IRCC makes significant dent in immigration backlog

Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada’s (IRCC) backlog has fallen below one million applications for the first time in months.

According to the latest data, there are 942,300 applications remaining in the department’s backlog as of December 31, 2024.

Given that the end of the previous month had a backlog of 1,006,500, that is a significant decrease of 6.38%.

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This is the first time the number of applications in IRCC’s backlog has dipped below the one million mark since the end of June 2024.

Month	Immigration Backlog
As of June 30, 2024	936,600
As of July 31, 2024	1,002,400
As of August 31	1,078,300
As of September 30	1,097,000
As of October 31, 2024	1,056,100
As of November 30, 2024	1,006,500
As of December 31, 2024	942,300

The total number of applications in IRCC’s inventories has also fallen. As of December 31, 2024, there were 2,119,900 applications in the inventory, as compared to 2,267,700 at the end of November.

The number of applications being processed within service standards was 1,177,600 (it was 1,261,200 at the end of November).

What is a backlog?

Applications are considered part of the backlog if they are not processed within IRCC’s published service standards. These standards are the timeline that IRCC considers reasonable for processing an application.

The amount of time depends on the type of application. For example, Express Entry applications have a service standard of six months while family sponsorship applications have a service standard of 12 months.

Current backlog

Permanent resident applications

As of December 31, 2024, IRCC had 836,900 applications in its inventory for permanent residence immigration programs. This encompasses the Express Entry program, Express Entry-aligned streams of the Provincial Nominee Program, and the family sponsorship programs.

Of these 492,200 (or 59%) were being processed within service standards, leaving 344,700 as backlog.

Breaking things down, the department doesn’t supply exact figures but noted that 18% of Express Entry applications were considered backlog, against a projected 20%. This meets IRCC’s service standard of processing 80% of applications within a service standard of six months.

For Provincial Nominee Programs (PNP) applications (through Express Entry), the backlog rose to 25% as of December 31, 2024, from 24% the previous month.

Family sponsorship application backlog is 15% - on par with the projected backlog (also 15%).

Temporary resident permit applications

In contrast, only 47% of all the applications for temporary residency were being processed within service standards, as of December 31. This includes work permits, study permits, and visitor visas.

Out of 1,050,800 applications only 493,800 were being processed as per service standards.

That leaves 557,000 applications as backlog.

Further broken down according to program, 75% of all visitor visa (TRVs) applications are in the backlog, against a projected backlog of 61%.

There has been a noticeable increase in the percentage of study and work permit applications in the backlog as compared to last month.

For study permits, the backlog has risen to 43%, significantly higher than the projected backlog of 26%. This marks a steep increase from last month's backlog percentage of 36%.

Similarly, the backlog for work permits has reached 57% at the end of December 2024, up from 51% at the end of November. This is well above the projected backlog of 40% for December 2024.

Citizenship grants

The citizenship application backlog remains low.

As of December 31, there were 232,300 applications in total for citizenship. Of this, 191,600 (or 83%) were being processed within service standards.

That leaves 17% as the backlog.

How is IRCC reducing the backlog?

The Immigration Levels Plan 2025-27, released on October 24, announced a reduction in targets for permanent resident admissions over the next three years.

While the lower immigration targets could help IRCC reduce its existing backlog, the department announced in January 2025 that it planned to cut approximately 3,300 jobs over the next three years.

These job cuts have raised concerns about potential delays in processing. However, IRCC has stated that the reductions are a direct response to the lower immigration levels outlined in the Immigration Levels Plan.

As of now, no information has been released on which departments or workers these cuts will affect. It remains to be seen how these changes will ultimately affect the backlog.

IRCC has also suspended issuing invitations to apply for sponsoring parents or grandparents for PR in 2025.

Other steps IRCC has been taking that could reduce the backlog include prioritizing applications from workers in essential occupations and using advanced analytics and automated technology to improve the processing time for spousal sponsorship applications under the family class.

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