According to the new IRCC (Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada data), Canada’s immigration backlog remains at 2.6 million people. As well, IRCC published updated data on its website on 14th October, which is now as of 30th September.
The inventory across all the business lines has progressed as below since July 2021:
Date | Number of persons |
September 30, 2022 | 2,600,000 persons (number rounded by IRCC) |
August 31, 2022 | 2,583,827 persons |
July 15-17, 2022 | 2,679,031 persons |
June 1-6, 2022 | 2,387,884 persons |
April 30-May 2, 2022 | 2,130,385 persons |
April 11-12, 2022 | 2,031,589 persons |
March 15 and 17, 2022 | 1,844,424 persons |
February 1, 2022 | 1,815,628 persons |
December 15, 2021 | 1,813,144 persons |
October 27, 2021 | 1,792,404 persons |
July 6, 2021 | 1,447,474 persons |
Current Applications Inventories
The IRCC website breaks the applications down into temporary residence, permanent residence, and citizenship applications. Also, IRCC is reporting that they have managed 1.11 million of these, applications within service standards, or below 50%.
In addition, there are yet 1.49 million applications that are not considered in service standards. Furthermore, a total of 46% of temporary residence applications, 47% of permanent resident, and 69% of citizenship applications were in service standards to break it down more.
Service Standards
The internal benchmark IRCC sets to proceed applications for each business line is a service standard. In other words, it is the goal of IRCC to start processing the given immigration program’s average applications.
Service standards vary from the usual time length it takes IRCC to proceed with applications for all the programs. Before this year, IRCC proclaimed it would offer regular updates on its website with regular processing times to provide candidates with more transparency.
Also, permanent residence applications through Express Entry programs have an average of six months. It is further longer for other economic-class business lines. IRCC states its service standard for spousal, and child family class sponsorship is 1 year.
Furthermore, based on the application type (work or study), the temporary residence applications have service standards that range between 60-120 days. As well, as if it was submitted in Canada or from overseas.
Backlog Reduces For Two Lines Of Business
The total current applications number has not significantly altered from the previous IRCC update in September. Though, the distribution of the backlogged applications has shifted depending on the business lines.
Moreover. there has been a big jump in applications for PR while citizenship and temporary residence applications have both got a reduction. This comes as all-program Express Entry draws restarted on July 6 and IRCC invited 1,500 applicants to apply for PR. Meanwhile then, every draw has seen IRCC invite a progressively increasing number of applicants, up to the newest draw in, in which 4,250 claimants received an ITA.
Apart from that, Canadian citizenship applications carry a 12 months service standard, with an extra four months between the application approval and being scheduled for a citizenship service.
The inventory numbers are as follows:
– As of September 30, the citizenship inventory stands at 352,000 applicants, when compared to 371,620 on August 31.
– As of September 30, the permanent residence inventory stands at 614,600 people, compared to 513,923 as of August 31.
– Also, the temporary residence inventory stood at 1,644,100 people on September 30, compared to 1,698,284 people as of August 31.
So, there have been decreases in two of the three main immigration classes, with permanent residence applications up by some 100,677 individuals.
When Will The Backlogs Decrease?
IRCC’s webpage also contains estimates on what the backlog is anticipated to look like over the following numerous months. For instance, the webpage plans that federal high-skilled applications for permanent residence, along with applications through the Provincial Nominee Program will have a 20% backlog only by December 2022. Family, spouses, and children (excluding Quebec) applications for PR will have a 19% backlog. Apart from that, by December 2022, citizenship applications are anticipated to have a 25% backlog.
Depending on the visa type and carry projections into March 2023Temporary Residence permits all have diverse projections
– Temporary Resident (visitor) visas will have a backlog of 58%;
– Study permits will have a backlog of 23% and;
– Work permits have a predictable backlog of 30% by March 2023. Also, IRCC expects the backlog will rise to as high as 60% in December 2022 before reducing again.
IRCC’s Steps To Progress
IRCC has recognized the backlog and declares it is taking steps to improve the speed of the processed applications. Moreover, on September 23rd, IRCC started the evolution towards 100% digital applications for maximum permanent resident programs, with accommodations made for those who are not able to apply online. This changeover also includes citizenship applications, which are now 100% online for all candidates more than the age of 18. In addition, by the end of this year, IRCC is targeting to make all citizenship applications digital, including those for minors under 18.
By the end of autumn, the department is also employing 1,250 new staff to increase processing capacity and says it is updating and restructuring the system.
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