CIMM – Inventories and Processing Times – March 3, 2022
[Redacted] appears where sensitive information has been removed in accordance with the principles of the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act.
Key Messages
- Immigration is the engine of the Canadian economy, helping to address labour shortages and keep our communities thriving. Newcomers have played an essential role in addressing some of our most severe labour shortages throughout the pandemic, including on the front lines.
- However, there remain challenges, including processing delays that have led to frustrations for those who were most impacted by travel restrictions that were in place due to the pandemic.
- While Canada welcomed the highest number of permanent residents in a single year in 2021 by finalizing a record number of applications, border restrictions and other pandemic-related factors have led to delays for many applicants, and long waits for application updates. We know these need to be addressed.
- In 2021, Canada made history by welcoming over 405,000 new permanent residents.
- The Department achieved this objective by making over half a million permanent residence final decisions, while focusing on those who were inside Canada and those who applied to reunite with family members in Canada.
- Consequently, many inland permanent resident applicants experienced shorter processing times during the pandemic while some overseas applicants experienced longer processing times due to pandemic related service disruptions, travel restrictions, and evolving local conditions.
- The Department has modernized its processes to increase digitization of files, and offer digital intake for many lines of business which allow for greater remote processing of immigration and citizenship applications despite office closures.
Supplementary Messages
Permanent residents
- In 2021, IRCC adapted to the challenges brought on by the pandemic, while maintaining strong program integrity, by implementing new processes to receive and process permanent residence (PR) applications across our integrated networks (i.e. digital intake, digitalization and scanning of applications), and by targeting and processing clients residing in Canada or exempt from travel restrictions.
- As part of the departmental strategy to streamline application processing, certain measures (such as a temporary public policy) were introduced in 2021 to exempt some low-risk in-Canada applicants from having to complete additional immigration medical exams for permanent residence (or permanent resident visa). This measure has been extended until March 31, 2022.
- In addition to processing efficiencies, this measure will continue to mitigate unnecessary burden on clients who would have otherwise been expected to acquire new medical examinations.
- The Department continues to adjust operational plans to adapt to current realities, which are fluid and evolving quickly.
- As of January 31, 2022, there are approximately 517,400 persons in the PR processing inventory, and 171,000 in the prospective inventory.
Family Class immigration
- Family reunification remains a departmental priority, and the Department finalized over 111,000 applications under the Family Class category in 2021. The overall approval rate was 94%.
- As of the end of January 2022, the processing time was 20 months for overseas spousal applications and 17 months for domestic applications. Processing times for new spousal applications (outside Quebec) in 2022 are expected to be in line with the departmental commitment to process these applications within 12 months.
- As of the end of January 2022, the processing time was 31 months for parents and grandparents applications, with over 35,800 applications (in persons) in the processing inventory.
If Pressed:
- [Redacted]
Economic Class immigration
- In 2021, 62% of PR admissions consisted of clients under the Economic Class. The approval rate for the Economic Class was 95% in 2021.
- In January 2022, there were over 7,000 admissions under the Temporary Resident to Permanent Resident Pathway. This was a temporary public policy-based initiative that accepted applications from May 6 to November 5, 2021; new application intake is now closed.
- As of the end of January 2022, processing times for this category were at seven months, with an approval rate of 100%.
- As of the end of January 2022, processing times for Provincial and Territorial Nominee Express Entry were around 21 months, while paper applications are being processed within 25 months.
- As of the end of January 2022, the processing times for Quebec Skilled Workers (QSW) were at 28 months. The size of the inventory and processing times in this category are also dependent on MIFI’s issuance of the Certificat de sélection du Québec, which have historically resulted in more applications received than available levels space.
- As of the end of January 2022, processing times for Federal Skilled Worker Program applications were 27 months, due to the effects of public health restrictions. Further, the fact that most of these clients reside abroad and many have been unable to travel for the majority of 2020 and 2021. In 2022, the Department plans to significantly increase output in this line of business to prevent application inventory from growing and ensuring new clients can be finalized within the six-month service standard.
- As of the end of January 2022, the processing times for Canadian Experience Class applicants were seven months.
- In January 2022, over 850 caregiver applicants and their dependents had been processed. Caregiver processing times are dependent on the application stream. These new pilots have different streams, the most popular one offers a temporary resident (TR) component in the form of work experience needed before PR application can be fully processed. Since most of the clients who applied under the caregiver streams are currently completing the TR requirement, processing times for the majority of clients in these streams are not available at this time.
Protected persons, refugees and other
- In the Refugee Class, overall approval rates were 91% in 2021.
- The Government of Canada is committed to resettling 40,000 refugees and vulnerable Afghans to Canada, resettling over 6,000 Afghans in 2021.
- To maximize admissions to Canada with the border closed for much of 2021, production targets for protected persons in Canada almost doubled in 2021. Processing times for protected persons in Canada were 22 months in January 2022, down from 24 in January 2021.
- In January 2022, there were about 475 admissions for healthcare workers (Guardian Angels). This was a temporary program implemented in 2021, and these applications have been finalized quickly, with the majority of the remaining inventory expected to be finalized in 2022.
Study permits and study permit extensions
- In January 2022, IRCC over 36,500 study permit applications and about 11,600 study permit (SP) extension applications; this represents 135% increase and a 12% decrease respectively when compared to the same period in 2019. The processing time at the end of January 2022 for both (SP) and Study Permit Extensions (SP-EXT) was 85 days and 62 days, respectively.
Work Permits and Work Permit Extensions
- In January, 2022, IRCC received about 25,000 work permit (WP) applications and 38,000 work permit extension (WP-EXT) applications; this represents 18% decrease and a 42% increase respectively when compared to the same period in 2019 (pre-COVID).
- Processing times at the end of January 2022 were just above the service standard of 60 days at 86 days for initial WPs.
- As it relates to WP and WP-EXT, departmental processing efforts have been focused on ensuring that critical occupations are able to enter Canada (e.g. agriculture, healthcare, other key occupations,) as well as ensuring those within Canada can continue to work. The labour market impact assessment (LMIA) issue impacts processing times because these applications cannot be finalized.
Temporary resident visas
- On September 7, 2021, travel restrictions were lifted for fully vaccinated travellers coming to Canada for discretionary purposes; [Redacted]. For the post-September 7 applications, processing times were about 49 calendar days, as of January 2022.
Citizenship grants
- The citizenship grant inventory has grown over the pandemic, due to a traditionally paper-based process. As of the end of January 2022, it stood at around 459,700 applications, with a 26‑month processing time.
- The Department has modernized its program delivery, offering a digital intake for grants and proofs, and doing online tests and virtual ceremonies. We are currently processing a volume of new citizens comparable to pre-pandemic levels.
Citizenship proofs
- As of the end of January 2022, the citizenship proof inventory is at over 67,100 applications and current processing times were at 17 months.
- As part of its overall COVID-19 line of business prioritization, the Department focused on urgent citizenship proofs applications. We have now resumed full processing of non-urgent proofs.
- In November 2021, the Department announced a digital intake for citizenship proofs, starting with clients with a straightforward claim to citizenship by descent as described under the Citizenship Act.
Economic and fiscal update 2021
- In response to the pressures caused by the global pandemic on processing operations and to support post-pandemic economic recovery, the government proposes to provide $85M in 2022-2023 to the Department and its partners. The funding is geared towards addressing current application inventories for various lines of business including students, workers, visitors, permanent residence cards and citizenship applications.
- The Department has initiated the planning of several initiatives to fulfill the commitments under the Fall Economic Statement, and is committed to provide relevant and ongoing information on the progression and outcomes of these initiatives.
- Funding is expected to be sought via the 2022-2023 Supplementary Estimates process and it will be used to expand the use of digital intake to other lines of business (e.g. PR card renewals), and extend access to digital application submission to most of our clients. Also, the Department will continue to introduce digital tools for our agents to create processing efficiencies, and to streamline initial processing stages for permanent residence applications.
Processing times
- The Department is striving to provide timely, relevant information to clients on processing times. In the coming months, we will be looking to give our clients more up-to-date information by publishing more accurate processing times.
- Clients can also look at the status of their application in their MyAccount, or recently through the citizenship application status tracker, and the Permanent Residence Family Class status tracker for spousal, partners and dependent children.
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