Sean Fraser at UPS Canada on December 16

Today, IRCC Minister Sean Fraser marks a record-breaking year for processing immigration applications. He emphasized the work accomplished in 2022 in reducing IRCC backlogs.

IRCC has processed roughly 4.8 million applications as of the end of November. This is nearly double the 2.5 million processed over the same time period the previous year.

Furthermore, IRCC has decreased its entire inventory by roughly half a million applications since August 2022.

As per the minister, the department continues on pace to reach its objective to process 80% of new applications within service standards for most programs.

Canada Immigration Backlog Reduces To 1.09 Million – New IRCC Data

Study Permit Processing

IRCC processed almost 670,000 study permits as of November 30. This figure was around 500,000 over the same time period in 2021. Following this, Minister claims that most new study permits are now being handled within the 60-day service standard.

However, there have been multiple study permit applicants reporting that they are still experiencing high wait times in processing. Moreover, IRCC real-time processing tool also lists the study permit processing time of 9 weeks.

Work Permit Processing

As per IRCC’s press release today, work permit processing also improved significantly. About 700,000 work permits were processed as of November 30. This is exponential number as compared to around 223,000 during the same time in 2019.

Canada recently announced extending work permits to temporary foreign workers’ spouses and dependents of all skill levels. Previously, only the workers in high skill levels were able to bring their spouses on open work permit.

IRCC Announces New Temporary Work Permit Policy For 2 Years

Visitor Visa Processing

Canada is already processing more visitor visa applications per month than it was before the pandemic. Over 260,000 visitor permits were issued in November alone. By comparison, the monthly average in 2019 was roughly around 180,000 applications.

However, applicants and immigration pundits have been raising the concern of high refusal rate for visitor visas with just templated rejection letters.

Permanent Residency Processing

Canada is all set to welcome record, more than 431,000 new permanent residents in 2022. This will be the consecutive year where immigration is at record high.

In 2021, Canada welcomed recored 405,000 new permanent residents.

IRCC claims that all new spousal sponsorship applications are now being processed within service standards of 12 months. Similarly, new Express Entry applications are also being processed within 6 months.

IRCC has reduced the backlog of applications for permanent resident card renewals by 99%.

Here Are IRCC Service Standards For Processing Various Applications

Citizenship

Approximately 251,000 new citizens were welcomed between April – November 2022. This number is already past the total number of new Canadian citizens in 2021. In 2022-2023, IRCC anticipates a record number of new Canadian citizens.

Additionally, more than 70% of citizenship applications are now being processed within service standards.