AGRI - IRCC Permanent Resident Lines of Business: Processing Times and Inventories for the Reporting Period of March 2020 - May 22, 2020

[Redacted] appears where sensitive information has been removed in accordance with the principles of the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act.

Prepared by IRCC OPP-DART with data as of April 1, 2020 (note: data is preliminary and subject to change)

Preface

On March 18th 2020, travel restrictions were implemented in Canada as part of a national response to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. This combined with physical distancing measures are having an impact on IRCC’s production to meet the Immigration Levels Plan for 2020 and beyond.

Purpose

This document provides a monthly comparison of processing times and inventories for the current calendar year (2020). Year-end data from 2019 and prior is provided for additional context.

Note: Processing times in this document refers to the number of months in which 80% were finalized by IRCC in the last 12 months ending March 31, 2020.

Federal Skilled Workers

Federal Skilled Workers
Text version: Federal Skilled Workers
  2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Jan 2020 Feb 2020 Mar
Processing Times (in months) 5 6 4 6 9 9 9 9
Inventory (in thousands) 9.0 3.1 13.5 38.6 27.4 24.7 22.0 20.8

Service standard: 6 months

Processing times: remain at 9 months at the end of March. Prior to COVID restrictions, a departmental Action Plan was in place to process older applications to improve processing times. However due to COVID, delays from clients in providing supporting documents and lower than normal production are likely to create setbacks to the progress made.

Inventories: decreased by 6% compared to February. As most Skilled Workers reside overseas and given travel restrictions, no invitation rounds were conducted since early March.

Canadian Experience Class (P)

Canadian Experience Class (P)
Text version: Canadian Experience Class (P)
  2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Jan 2020 Feb 2020 Mar
Processing Times (in months) 3 6 4 5 7 8 8 8
Inventory (in thousands) 4.9 7.8 6.0 18.0 16.0 15.8 15.1 16.2

Service standard: 6 months

Processing times: remain at 8 months in March. Prior to COVID restrictions, a departmental Action Plan was in place to process older applications to improve processing times. However due to COVID, delays from clients in providing supporting documents and lower than normal production are likely to create setbacks to the progress made.

Inventories: increased by 8% compared to February. Express Entry invitations continue as most CEC applicants reside in Canada and are less likely to be affected by current travel restrictions.

Federal Skilled Trades

Federal Skilled Trades
Text version: Federal Skilled Trades
  2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Jan 2020 Feb 2020 Mar
Processing Times (in months) 5 6 6 7 12 12 12 13
Inventory (in thousands) 1.3 1.4 1.0 1.8 1.4 1.2 1.2 1.1

Service standard: 6 months

Processing times: increased to 13 months in March. Prior to COVID restrictions, a departmental Action Plan was in place to process older applications to improve processing times. However due to COVID, delays from clients in providing supporting documents and lower than normal production are likely to create setbacks to the progress made.

Inventories: decreased by 3% compared to February. So far in 2020, there have been no Express Entry invitations for this line of business.

Provincial Nominee Express Entry (P)

Provincial Nominee Express Entry (P)
Text version: Provincial Nominee Express Entry (P)
  2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Jan 2020 Feb 2020 Mar
Processing Times (in months) 4 6 6 6 9 9 8 8
Inventory (in thousands) 4.0 7.5 9.0 10.8 18.1 19.3 19.3 20.8

Service standard: 6 months

Processing times: remain at 8 months in March. Prior to COVID restrictions, a departmental Action Plan was in place to process older applications to improve processing times. However due to COVID, delays from clients in providing supporting documents and lower than normal production are likely to create setbacks to the progress made.

Inventories: increased by 7% compared to February. Inventories may grow as provinces and territories continue to nominate candidates and IRCC processing capacity remains limited by COVID restrictions.

Provincial Nominee Base (paper) (P)

Provincial Nominee Base (paper) (P)
Text version: Provincial Nominee Base (paper) (P)
  2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Jan 2020 Feb 2020 Mar
Processing Times (in months) 16 17 18 19 18 18 18 18
Inventory (in thousands) 41.7 46.2 59.3 55.1 41.5 43.1 45.9 46.7

Service standard: 6 months

Processing times: remain at 8 months in March. Prior to COVID restrictions, a departmental Action Plan was in place to process older applications to improve processing times. However due to COVID, delays from clients in providing supporting documents and lower than normal production are likely to create setbacks to the progress made.

Inventories: increased by 7% compared to February. Inventories may grow as provinces and territories continue to nominate candidates and IRCC processing capacity remains limited by COVID restrictions.

Quebec Skilled Workers

Quebec Skilled Workers
Text version: Quebec Skilled Workers
  2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Jan 2020 Feb 2020 Mar
Processing Times (in months) 17 13 14 19 22 23 23 23
Inventory (in thousands) 16.5 25.0 34.1 36.1 31.3 30.0 28.5 27.6

Service standard: 11 months

Processing times: remain at 23 months in March. The increase in processing times is due to an aging inventory and insufficient admissions space. IRCC aligns resources to process and meet admission targets as set out by the Government of Quebec. Consultations will be forthcoming to discuss prioritization of immigration to Quebec.

Inventories: decreased by 3% compared to February. Inventory numbers are likely higher as recent application intake from 2020 has not been processed.

Caregivers

Caregivers
Text version: Caregivers
  2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Jan 2020 Feb 2020 Mar
Processing Times (in months) 48 47 58 30 23 19 17 17
Inventory (in thousands) 38.2 31.3 19.4 8.2 9.2 9.3 10.0 10.2

Processing times: remain at 17 months in March. About 80% of new Caregiver applications continue to be processed within the 12 month commitment.

Inventories: On June 18, 2019, the Home Child Care Provider (HCCP) pilot and the Home Support Worker (HSW) pilot came into effect for 5 years, replacing the Caring for Children (CG) and High Medical Needs (HMN) pilots. In addition to the pilots, an Interim Pathway Measure opened up for two periods in 2019 to facilitate a PR pathway for caregivers who did not qualify for the pilots introduced in June 2019.

Spouses, Partners and Children (P)

Spouses, Partners and Children (P)
Text version: Spouses, Partners and Children (P)
In Canada
  2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Jan 2020 Feb 2020 Mar
Processing Times (in months) 26 23 22 16 12 12 12 13
Inventory (in thousands) 27.4 37.8 31.0 26.5 24.9 25.5 25.9 25.7
Overseas
  2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Jan 2020 Feb 2020 Mar
Processing Times (in months) 18 16 14 12 13 13 13 13
Inventory (in thousands) 49.9 42.7 35.3 31.6 43.6 44.5 45.0 44.8

Service standard: 12 months (for overseas application)

Processing times: remained at 13 months in March. In addition to COVID restrictions, Quebec’s reduction in family class admissions adversely impacts processing times and service standard adherence. Despite this, IRCC continues to meet the commitment to process 80% of spousal/partners applications received since Dec 7, 2016 within 12 months.

Inventories: remain limited due to Quebec’s reduction in family class and limitations imposed by COVID related measures.

Parents and Grandparents

Parents and Grandparents
Text version: Parents and Grandparents
  2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Jan 2020 Feb 2020 Mar
Processing Times (in months) 74 71 71 37 19 19 19 18
Inventory (in thousands) 50.7 41.5 33.4 33.4 45.3 42.8 40.7 41.3

Processing times: decreased to 18 months in March. Despite lower processing times, there is still excess inventory stemming from more intake received by IRCC than originally planned in 2019. Furthermore, limitations due to COVID are likely to contribute to longer processing times down the road.

Inventories: increased slightly in March compared to February. While there is more than sufficient inventory volumes to support a admissions target of 21,000 in 2020, COVID related restrictions will likely dampen admission achievement than originally planned.

Protected Persons

Protected Persons
Text version: Protected Persons
  2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Jan 2020 Feb 2020 Mar
Processing Times (in months) 35 33 35 28 24 25 25 26
Inventory (in thousands) 30.0 30.5 27.3 38.0 47.4 47.8 48.2 47.5

Processing times: increased slightly to 26 months in March. Processing times will likely worsen in 2020 as inventories are expected to grow due to limited levels space and intake pressures given a ramp up in IRB production to address high volume demand from asylum seekers. Processing issues are expected to worsen due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Inventories: decreased by 1% in March compared to February. Once business resumes, inventories are expected to grow due to limited levels space and intake pressures as IRB increases production to address its inventory of asylum claims.

Government Assisted Refugees & BVOR

Government Assisted Refugees & BVOR
Text version: Government Assisted Refugees & BVOR
  2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Jan 2020 Feb 2020 Mar
Processing Times (in months) 15 15 27 29 15 16 16 16
Inventory (in thousands) 24.6 15.7 9.3 13.7 18.9 17.7 16.4 16.1

Processing times: remain at 16 months in March. 

Inventories: decreased by 2% in March compared to February. [redacted]

Privately Sponsored Refugees

Privately Sponsored Refugees
Text version: Privately Sponsored Refugees
  2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Jan 2020 Feb 2020 Mar
Processing Times (in months) 52 53 34 24 23 23 23 23
Inventory (in thousands) 27.1 32.3 42.9 43.6 36.7 36.9 38.4 38.6

Processing times: remained at 23 months in March. Due to COVID-19 restrictions and reduced operational capacity at offices overseas, there may be additional delays in processing privately sponsored refugee applications which could lengthen processing times in future months.

Inventories: did not significantly change in March compared to February (+1% increase). In addition to COVID-19 considerations, there is risk of not meeting the 2020 [redacted]

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