This was the first year of the new process of randomized selection intake. In that process in 2017, sponsors were required to indicate their interest to sponsor by completing an interest-to-sponsor form that was made available for 30 days. At the end of this period, the department had received over 100,000 submissions. As per the ministerial instructions, after removing the duplicates, 10,000 persons were randomly selected and invited to sponsor their grandparents and parents. From that initial round of 10,000, over 6,000 applications have been received. Since the department didn't receive the full 10,000 from that first round, additional potential sponsors were invited to apply, and they will have until December 8 for IRCC to receive a complete application.
Given that this was the first year of the randomized selection intake process, we will of course be looking at this year's experience in order to help us plan for next year.