New IRCC Update On Immigration Backlog Reveals 2.2 Million Files Under Processing

Last Updated On 19 November 2025, 10:05 AM EST (Toronto Time)

Canada’s immigration system is once again under scrutiny as new data released on November 18, 2025 reveals that more than 2.2 million citizenship, permanent residence, and temporary visa applications were still under processing as of September 30, 2025.

This massive volume highlights the continued strain on the system, ongoing delays, and the scale at which people are waiting for decisions that can significantly impact their lives, studies, work, and family plans.

The latest figures provide a clear, month-by-month picture of growing backlogs across several immigration categories.

They also illustrate the sharp downturn in new arrivals caused by a series of federal caps, restrictions, and program changes introduced throughout 2024 and 2025.

While the government has framed these actions as measures to reduce national pressure on housing, infrastructure, and services, the data reflects a complex reality.

The inventories continue to be at historic highs, new arrivals are plunging, and millions of files remain unresolved.

This article breaks down all the updated numbers across citizenship, permanent residency, temporary residency, student arrivals, worker arrivals, and the existing population of permit holders in Canada.

Updated Application Inventory At 2.2 Million

Canada’s total immigration and citizenship inventory stood at 2,200,100 applications on September 30.

This is nearly identical to the 2,199,400 files reported on August 31, showing that despite ongoing processing, overall volume remains essentially unchanged—a sign that incoming applications continue to match or exceed output.

Across all categories, 996,700 files were officially backlogged in September — an increase of nearly 95,000 since July.

The breakdown by category:

Category	Total Inventory (Sep 30)	Total Inventory (Aug 31)	Backlogged (Sep 30)	Backlogged (Aug 31)	Within Standards (Sep 30)	Within Standards (Aug 31)
Citizenship	257,800	259,500	53,200	51,200	204,600	208,300
Permanent Residency	913,800	901,800	482,400	470,300	431,400	431,500
Temporary Residency	1,028,500	1,038,100	461,100	437,300	567,400	600,750
Total	2,200,100	2,199,400	996,700	958,850	1,203,400	1,240,550

The growth in backlogs since July is significant:

Total backlog increased by more than 95,000 files
PR backlogs grew by nearly 39,000
TR backlogs grew by more than 51,000
Citizenship backlogs climbed steadily

Even with stable inventory totals, the backlog increases show that more files are falling outside service standards.

Permanent Resident Admissions Projected To Exceed Annual Targets

Between January 1 and September 30, 2025, IRCC made 335,500 permanent residence decisions and welcomed 310,500 new permanent residents.

This pace, averaging 34,500 arrivals per month, puts Canada on track to land approximately 414,000 new permanent residents by year-end—nearly 20,000 above the official 2025 immigration levels target of 395,000.

Month	Total Inventory	Backlogged	Within Standards
July 31	892,400	443,500	448,900
Aug 31	901,800	470,300	431,500
Sep 30	913,800	482,400	431,400

This over-target trend has been consistent throughout the year, driven largely by economic immigration categories and by temporary residents transitioning to permanent status.

So we can even expect slower processing in the last months of 2025 to align with the annual targets.

Yet while these numbers appear high, the backlog data shows that many more applicants are still waiting, illustrating a widening gap between demand and capacity.

Over 154,000 temporary residents became permanent residents from January to September alone, representing nearly half of all new permanent residents during that period.

This continues the federal approach of giving priority to those already living and working in Canada rather than new arrivals from abroad.

Citizenship Approvals Rise But Inventories Remain High

Canada welcomed 128,100 new citizens from April 1 to September 30, 2025. While this amount reflects sustained output, the overall citizenship inventory remains above 250,000 files.

Month	Total Inventory	Backlogged	Within Standards
July 31	254,900	48,800	206,100
Aug 31	259,500	51,200	208,300
Sep 30	257,800	53,200	204,600

The backlog has been creeping upward month by month, reaching 53,200 in September.

Despite steady processing, applicants frequently report long waits for tests, background checks, and oath ceremonies.

The updated figures confirm that citizenship processing volumes remain high and wait times are unlikely to reduce dramatically in the near term.

Temporary Residency: 1,028,500 Files Under Processing

Temporary residency—including study permits, work permits, and visitor applications—continues to represent the largest segment of the immigration system’s workload.

IRCC finalized 451,300 study permit applications (including extensions) and 1,016,500 work permit applications (including extensions) between January and September 2025.

This represents more than 1.46 million finalized decisions.

Month	Total Inventory	Backlogged	Within Standards
July 31	1,079,300	409,400	669,900
Aug 31	1,038,100	437,300	600,750
Sep 30	1,028,500	461,100	567,400

Backlogs in this category increased by more than 51,000 files over two months.

However, processing decisions are not the same as new arrivals.

In fact, the number of newly issued permits translating directly into new arrivals has dramatically declined due to federal restrictions and caps.

From January to September 2025, there were:

53% fewer total student and worker arrivals compared to the same period in 2024
A decline of 308,880 new arrivals in just nine months

This shows the scale of reductions happening despite large volumes of applications being finalized.

Much of the finalized work consists of extensions for people already in Canada, meaning they do not count as new demand on housing or services.

New International Student Arrivals Plummet By 60%

Canada’s crackdown on international student numbers continues to reshape post-secondary enrollment and admissions.

The number of new international students arriving fell 60% between January and September 2025, a reduction of 150,220 students compared to the same nine-month period in 2024.

Yearly new international student arrivals data shows dramatic declines:

Year	Number of New International Student Arrivals
2024	293,160
2025 (Jan-Sep)	100,585

The introduction of a national cap on international student study permits in 2024 and a further 10% reduction announced for 2025 has significantly reduced the number of foreign students allowed into Canada.

Additional policy changes, such as mandatory acceptance-letter verification and higher financial requirements, further contributed to the drop.

Annual cycles remain visible — spikes in August and December when institutions issue their bulk acceptances — but overall levels are sharply reduced compared to previous years.

New Temporary Worker Arrivals Down 48%

The number of new temporary workers entering Canada has also decreased substantially.

From January to September 2025, arrivals fell by 48%, a decline of 158,660 workers compared to the same period in 2024.

Year	TFWP	IMP Workers
2024	93,575	300,060
2025 (Jan-Sep)	47,275	124,530

The monthly new worker arrival numbers show a steady downward trend. In September 2025, just 17,515 new workers arrived in Canada.

This includes both Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) employees and International Mobility Program (IMP) participants.

Compared to the more than 78,000 new worker arrivals in the early months of 2024, current levels indicate a major shift in Canada’s reliance on foreign labour.

Worker arrival trends reflect significant policy tightening:

Low-wage hiring capped at 10% in most sectors
20% cap allowed only for select in-demand sectors
Automatic refusal of low-wage Labour Market Impact Assessments (LMIAs) in regions with 6%+ unemployment
PGWP reforms that sharply limit eligibility for work permits after graduation
Tighter rules for spousal open work permits

Total Students And Temporary Workers Present In Canada

As of September 30, 2025, Canada still had a large temporary population made up of students and workers.

However, this number has begun declining as fewer new arrivals enter the system and more temporary residents transition to permanent status or leave Canada.

Year	People who only hold a study permit	People who only hold a work permit	People who hold both a work and study permit
As of December 2023	674,010	1,231,395	320,850
As of December 2024	598,780	1,461,000	329,905
As of September 2025	473,860	1,494,900	251,300

This mixed group includes students who work on or off campus and temporary residents with overlapping permit types.

The decline suggests fewer students are gaining work authorization and fewer temporary workers are simultaneously enrolled in studies.

Why Total Temporary Resident Numbers Are Still High Despite Declining Arrivals

Even though new arrivals are down sharply, the total number of temporary residents currently living in Canada remains elevated due to:

A large existing inventory of applications filed under older rules
The volume of in-Canada extensions being processed
A still-high number of work permit holders from previous years
Ongoing permanent residency transitions that take months to finalize

More substantial drops in total temporary resident population will only appear when the system clears out older applications.

According to the update, new policies announced in early and mid-2025 will take several more months before their full effects show up in population counts.

Arrival Counts: How Temporary Permit Holders Are Counted

The updated arrival data includes only new permit holders entering Canada for the first time that year.

It does not count:

Asylum claimants
Permit extensions
Seasonal agricultural workers
Short-term TFWP workers whose stay falls entirely within one calendar year

These exclusions ensure that statistics reflect true incoming pressure on housing, services, and infrastructure rather than ongoing renewal of existing temporary residents.

The new September 2025 numbers confirm that Canada’s immigration landscape is in the middle of its most significant realignment in decades.

With over 2.2 million files still under processing, nearly one million of them backlogged, and new arrivals plunging, the data illustrates an immigration system undergoing rapid restructuring.

Temporary resident levels remain high, but steep declines in new international students and new foreign workers indicate the direction Canada is heading:

fewer new arrivals, stricter controls, and a system increasingly focused on transitioning those already in the country rather than admitting large fresh cohorts from abroad.

This latest update provides the clearest snapshot yet of how Canada’s immigration priorities have shifted—and how those shifts are now appearing directly in application inventories, processing times, and arrival numbers.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What does the 2.2 million Canadian immigration inventory include?

The total inventory includes all citizenship, permanent residence, and temporary residence applications that were still under processing as of September 30, 2025. This covers both files within service standards and files that have already fallen into backlog. It represents the entire workload IRCC must process before new applications can be handled more efficiently.

Why did immigration backlogs increase even though IRCC processed many applications?

Backlogs grew because incoming applications continue to match or exceed the number of decisions IRCC finalizes. Even with high processing output, a large share of files fall outside service standards. Policy changes, shifting priorities, and older pending applications contribute to slower movement in clearing the backlog.

Why are new student and worker arrivals to Canada declining so sharply?

New arrivals dropped because of federal caps on international students, higher financial requirements, reduced PGWP eligibility, limits on spousal work permits, and hiring restrictions under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program. These measures directly reduce how many new temporary residents can enter the country each month.

How many temporary residents in Canada became permanent residents this year?

More than 154,000 temporary residents transitioned to permanent residence from January to September 2025. This group accounted for about half of all new permanent residents and reflects the focus on selecting applicants already living, studying, and working in Canada.

When will temporary resident numbers start decreasing even more noticeably?

Temporary resident numbers will begin falling gradually over the next several months and more significantly between 2026 and 2028. This is because large inventories of older applications are still being processed under earlier rules. Real reductions will appear only once those older files clear out and fewer new arrivals enter the system.

Kamal Deep Singh, RCIC

Kamal Deep Singh, RCIC (Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant) licensed by CICC (formerly known as ICCRC) with member number R708618. He brings extensive knowledge of immigration law and new changes to rapidly evolving IRCC.