threshold, set by reference to the low-income cut-off for their family size, proven with tax and employment documents. Notably, this is generally assessed against a shorter and simpler standard than the multi-year income history required to sponsor under the PGP – which is why some families who cannot yet sponsor can qualify for a super visa.
- Medical insurance covering the applicant for at least a year, from an approved insurer, with a minimum level of coverage – proof must accompany the application.
- An immigration medical examination, and the usual admissibility screening.
Officers also assess the application as they would any temporary residence application: the applicant’s ties abroad, circumstances, and history all matter, and super visa applications can be refused on the same grounds as visitor visas.
If that happens, our post on visitor visa refusals explains the options.
Super visa or sponsorship – or both?
The two paths serve different goals, and the right choice depends on what your family needs:
Choose sponsorship (PGP) if the goal is permanence: permanent residence brings provincial health coverage, the right to work, and an eventual path to citizenship. But it depends on receiving an invitation, demands a multi-year income history from the sponsor, and involves a long processing timeline.
Our post on sponsoring your parents and grandparents covers it in detail.
Choose the super visa if the goal is time together soon: it is available on demand, faster, and renewable – but the parent remains a visitor, without work rights or public health coverage, which is why the insurance requirement exists and must be maintained.
Many families do both. The super visa brings parents to Canada now, while the family continues to pursue PGP invitations in parallel. Holding a super visa does not prevent a later sponsorship – though applicants must always be truthful about their intentions, and families navigating both streams should keep their applications consistent.
Getting the application right
Most super visa refusals trace to preventable problems: income documentation that does not clearly meet the threshold, insurance that does not satisfy the requirements, or an application that fails to address the applicant’s ties and circumstances.
Because a refusal goes on record and complicates every future application, it is worth building the file properly the first time.
Kabir & Alam Lawyers assists families with super visa applications, PGP sponsorships, and the strategy of combining them.
Book a consultation to map the fastest reliable route for your parents – and see our Family Reunification service page for more.