IRCC’s new data revealed that Canada’s immigration backlog has currently reduced to 2.4 million people. The data is valid as of November 3.
Beginning July 2021, the inventory in all business lines is as follows:
- November 3, 2022, with 2,411,388 individuals
- September 30, 2022, at 2,60,000 (Rounded figure)
- August 31, 2022, at 2,583,827 individuals
- July 15-17, 2022, at 2,679,031 individuals
- June 1-6, 2022, at 2,387,884 individuals
- April 30-May 2, 2022, at 2,130,385 individuals
- April 11-12, 2022, at 2,031,589 people
- March 15 and 17, 2022, at 1,844,424 people
- February 1, 2022, at 1,815,628 people
- December 15, 2021, at 1,813,144 people
- October 27, 2021, 1,792,404 people
- July 6, 2021, at 1,447,474 people
Inventories at present
The citizenship inventory on October 31 comprises 331,401 applicants compared to 351,964 applicants as of October 3. The permanent resident inventory stands at 506,421 individuals as of November 3 compared to the October 3 PR inventory of 505,562 people. Additionally, the temporary residence inventory on November 3 stands at 1,537,666 individuals compared to the October 3 inventory at 1,651,649 individuals.
The temporary residence inventory experienced a massive reduction.
Canada’s immigration backlog- Express and PNP inventories
According to the data (November 3), there are approximately 39,589 pending Express Entry applications. IRCC paused the Express Entry invitation rounds for all-program draws on July 6. Between September 2021 and July 2022, only Provincial Nominee Program draws were held.
Currently, IRCC is finding it challenging to meet the Express Entry service standard, within six months. Draws for the Canadian Experience Class and the Federal Skilled Worker Program were discontinued for a temporary period, and this helped IRCC to reduce the inventory.
The total number of 62,073 applications includes both Base PNP and Enhanced PNP.
Inventory for family class
Family class inventory as of October 3 was 125,488, and currently, it is 128,112. Additionally, the Spouses and Partners Program comprises the biggest inventories across all business lines with 61,118 applicants, only a slight increase since October 3.
Around 55,653 inventories fall under the Parents and Grandparents Program compared to October when around 53,530 applications remained pending.
IRCC service standards
IRCCs webpage provides an application tracker and also tracks the application inventory for all business lines. As of September 30, 1.1 million applications adhered to service standards, while 1.5 million remained backlogged. Last month witnessed IRCC’s attempts to reduce the Canadian immigration backlog. The department’s main aim is to process at least 80 percent of applications within service standards. However, it depends upon the immigration programs.
The service standard is more likely a bit different from the actual time taken by the department to process applications. Therefore, these applications, which take longer than the decided processing timeframe, fall under the category of application backlog.
Express Entry applications have a service standard of six months; for spousal and family class sponsorship, it is 12 months.
Also, temporary residence applications have a service standard of 60 to 120 days based on work or study application. The processing will also depend on the location from which the person applied, within Canada or abroad.
IRCC’s current progress on Canada’s immigration backlog
IRCC has taken into consideration the existing application backlog and aims to speed up the processing times to reduce the backlog. The department is working toward reducing the backlog by at least 50 percent by the end of March 2023. The foremost step taken by IRCC to do the same is transforming the application process for PR applications to a completely digital one. Besides this, it will make adjustments for those failing to apply online.
Moreover, citizenship applications will be 100 percent online for those above the age of 18 years. IRCC aims to transform all citizenship applications (for even minors) into 100 percent digital ones.
IRCC even invested $85 million to recruit additional staff members, around 1,250, to enhance processing capacity. Additionally, it also looks forward to reorganizing the entire system with a more modern and technical approach.
