COW – Service standards and Measures Taken to Improve Service – May 28, 2026

Processing Context

We aim to process at least 80% of complete applications within service standards.
When we get more applications than available spaces in the Immigration Levels Plan, some applicants may need to wait until space becomes available in a future year. This can increase processing times.
Processing times can vary based on various factors, including a country's political and economic conditions, the number of applications we are processing, and security checks.

Even with pressures, we are making progress:
- From April 2025 to March 2026, approximately 52% of new permanent residents were approved within 12 months of submitting a complete application.
- From April 2025 to March 2026, approximately 78% of federal high-skilled applicants received a decision within the six-month service standard, and over 54% received a decision in four months or less.
- From April 2025 to March 2026, we processed applications for spouses, partners and children submitted in and outside Canada (who want to live outside Quebec) in approximately 14 months.
- At the end of March 2026, service standards were being met for new work and study permits as well as study-permit extensions.
Budget 2025 includes one-time measures to address large inventories.
- We are transitioning up to 33,000 workers to permanent residence in 2026–2027.
- We are processing about 115,000 additional permanent residence applications from eligible protected persons in 2026–2027.
We have improved our processing times tool. Most applicants can get a better estimate based on when they applied, plus find out the number of people in the inventory and approximately how many are ahead of them.

2026-09-25