About 1.84 million immigration applications are waiting to be processed
A Canadian news website recently obtained information from IRCC showing that Canada had a backlog of nearly 1.84 million immigration applications as of mid-March.
According to CIC News, the data represents the number of persons currently waiting to be processed by IRCC. Of course, this includes applications submitted by future Canadian citizens, permanent residents, international students, temporary workers, and visitors. Let’s explore some of the highlights.
Permanent residence
According to data received from the IRCC department on February 1, the country had a backlog of 519,030 permanent residence (PR) applications. This included 158,778 refugee applications. As of March 15, the PR inventory showed some progress. However, this was not the case with temporary residence applications.
| Immigration category | Persons as of Mar. 15 |
| Economic Class | 230,767 |
| Family Class | 103,112 |
| Humanitarian and Compassionate/Public Policy | 27,218 |
| Permit Holders Class | 18 |
| Protected Person | 157,552 |
| Total | 518,667 |
Temporary residence
As of February 1, Canada also had a backlog of 848,598 temporary residence applications. Unfortunately, the new data showed an increase of 23,894 applications.
| Immigration category | Persons as of Mar. 17 |
| Study Permit | 111,192 |
| Study Permit Extension | 30,533 |
| Temporary Resident Visa | 419,243 |
| Visitor Record | 68,528 |
| Work Permit | 100,205 |
| Work Permit Extension | 142,791 |
| Total | 872,492 |
Moreover, at the end of February, the country had a backlog of 453,265 Canadian citizenship applications. This was about 5,000 more citizenship applications when compared to the end of December 2021.
Express Entry inventory
On the other hand, with Express Entry applications, Canada has seen significant progress.
| Immigration category | Persons as of Mar. 15 | Persons as of Feb. 1 |
| Federal Skilled Worker Program (EE) | 41,336 | 49,751 |
| Canadian Experience Class (EE) | 10,388 | 15,139 |
| Provincial/Territorial Nominees (EE) | 36,590 (EE) + 34,621 (No EE) | 68,682 (EE + No EE) |
| Federal Skilled Trades Program (EE) | 589 | 805 |
| Total | 123,524 | 134,337 |
Immigration Minister says he is dealing with backlog
In February of this year, Immigration Minister Sean Fraser said he had his “full attention” set on tackling the backlogs. “It will take resources and will take a little bit of time, but we’re not sitting on our hands,” the Minister told a panel discussion by Canadian Club Toronto.
The same month, the Canadian government revealed its Immigration Levels Plan for 2022-2024. It plans to welcome more than 1.3 million new permanent residents to the country over the next three years. However, immigrants and professionals have raised doubts about the government’s ability to bring more people to Canada while struggling with an unprecedented backlog. You can read more about it in the following articles:
- Immigration Minister says he is dealing with backlog
- Minister of Immigration Talks About the Backlog in the System
In addition, Canada is investing $85 million to reduce backlogs in the immigration system. The government acknowledged the pandemic dramatically slowed down the pace of processing applications, and now it is investing in resources to speed up the process of obtaining citizenship, reuniting families, and welcoming immigrants who can help address Canada’s labour shortages.
“Our government is committed to bringing in 411,000 immigrants in 2022, the highest number in Canadian history. To help support this effort and reduce processing time for permanent and temporary resident and citizenship applications, we are investing $85 million in our immigration system.” The Honourable Chrystia Freeland.
Other measures
In addition to investing $85 million to reduce immigration processing backlogs in fiscal 2022-23, Canada will expand the following functionalities to transform the immigration system into a digital immigration platform:
- IRCC expects to include more clients in summer 2022 for the digital application portal for permanent residence applicants.
- In addition, IRCC has developed a portal to allow permanent residence applicants in Canada to finalize their process and receive their permanent residency cards without any in-person interaction. From June 2021 to December 2021, 225,000 permanent residents have used this portal.
- For citizenship applicants, IRCC has introduced online testing, created an online application tracker, and launched virtual citizenship ceremonies. Canada has sworn in 170,000 new Canadians since April 1, 2020.
- IRCC will also introduce a new Permanent Residence Application Tracker in February 2022 for spouses and dependents to allow clients easy access to their application information and status online.
Furthermore, IRCC is exploring more options for those who wish to self-administer their Oath by signed attestation, and celebrate their citizenship at a later date. This would shorten the waiting time for those at the final stage of their citizenship process.
Related Articles
- Canada to Welcome almost 432,000 Permanent Residents in 2022
- Canadian Immigration Lawyers call on IRCC to share backlog reduction plan
- Major Improvements to the Immigration System 2022
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