Canada scraps ‘cruel’ family reunification lottery for parents and grandparents, reinstates ‘first come, first served’ system
Last year when the lottery was introduced, more than 95,000 filled out an online form to be entered in a draw, but just 10,000 potential sponsors were selected
Canada said Monday it is scrapping a family reunification lottery and going back to a first-come, first-serve immigration policy as it looks to double the number of parents and grandparents admitted to the country.
The change back to the old system follows a backlash from frustrated sponsors who described the lottery as “cruel”, “heartless” and a “Vegas-like circus”.
Last year when the lottery was introduced, more than 95,000 filled out an online form to be entered in a draw, but just 10,000 potential sponsors were selected.
Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen said Canada would admit up to 20,500 parents and grandparents under its reunification programme in 2019, and 21,000 in 2020.
The lottery system was a fiasco right from the get go. Reuniting with your loved ones should never be based on the luck of the draw
When the parents and grandparents programme was introduced in 2014, the cap was set at 5000 applications.
The decision to increase these numbers “is a result of continually high demand” for bringing parents and grandparents of Canadians into the country, Hussen said in a statement.
The government, Hussen added, is committed “to helping families live, work and thrive together, in Canada.”
In the statement, Immigration and Refugees Canada said that would-be sponsors could still fill out an “Interest to Sponsor” form online at the beginning of the year.