Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada(IRCC) has launched the departmental plan 2025-26. The plan covers the numbers and policies of IRCC to smoothen the immigration experience.
Let’s talk what are the new points added in this plan and what points and objectives were kept the same from the previous immigration plan.
- Canada will continue its targeted Express Entry draws to prioritize healthcare, trades, education sectors plus French language speakers over other sectors.
- Canada will continue to work with provinces and territories to select skilled workers through PNP and obtain work permits while PNP candidates transition from temporary status to permanent one.
- Canada will continue to prioritize the inland applicants for permanent residency (PR).The target is for at least 40 % PR admissions from temporary residents in Canada.
- Speeding up the processing time for family members living outside of Canada under family sponsorship applications such as outland spouse permanent residency application.
- Canada will continue to work to reduce the temporary residents levels to 5% of Canada population.
- Canada will issue limited number of LMIA work permits under temporary foreign worker program around 80,000-84,000 a major downfall from the high of 184000 work permits in 2023.
- Reducing the annual permanent residents target to no more than 1 % of Canada’s population.
- Canada will continue to expand the online services of Passport renewal.
- Increased funding for new immigrants under settlement services for better integration into Canadian society.
- Canada will continue to hold the cap for international students.
- Canada will increase the admissions of French speaking permanent residents outside of Quebec to 8.5%.
The new points added in this IRCC immigrations targets are:
- Launching of a brand new permanent residency pathway for refugees via making the Economic Mobility Pathway Pilot permanent by the end of 2025.
- Creation of a new type of work permits for agriculture and fishing sector workers under new foreign labor stream.
- Canada will establish a system to update the list of Post Graduation Work Permit eligible courses.
- Canada will change the Spousal Open Work Permit Requirements for spouses of foreign workers and international students in Canada.
- Canada will implement a new Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Indonesia and Ecuador.
- Canada will roll out new IRCC account for it’s clients.
- It will try to find new PR pathway for refugee students.
- Building the organization of Welcoming Francophone Communities (WFC).
Currently IRCC is facing massive delays in processing of study permit and work permit applications inside Canada. To speed up the processing of IRCC applications they are working on to process 80% of the each application type within it’s service standards with the aim of 90% customer satisfaction rate.
To create the positive image of immigrants in Canada IRCC has implemented reduction in PR and TR numbers and plans to immigration approval rating at least 65% at the end of year.
There is some good news for international graduates in Canada that Canada has mandated that provinces issue 75% of their PNP nominations to candidates already in Canada.