Filipiniana News – September 2018 By Maria Deanna P. Santos In the latter part of August 2018, the IRCC Minister Ahmed Hussen announced the elimination of the lottery system for parent/grandparent (PGP) sponsorships by 2019, to be replaced by a first-come, first served system. The annual quota will also be increased to 20,000 effective next year. Thus, in January 2019, the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) will relaunch the online form whereby prospective sponsors can express their interest to sponsor their parents or grandparents and enter some required preliminary information. Instead of randomly choosing sponsors who will be invited to apply via a lottery system, IRCC will issue invitations in the order by which the 'interest to sponsor' forms are received. The sponsors will then be given 60 days within which to submit the complete sponsorship and permanent residence application packages to IRC...