Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada’s (IRCC) application backlog increased to 1,078,300 as of August 31, 2024.
According to the latest data, IRCC’s application backlog increased by 7.6% from July to August 2024.
July was already significant because the backlog had increased to over a million for the first time in months. Despite the department’s efforts to reduce the backlog, it currently stands at 1,078,300 of a total of 2,420,800 applications. This means that 1,342,500 are currently within service standards.
Defining backlog
IRCC considers an application in backlog if it is not processed within their published service standards. These standards are the timeline the department decides is appropriate for processing an application. They vary depending on the pathway and the nature of the application. For example, IRCC aim to process most Express Entry applications within six months or less of receiving a completed application while study permits take 60 days.
IRCC says it is committed to processing 80% of all applications within service standards. The remaining 20% are applications that are deemed more complex, or requiring additional time for other reasons.
In an Access to Information request (ATIP) that CIC News received earlier this year, IRCC has said it is committed to reviewing current service standards and publishing new ones by December 31, 2024.
The backlog
Permanent Residence applications
On August 31, IRCC had 805,600 total applications in inventory for permanent residence immigration programs. These were comprised of Express Entry programs, the Express Entry-aligned streams of the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP), and family sponsorship programs for spouses, partners, and children.
Of the total applications, 37% (300,800) were considered backlog. The department does not provide exact figures, only percentages. From this we can see the Express Entry backlog stood at 16% at the end of August, higher than the projected 15%, yet still within the acceptable 20% range according to IRCC.
Express Entry aligned PNP on the other hand stood at 22% against a projected 20%, showing a larger backlog.
Spouses, partners, and children (for outside Quebec) actually had a lower backlog than projected, with 14% of applications deemed backlog rather than 15%.
Source – www.cicnews.com
Hi, this is a comment.
To get started with moderating, editing, and deleting comments, please visit the Comments screen in the dashboard.
Commenter avatars come from Gravatar.