Parents Sponsorship - math on the lottery and an open letter

[Cross99]

Once you start introducing "weight" towards past missed sponsors, as the years pass, the system will favour one group of people over others, to the point that first time applicants will have no chance of getting selected. They will have to wait years of submitting so they get seniority to get selected. That defeats the purpose of the lottery and principle of equal fairness and chance.

The 'weighting' can be in the form of additional entries to the draw, capped to max 5 maybe, one additional entry for each valid sponsorship attempt or something like that. If they don't introduce these measure I think we'll see a lot of 'unlucky' people who've been waiting years on. This 'weighting' option introduces a certain 'fairness' imo to those who haven't been selected.

 

[Rob_TO]

Once you start introducing "weight" towards past missed sponsors, as the years pass, the system will favour one group of people over others, to the point that first time applicants will have no chance of getting selected. They will have to wait years of submitting so they get seniority to get selected. That defeats the purpose of the lottery and principle of equal fairness and chance.

Personally, I don't think it should be "equally fair" in any given year.

IMO a sponsor who's income has qualified for many years but has just been unlucky with the lottery, deserves to be selected more than someone who has just qualified. So I like the idea of giving some kind of advantage or seniority to those who have qualified but lost in previous lotteries, but still keeping the chance open to those newly qualified.

 

[screech339]

Once you start giving weight to certain applicants, a precedent would be set. Should those with elderly parents get more weight over those with just recently retired parents? It's a slippery slope. There is an expression: "give someone an inch and they will take a mile."

No system is perfect but the lottery system seems to be the best option. Lottery system has its pros and cons just like any other system. There will always be selfish people who wants to complain about the system, no matter what, since they want to have any advantage. Selfish people don't care about fairness or equality so long as they got what they want. Introduce a change to resolve one set of complaints will bring up another sets of people to complain about something else. You can't satisfy everyone.

 

[iwolf]

Lottery is the most fair system especially when there are more demand than there are spots available.

That defeats the purpose of the lottery and principle of equal fairness and chance.

I strongly believe if a person is eligible for something, there should be no chances involved of getting it. If too many people are eligible vs the available spots - make the selection stricter until you have just enough eligible applicants.
Lottery is a fair selection within an unordered list - e.g. 10 people became simultaneously eligible within a given year, but only 5 need be selected. HOWEVER, it is NOT fair when you consider that some people became eligible one year earlier, others one year later. Those who became eligible earlier should receive rights earlier. Otherwise you will have purely unlucky people who became eligible 20 years ago still waiting, while someone who applied for the first time will go before them.

 

[canuck78]

There was never any guarantee that people would be able to sponsor parents or grandparents. If you spend so much time in processing the lottery and you add tons of rules more labour will go to ranking the applications and less applications will get processed. If you had been selected this year you probably would be happy with the lottery system. Unfortunately some people won't get picked. As long as they make sure only eligible applications get selected this is the only way to make it somewhat fair.

 

[Rob_TO]

I strongly believe if a person is eligible for something, there should be no chances involved of getting it. If too many people are eligible vs the available spots - make the selection stricter until you have just enough eligible applicants.

You couldn't do this by raising income requirement, since that would basically make it a program only for the richest which wouldn't be acceptable.

What I would do as a start is allow only citizens to sponsor their parents.

 

[canuck78]

You couldn't do this by raising income requirement, since that would basically make it a program only for the richest which wouldn't be acceptable.

What I would do as a start is allow only citizens to sponsor their parents.

That is a great suggestion. Not sure if your suggestion will be very popular but you do need proof of 3 years meeting the income requirement so people should be close to citizenship.

 

[Rob_TO]

That is a great suggestion. Not sure if your suggestion will be very popular but you do need proof of 3 years meeting the income requirement so people should be close to citizenship.

Many PRs actually qualify to sponsor parents immediately after becoming a PR, either by already having income here while on a work permit, or by having a spouse that meets the income requirements.

Making citizenship a requirement would cut down on the number of applicants applying, and make sure PRs are really committed to staying in Canada. Other countries already use this rule for their parent sponsorship programs.

 

[canuck78]

Many PRs actually qualify to sponsor parents immediately after becoming a PR, either by already having income here while on a work permit, or by having a spouse that meets the income requirements.

Making citizenship a requirement would cut down on the number of applicants applying, and make sure PRs are really committed to staying in Canada. Other countries already use this rule for their parent sponsorship programs.

You should send in your suggestion to the minister's office. I'm sure they are reviewing the process. Actually hope they have already reviewed it but the system is always evolving. I think it makes sense to have citizenship before sponsoring parents.

 

[iwolf]

What I would do as a start is allow only citizens to sponsor their parents.

Sound idea. +1

You should send in your suggestion to the minister's office.

Did it, sent to the office of Ahmed Hussen. But you can too - the more people write to them, the higher the chance they'll even notice this.