Last Updated On 12 March 2024, 10:20 AM EDT (Toronto Time)
Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada still has a backlog, although it has overall improved year-on-year since the pandemic.
In 2023, IRCC started releasing monthly data on both applications in the “backlog” and those that fall under “service standards.”
As per the latest official update by the Canadian Immigration Department, there were 930,000 applications in backlog, while 1,258,400 files were processed within service standards.
Although everyone is aware of what a backlog is, it’s crucial to know the IRCC service standard for each type of citizenship, immigration, and visa application.
The standards used by Canada Immigration to handle applications vary depending on the category. This is comparable to the service standards of any organization.
For instance, a pizza restaurant has a policy requiring delivery of pizza within thirty minutes of an order being placed.
It is their service standard that they aim to meet for the majority of clients, even though they might not be able to do so for all of them.
In a similar vein, the IRCC processes various application types using distinct service standards.
An application is referred to as entering a backlog if it does not meet that service standard.
Since all applications are processed in accordance with the service standard, those that remain within it are not categorized as backlogs.
IRCC aims to process 80% of applications within service standards when it comes to application processing.
The IRCC, however, was unable to accomplish this due to the pandemic in 2020. Thus, the number of backlogs increased dramatically.
The IRCC service requirements for the main application categories and IRCC performance in 2022–2023 are listed below.
Category-Wise IRCC Service Standards
The below tables list IRCC service standards and departmental performance for the fiscal year 2022-2023.
Click here to read the report for 2021–2022.
Applications for Citizenship, Family Sponsorship, & PR cards
| Application Type | IRCC Service Standard (Target is to process 80% of the applications in this time) | IRCC Performance In 2022-2023 (Percentage of applications processed within service standards) | IRCC Performance In 2021-2022 (Percentage of applications processed within service standards) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Citizenship grant applications: adults and minors | Process within 12 months | 36% | 9% |
| Right to citizenship | Invite applicants to citizenship ceremony within 4 months of approving their application | 97% | 83% |
| Family Class Priority (Overseas: spouses, common-law partners, conjugal partners and dependent children) | Process within 12 months | 66% | 53% |
| Initial permanent resident card | Issue an initial permanent resident card within 60 days (from the time the confirmation of permanent residence form is completed at a port of entry or at an IRCC-inland office) | 73% | 61% |
Economic Immigration
| Application Type | IRCC Service Standard (Target is to process 80% of the applications in this time) | IRCC Performance In 2022-2023 (Percentage of applications processed within service standards) | IRCC Performance In 2021-2022 (Percentage of applications processed within service standards) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Express Entry Canadian Experience Class (CEC) | Process within 180 days | 85% | 71% |
| Express Entry Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP) | Process within 180 days | 80% | 0% |
| Provincial Nominee Program (Paper Applications) | Process within 11 months (this doesn’t include the time it takes the province or territory to process) | 23% | 19% |
| Provincial Nominee Program (via Express Entry) | Process within 180 days | 70% | 20% |
| Quebec-selected Skilled Workers Program | Process applications within 11 months (this doesn’t include the time it takes the province to process) | 48% | 5% |
| Express Entry Federal Skilled Trades Program | Process within 180 days | No applications were received within this past fiscal year | 0% |
Temporary residence applications
| Application Type | IRCC Service Standard (Target is to process 80% of the applications in this time) | IRCC Performance In 2021-2022 (Percentage of applications processed within service standards) | IRCC Performance In 2021-2022 (Percentage of applications processed within service standards) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Work Permit excluding application for Ukrainians | Process within 60 days | 61% | 71% |
| Work Permit extensions inside Canada | Process within 120 days | 30% | 75% |
| Work permit applications under International Experience Canada | Process within 56 days or less (target is to process 100% of applications within service standards) | 100% | 78% |
| Issuance of opinion to employers on exemption from a Labour Market Impact Assessment or work permit | issue opinions to employers within 14 days | 93% | 85% |
| Study permit (outside Canada) | Process within 60 days | 59% | 64% |
| Study permit (new permit and extension) inside Canada | Process within 120 days | 84% | 94% |
| Visitor visa and electronic travel authorization (eTA) | Process within 14 days | 23% | 36% |
| Parents and grandparents: Super Visa | Process within 112 days. | 67% | 72% |
| Electronic Travel Authorizations (eTA) | Automated approvals within 5 minutes for most applicants | 89% | 99% |
IRCC Client Support Centre
| Type | IRCC Service Standard (Target is to process 80% of the applications in this time) | IRCC Performance In 2022-2023 (Percentage of applications processed within service standards) | IRCC Performance In 2021-2022 (Percentage of applications processed within service standards) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Email enquiries | Web form inquiries (emails) are to be acknowledged within 1 business day and responded to within 3 business days. | answered 14% of web form enquiries within 3 business days | answered 30% of web form enquiries within 3 business days |
| Telephone enquiries | 50% of calls seeking an agent reach the wait line, and customers should wait no more than 30 minutes once in the queue. | 15% of calls requesting an agent reached the wait queue and 61% of these waited for 30 minutes or less | 26% of calls requesting an agent reached the wait queue and 45% of these waited for 30 minutes or less |
What is the most recent Canadian immigration backlog update?
As per the most recent official Canadian immigration backlog update, there were 930,000 citizenship, immigration, and temporary visa applications being processed outside the service standards.
A total of 2.3 million applications were under processing. Click here for a full category-wise breakdown.
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