October 2025

IRCC has updated processing times for the various immigration applications and refugee claims. For some applications, the new updated processing times raise alarms for lawyers and applicants.

First, here are some highlights regarding the new changes to processing times:

• Introduction of more specific timelines based on the application submission date, where sufficient data is available
• Processing times reflect the time it takes to process 80% of applications from submission to decision and do not include the time required for virtual landings in Canada
• The new processing times pages will display the number of applications in the queue (IRCC processes applications on a first-in basis), and updates will occur monthly
• IRCC currently does not provide country-specific or small-program breakdowns
• IRCC is developing a single tracker for all lines of business, expected to launch in December 2026, which will provide more comprehensive information

For economic immigration programs, processing times changed slightly. The average processing time for Express Entry programs remains 6 months, unchanged from last month. The Provincial Nominee Program also stays relatively unchanged, with the standard being 11 months. Both Quebec’s Skilled Worker Selection Program (PSTQ) and the Atlantic Immigration Program (AIP)’s processing time remains the same as last month; however, IRCC notes that there are currently almost 24,000 PSTQ applications awaiting processing.

Family sponsorship applications have already seen significant increases in processing times over the past year or so. Currently, the ‘spouse or common-law partner living inside Canada’ category’s processing time is 24 months for intending to reside outside Quebec, and 37 months for intending to reside in Quebec. ‘Spouse or common-law partner living outside Canada’ category’s processing time is 15 months for intending to reside outside Quebec and 41 months for intending to reside in Quebec. The Parents and Grandparents Program has a processing time of 26 months for intending to reside outside Quebec and 44 months for intending to reside in Quebec. In contrast, dependent child sponsorship applications from within Canada have decreased by 17 months, from 29 months to the current listed processing time of 12 months.

Processing times for temporary residence applications generally show minor changes in this update, but super visa applications submitted from Pakistan have increased by nearly six weeks. For citizenship applications, the processing time for both the Citizenship grant and the Citizenship certificate applications has increased by 2 months.

The processing time for protected persons and refugees in Canada outside Quebec is currently approximately 99 months, with a total of 137,100 people waiting for a decision. The consequences of waiting for more than 8 years as a refugee claimant are enormous. One of the most heart-wrenching consequences would be the separation of refugee claimants from immediate family members left behind, as they will not be able to join the protected person in Canada until the application is finalized.  

Unsubmitted H&C applications outside Quebec are expected to take more than 10 years to process. As the new update allows personalized processing times based on the submission date, all H&C applications submitted outside Quebec after June 2024 currently show processing times exceeding 10 years.

Time and time again, the courts have referred to H&C applications as the safety valve of the Canadian immigration system. The Supreme Court of Canada has described the curative relief provided by the safety valves as the justification for certain aspects of the immigration system that may otherwise have unconstitutional effects. With the H&C applications now being expected to process for 10+ years, it raises concerns about the only ‘safety valve’ being so inaccessible as to become unavailable.

Another consequence to watch out for is that the upcoming Bill C-12, The Strengthening Canada's Immigration System and Borders Act, includes a provision that permits the government to cancel applications already submitted, raising concerns that this provision could be used to address backlogs, including the cancellation of private sponsorship applications. It remains unclear how the provision will ultimately be used, but some lawyers speculate that the wording “the processing of an application for a visa or other document” refers to applications for people outside Canada, but not those in Canada.

September 2025

IRCC states on their website that you don’t need to hire a representative. You can get all the necessary forms and instructions for an immigration application on the IRCC website. Then, if you follow the instructions, you should be able to fill out the forms and submit them yourself. This is how it should be, but the reality is more complicated, and you should be aware of the pros and cons of self-representation before deciding on whether you would like to have a lawyer’s legal assistance. I have blogged about this issue in the past—Yes, You Really Do Need a Lawyer to Help You and Shocker: Your Canadian Immigration Application is More Likely to be Accepted if Prepared with the Assistance of a Lawyer.

 

Even when the forms are straightforward, they are still only a part of a complex immigration system. Decisions that seem trivial may entail larger immigration consequences in the future. The recent Federal Court case, Kaur v. Canada, is an excellent illustration of this challenge.

 

The applicant submitted the sponsorship application under the Parent and Grandparent Program, but she was found ineligible to sponsor her parents because she did not meet the Minimum Necessary Income (MNI) requirement. On the application form, she had indicated that she wished to withdraw the application rather than receive an adverse decision should she be found ineligible to sponsor her parents. She checked the box that read “Withdraw your sponsorship application. All processing fees minus the sponsorship fee will be refunded”. The other box reads, “Proceed with the application for permanent residence. Processing fees will be retained.”

This seems like a simple decision; given the choice of ‘get your money back’ or ‘don’t get your money back’, getting a refund seems a preferable option.

 

However, the instructions for the form include a note that states, “Check 'Proceed with the application for permanent residence' if you are requesting that an officer review your application for potential humanitarian and compassionate considerations”. A self-representing applicant is unlikely to comprehend the implications of this note. They are also unlikely to realize, based on the instructions, that by checking the box to withdraw their sponsorship application, they are also withdrawing their right to appeal to the Immigration Appeal Division (IAD) of the Immigration and Refugee Board, which has jurisdiction to consider H&C relief.

 

The applicant’s counsel argued that the applicant did not have legal representation when she first applied, and nothing in the guidance published on the IRCC website warns applicants that withdrawal of an application will deprive them of their right to appeal to the IAD.

 

In response, the Federal Court stated that:

[23] … While Ms. Kaur was not required to seek the assistance of a lawyer when completing the sponsorship application, she must accept the consequences of not doing so. […]

[24] The Officer had no obligation to clarify or rectify any deficiencies in Ms. Kaur’s Page: 9 application, to help her to make her case, to apprise her of concerns about whether the requirements set out in the legislation had been met, to provide her with a running score at every step of the application process, or to offer further opportunities to respond to unresolved concerns (Lv v Canada (Citizenship and Immigration), 2018 FC 935 at para 23). Nor could the Officer be expected to provide guidance to Ms. Kaur on whether and how to preserve her appeal rights in the event that she was found ineligible to sponsor her parents.

 

Many self-representing applicants are unaware of the potential consequences of decisions they make within the immigration system. Illustrated by the case above, the instructions provided by IRCC are insufficient in providing guidance on the potential consequences. As such, a seemingly trivial matter could later trigger a much more complicated and costly process to rectify. While a lawyer is not required, applicants must understand the risks of navigating the immigration system without one.  

August 2025

One of the main objectives of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) is family unification. The same section of the act also lists objectives such as “consistent standards and prompt processing” and “establishment of fair and efficient procedures.” However, our recent experience reflects the opposite of these objectives; unrepresented clients are facing significant barriers to preparing a successful application. Additionally, in-Canada applicants and those destined to live in Québec are experiencing considerable processing delays.

As of September 23, 2022, it is mandatory to submit spousal sponsorship applications online, unless accommodations are requested. For unrepresented clients, the online application is submitted through the Permanent Residence Portal, as opposed to the Permanent Residence Portal for Representatives used by lawyers. This portal, like all IRCC portals, has user issues and technical problems. Recently, we had two consultations with unrepresented applicants who faced similar issues with their applications being rejected by IRCC. The applications they submitted were returned as ‘incomplete’, despite their belief that they had completed the forms and submitted the relevant documents. We found that, in addition to other common mistakes, they may have selected the wrong category of application. They had both intended to choose the Family Class, indicating that their spouses lived outside of Canada. Yet, they may have submitted their application under the ‘Spouse or common-law partner in Canada Class’ by inadvertently choosing the wrong option in a drop-down menu. The mistake could easily have been made by an accidental mouse scroll, thereby switching the selection of a field.

However, it’s also possible to select the correct type of application and have IRCC return the application in error. Our office has not experienced this issue, but colleagues have reported it. In our case, both of our clients received letters from IRCC stating that their applications were being returned because ‘Our office processes Family Class Sponsorship applications where the Principal Applicant resides in Canada.’ The letters were issued by the Case Processing Centre in Mississauga. Yet, according to the IRCC website, CPC Mississauga processes ‘applications to sponsor family members who live in Canada or abroad.’ Even if the wrong type of application was selected, once CPC Mississauga realized the mistake, why couldn’t they simply adjust their records, rather than requiring the applicants to start all over? Once the type of application is chosen in the portal, it can’t be changed. You must do a completely new application.

Another issue affecting spousal sponsorships is processing times. Until recently, the processing times for Family Class and Spouse or Common-Law Partner in Canada Class applications were similar. However, a few months ago, the processing time for inside-Canada applications jumped dramatically, from just under a year to the current expected processing time of 36 months. That is almost a 2-year difference in processing time.

During June 2024, I wrote the newsletter “Family Reunification Programs Continue to be Inequitably Applied” at a time when most inside and outside Canada sponsorships were all being processed in approximately 10 months. Representatives receive no advance notice of the change in processing time and thus cannot predict whether a submitted application falls into the category that has been changed to a longer processing time. This is particularly frustrating because spouses who live in Canada are still able to apply under the Family Class category. The  Family Class option would have been chosen if it were known that the processing time would have been quicker.

We, along with other firms, had clients who submitted their applications under the Inside Canada class at the end of 2024, who are now stuck in the dramatically long 2.5-year processing time. The inconsistency in processing times, combined with the numerous technical errors on the IRCC portals, results in unnecessary burdens on applicants. Spouses with pending spousal sponsorship applications will need to take the initiative to extend their temporary status in Canada, incurring additional financial costs and time expenses. Spouses who submitted under the ‘in-Canada’ category at a time when the published processing time was significantly shorter are now stuck in Canada, unable to visit their family members for an extended period, fearing the consequences. There is no guarantee that foreign nationals who have left Canada after applying for the Spouse or Common-law Partner in Canada class will be allowed to return to or re-enter Canada. It’s unrealistic for IRCC not to consider that at some point in two and a half years, an applicant may want to visit their family in their home country. Still worse, applicants were utterly unaware that they were choosing between not seeing their spouse for 10 months and not seeing the rest of their family for years — and neither did their representatives.

For residents of Québec, the problem is compounded by the need to obtain a Certificat de Sélection du Québec (CSQ).  Quebec limits how many CSQs it issues in a year, and for 2025, the quota was reached in early July; applicants must now wait until after June 25, 2026, to receive their CSQ. This means that for Quebec residents, they will be waiting an incredible 40-41 months (depending on whether their spouse is in or outside of Canada).

The burdens imposed by the inconsistencies and technical errors cannot be overlooked. As discussed above, the consequences of these burdens on applicants often directly oppose the objectives of family reunification, “consistent standards and prompt processing,” and “establishment of fair and efficient procedures.”

July 2025

The Canadian public is invited to share their opinions and feedback on immigration levels and related topics with IRCC through an online survey. The ‘2025 consultations on immigration levels’ is open from July 21, 2025, to August 17, 2025. I encourage you to participate in the survey.

 Canada releases an Immigration Levels Plan annually, announcing a snapshot of Canada’s immigration targets for the next three years. When the Immigration Levels Plan for 2025 was announced in October 2024, it indicated that Canada would reduce the number of both temporary and permanent residents accepted between 2025 and 2027.

 These numbers are decided in consideration of government priorities, economic needs across Canada, international obligations, the administrative capacity of IRCC, and Canada’s capacity to settle and integrate newcomers. IRCC conducts a series of engagement activities over several months, engaging with stakeholders and partners from across the country, the provinces and territories, and consulting with the Canadian public. Through online surveys, Canadians provided feedback to IRCC regarding immigration levels and other topics related to immigration. IRCC then publishes a final report of the consultations, such as ‘the 2024 consultations on immigration levels - final report’.

 In 2024, IRCC introduced targets for temporary residents, diverging from the traditional focus on the number of permanent residents. Retaining the same approach, the 2025 consultations will contribute to the number of permanent residents and temporary residents that Canada will welcome between 2025 and 2027.  

 The following three commitments will be guiding this year’s Immigration Levels Plan:

1. Lower the non-permanent resident population to less than 5% of Canada’s population by the end of 2027
2. Stabilize permanent resident admissions at less than 1% of Canada’s population annually beyond 2027
3. Establish a 12% target for Francophone immigration outside of Quebec by 2029 to promote the vitality of Francophone communities

 For temporary residents, the 2025 survey focuses on the targets currently set for ‘Workers’ and ‘Students’ categories. It asks the Canadians to comment on whether these numbers are too high, too low, or about right. On permanent residents, the 2025 survey similarly asks the Canadians to comment on whether the numbers for the ‘Economic classes’, ‘Family classes’, and ‘Refugees, protected persons, and persons in Canada on humanitarian grounds’ are too high, too low, or about right. The survey asks Canadians to prioritize the immigration class in the event of an increase and in the event of a reduction.

 It also highlights Francophone immigration outside of Quebec, with a current target of 12% to bolster Francophone immigration by 2029. We saw this commitment earlier this year with the launch of the two pilots, the Rural Community Immigration Pilot and the Francophone Community Immigration Pilot (read more in our February 2025 newsletter).

 The 2024 Immigration Levels Plan for 2025-2027 sparked much controversy and debate amongst the public. In particular, the introduction of targets for temporary residents, when the plan had traditionally focused only on permanent residents. We will need to reflect on whether the reductions have successfully contributed to “a sustainable immigration system that supports diversity and helps build vibrant, dynamic and inclusive communities, while driving economic growth and prosperity, as well as ensuring the safety and security of Canadians.”