2026-2028 Immigration Levels Plan will include new measures to grant PR to temporary residents

Canada will undertake a new program to transition up to 33,000 work permit holders to permanent residence over 2026 and 2027 in the upcoming Immigration Levels Plan, according to Budget 2025.

The Plan will also include several other major changes:

• Reducing the temporary resident admissions target for 2026 to 385,000, down 43% from 673,650 for 2025.
  • The target for international student admissions for 2026 will be 155,000, down 49% from 305,900 for 2025.
  • The target for admissions of temporary foreign workers will be 230,000—a decrease of 37% from the 2025 target of 367,750, but an increase of 8% from the 2026 target of 210,700 in last year's Immigration Levels Plan.
• Granting permanent resident status to eligible Protected Persons in Canada over the next two years.

The permanent residence admissions target for 2026 remains 380,000, unchanged from last year's Plan.

The government plans to allocate 64% of the upcoming year's permanent residence admissions to economic immigration, up from 59%.

For the year 2027, the notional annual top-line permanent admissions target will be set at 380,000, an increase of 4% from the 2027 notional target of 365,000 published in last year's Plan.

The Plan will also "consider industries and sectors impacted by tariffs and the unique needs of rural and remote communities."

The Liberal minority government under Prime Minister Mark Carney tabled Budget 2025 in Parliament on the afternoon of November 4, 2025.

The federal government is expected to announce plans for Canada's immigration system in more detail when the Minister tables the 2025 Annual Report to Parliament on Immigration.

Reduction of temporary residence targets

The upcoming Plan's reduction of targets for temporary residence admissions for 2026 relative to 2025 represents a shift in planning, but not in practice.

Despite the lowering of the target from 2025's 673,650, the year 2026 may not see significantly fewer temporary residence admissions than 2025, as temporary resident admissions in 2025 have significantly lagged the existing targets.

From January through August of 2025, Canada admitted only 154,515 temporary foreign workers, only 42% of its annual target of 367,750.

Over the same period, the country admitted only 89,430 international students, 29% of the annual target of 305,900.

Changes to Canada's Temporary Foreign Worker Program

Carney has telegraphed upcoming changes to Canada's Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP).

The TFWP “must have a focused approach that targets specific, strategic sectors, and needs in specific regions,” said Carney in an address to the Liberal caucus in Edmonton on September 10, 2025.

He said that the government was actively working toward these objectives.

Budget 2025 does not include a breakdown of worker admissions between Canada's two work permit programs, the TFWP and the International Mobility Program (IMP).

Historically, the IMP has accounted for the lion's share of work permits issued in Canada. In 2025, there was a target of 285,750 admissions under the IMP, and only 82,000 under the TFWP.

Last year's Plan set 2026 targets at 128,700 for the IMP and 82,000 for the TFWP.

Annual admissions targets for 2026 for either the IMP or the TFWP must increase in the upcoming Plan compared to last year's Plan, which had set a combined target of only 210,700, compared to the upcoming 2026 target of 230,000.

Permanent residence admissions targets

The upcoming Plan will present only minor changes to 2026 admissions targets for permanent residents compared to the 2026 targets in last year's Plan.

The overall admissions target of permanent residents for 2026 will remain flat at 380,000.

The economic immigration target will rise modestly to 239,800, up from 229,750 in last year's Plan, while the 2026 admissions target for family reunification will be 84,000, down from 88,000, and the Refugee and Humanitarian target will be 56,200, down from 62,250.

About the Immigration Levels Plan

Canada's Immigration Levels Plan sets out annual targets for admissions of temporary and permanent residents over the upcoming three years.

The targets for the upcoming year are firm, while the targets for the following two years are notional and subject to revision.

Last year's Plan was the first to include targets for temporary resident admissions, and cut top-level targets for annual permanent resident admissions by 20%, down from the 2024-2026 Plan's targets of 500,000 per year.

The upcoming Plan's top-level permanent residents admissions targets for the upcoming two years will be as follows:

• 2027: 380,000, up from the 2027 target of 365,000 in last year's Plan.
• 2028: 380,000.

For both 2027 and 2028, the notional temporary resident admissions targets will be set at 370,000 per year: 220,000 foreign workers plus 150,000 international students.

The 2027 and 2028 notional targets represent a substantial decrease in top-level temporary residence admissions (down from the targets in last year's Plan of 516,600 for 2026 and 237,700 for 2027).

The bulk of this decrease comes from the lowering of the target for international student admissions, which in last year's Plan had been set at 305,900 per year for both 2026 and 2027.

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