OLLO – Inventories and Processing Times – May 16, 2022
Key Messages
In 2021, Canada welcomed the highest number of permanent residents in recent history and, to achieve this, IRCC staff finalized a record number of applications (over 500,000 final decisions). Nevertheless, border restrictions and other pandemic-related factors have led to increased processing times for many applicants, including long waits for application updates. We know these need to be addressed.
To respond to the pressures resulting from the global pandemic and to support Canada’s post-pandemic economic recovery, the Government has committed to provide $85M in 2022-2023 to IRCC and partners to address current application backlogs for various lines of business including students, workers, visitors, permanent residence cards and citizenship applications. The Department has already started putting these plans into motion.
Pandemic-related border closures and travel restrictions resulted in the Department prioritizing in-Canada applications for much of 2020-2021. This negatively impacted Francophone admissions, most of which come from abroad. Francophone candidates have therefore accumulated in our inventories, and leveraging them will be key to meeting the 4.4% Francophone admissions target by 2023.
Supplementary Messages
Permanent residents
In 2021, Canada welcomed over 405,000 new permanent residents, a record in the last century. IRCC achieved this objective by completing over half a million permanent residence final decisions, while focusing mostly on those who were already residing Canada, those who applied to reunite with family members in Canada and others facing humanitarian crises and seeking refuge in Canada.
As a result, 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, and border and travel restrictions.
The IRCC’s solid departmental plan for Levels 2022 aims at tackling the older overseas cases to provide relief to clients that have been waiting as well as meeting key objectives for the department, namely:
For 2022, as a result of the Department’s processing efforts, Quebec levels are expected to be achieved.
Progress towards the 4.4% Francophone outside of Quebec is expected to be made.
Family Class immigration
The Department has introduced several measures to support and accelerate the processing of family class applications including file digitization, remote processing, conducting remote interviews, the use of advanced analytics, the introduction of an online application portal for clients and representatives and assigning an increased number of decision makers to family class applications.
As of the end of March 2022, the processing time was 20 months for overseas spousal applications and 17 months for domestic spousal applications. Despite these delays, the increased processing capacity to spousal processing means that 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.
Economic Class immigration
In 2022, the Department plans to reduce the application inventory and improve client wait times by significantly increasing application processing capacity in this line of business while limiting and aligning intake under different economic programs.
The Department is actively monitoring inventory volumes and processing times for Express Entry programs, and is calibrating the invitation to apply strategy accordingly, in order to ensure that new applications can be processed within service standards.
For economic francophone applicants destined outside of Quebec, the processing times for Economic Class lines are very similar to non-francophone applicants.
Study permits and study permit extensions:
The processing time at the end of March 2022 for both study permits and study permit extensions was 94 days and 86 days, respectively. Study permits are above the service standard of 60 days, while extensions are within the service standard of 120 days. The Department is aiming to return to service standards for study permits by the end of the year.
The inventory of study permits and study permit extensions were at 120,000 and 34,000 respectively. The inventory of study permits has been decreasing since the beginning of 2022.
Of the 120,000 study permit applications in the inventory as of March 2022, approximately 9% (11,000) are from French-speaking applicants, 70% of which were destined to Quebec.
Work permits and work permit extensions:
Processing times for work permit and work permit extensions applications at the end of March 2022 were above the service standard of 60 days at 71 days for initial work permits, and above the service standard of 120 days, at 136 days for work permit extensions.
Inventory of work permits and work permit extensions were at 167,000 and 143,000 respectively.
New funding received through the Economic and Fiscal Update for fiscal year 2022-2023 will assist in eliminating TRV inventory of pre-September 2021 applications (~350,000) in winter 2023, as well as increasing capacity reducing study permit and work permit inventories.
Based on current scenarios, assuming that actual intake remains similar to projected figures, that additional capacity is added swiftly and that Ukraine volumes are manageable, IRCC expects to reach service standards in various programs by the end of this year, including for study permits, and work permits. We are also working to reduce processing times for visitor visas.
Temporary resident visas
For the post-September 7th temporary resident visa applications, processing times were about 54 calendar days, as of March 2022.
Citizenship grants
The citizenship grant inventory has grown over the pandemic, due to a traditionally paper-based process. As of the end of March 2022, it stood at approximately 430,000 applications (including unopened 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 higher volume of new citizens comparable to pre-pandemic levels.
The Department is working towards the goal of returning to processing within a 12-month service standard. As part of the Fall Economic Statement (FES) commitments, the Department aims to eliminate the December 31 inventory of ~60,000 clients at the awaiting citizenship ceremony stage by December 2022.
Citizenship proofs
As of the end of March 2022, the citizenship proof inventory is at around 63,000 applications, and current processing times are at 17 months.
The Department has been taking steps to modernize the proof line of business, launching electronic applications as an alternative to paper.
Processing times
IRCC is moving towards a more integrated, modernized and centralized working environment in order to help speed up application processing globally. We move applications around our global network based on several factors such as capacity (including language), to ensure they are processed as efficiently as possible. Applications from around the world are reviewed consistently and according to the same criteria, regardless of country of origin.
Clients can look at the status of their application in their IRCC Secure Account, through the Citizenship Case Status Tracker that IRCC launched on May 10, 2021, or more recently, through the new Permanent Residence Case Tracker for family class spousal, common law, and dependent clients applications. IRCC plans to launch additional application status tools for other lines of business.
If pressed:
Providing data on processing times by official language presents a few challenges and can provide inconclusive information. The differences can be attributable to the large disparities between the sample size, as well as myriad other factors such as regions with inherent processing challenges, and levels space limitations; this prevents us from drawing general conclusions about processing times solely based on the official language of the applicant.
In regards to the processing times of Francophone clients, it is important to note two critical points:
clients destined to Quebec require approval from both levels of government (provincial and federal); and,
the government of Quebec establishes its own levels targets.
When there is a misalignment between the number of applications accepted (e.g., more) and levels spaces available (e.g., less), processing times likely to increase. Clients destined to other provinces and territories do not face the same challenges, therefore, comparing processing times for Quebec-destined Francophone applicants to those destined elsewhere across Canada is equivalent to comparing apples and oranges.
