Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada reports nearly a half-million applications have been processed since August of this year. This is rough twice the number of applications processed in the same period in 2021 when the department processed 2.5 million applications.
This is a good sign that IRCC will admit 431,000 permanent residents to Canada by 2022.
The temporary residency category has the highest number of applications. In 2022, IRCC processed close to 700,000. Work permits and 670,000 study permits. Between April and November, Canada welcomed 251,000 citizens.
“Our government has reduced its pandemic backlogs to nearly half a million while processing record-breaking immigration applications this fiscal year,” said Immigration Minister Sean Fraser. “Our actions ensure we can continue to support and welcome newcomers to Canada who wants to study, work, visit, or settle here.” We are proud of Canada’s reputation for being a welcoming country because of the hard work and dedication of our immigration officials.
The backlog continues to fall.
IRCC held 2.2 million applications in its inventory as of December 2. IRCC data shows that over half of all applications are backlogs, meaning they need to be processed according to service standards. This latest data is a significant improvement over the November 3 data, which showed that there were 2.4 million applications in stock. It is also significantly lower than the 2.6 million in September.
IRCC claims that all new spousal sponsor applications have been processed within the pre-pandemic standard of 12 months and new express entry applications within six months. IRCC also has reduced its pandemic backlog for permanent residence card renewals to 99%.
IRCC’s efforts in modernizing and streamlining
IRCC has had to deal with a massive backlog of applications throughout the year due to travel restrictions and office closings due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
IRCC responded by making changes to address operational inefficiencies, such as digitizing applications. Citizenship applications can now be submitted digitally for all over 18 years old. Of 318,000 applications, 28% are still in the backlog.
In August, the department also announced that 1,250 additional staff would be hired by the end of the year to streamline application processing.
Service standards
If an application is in backlog, it has yet to be processed according to service standards. These standards indicate the timeframe or goal for processing an application. The actual application processing time by IRCC depends on the service standard.
IRCC aims to process 80% of all applications within the service standards. The type of application will determine the service standard. A permanent residence application through the Express Entry program will measure six months. For other economic classes of business, it is longer. The IRCC stated that the service standard for spousal or child family sponsorship is 12 months.
Service standards for temporary residence applications vary from 60 to 120 days, depending on whether it is a work or study application and whether it was submitted in Canada or abroad. According to IRCC, they are currently processing all new study permits within the service standards.
Canada will welcome the most significant number of immigrants.
The Immigration Levels Plan 2023-2025 is designed to allow Canada to admit more than 500,000 permanent residents annually until 2025.
This high target is due to the urgent need for labor force replacement. The country is expecting that nine million Canadians will retire by 2030. There need to be more Canadians born in Canada to fill these job vacancies.
The IRCC has taken several steps to increase immigration to Canada over the past year. IRCC, for example, has granted work permits to spouses, working-age dependents, and temporary foreign workers. Also listed is the 20-hour-per-week work limit for international students.
The Atlantic Immigration Program (AIP) was made permanent earlier in the year. There were also expansions to the Rural, Northern, and Immigration Pilots. The Economic Mobility Pilot Program received additional funding to help 2,000 skilled refugees.
Sector-specific initiatives were also introduced. These include the Removal of Barriers for Physicians currently in Canada on temporary visas. The Foreign Credential Recognition Program focuses on supporting the labor market integration of skilled newcomers to the health sector.
