Canada opens book on number of waitlisted permanent residence applications

As of July 21, Canada’s immigration department will begin sharing monthly updates on the portion of permanent residence applications that are in active processing, versus those that have been waitlisted for processing in the future.

Certain applications will be waitlisted due to insufficient permanent residence admissions spaces under its 2026-2028 Immigration Levels Plan.

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This marks the first time that the federal government has released details on the proportion of permanent residence applications being set aside for future processing.

Figures for waitlisted applications will be provided across three permanent residence categories: Economic, Family, and Protection.

These figures will be adjusted each month based on the number of applications Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has in its inventory under each PR category, by the end of each month.

IRCC announced this change through a revamped version of its application inventory webpage on July 21.

As part of the update to its application inventory webpage, IRCC will also no longer be releasing information on what proportion of its inventory is being processed within service standards, as a whole and across various categories.

According to IRCC, applications will continue to be processed if space remains, in accordance with the target set in the Immigration Levels Plan—but if there is no space, an application will be waitlisted until space becomes available.

“When we receive more applications for a program than there are spaces in the levels plan, some applications must wait until spaces become available in a future year,” the updated webpage reads.

The federal government notes that this can increase processing times.

Which application types fall under each PR category?

According to IRCC, the figures released for applications waitlisted under each category will pertain to the following:

Economic: pathways “such as” Express Entry, federal business programs, and regional economic programs including:

The Provincial Nominee Program;
The Atlantic Immigration Program;
The Rural Community Immigration Pilot; and
The Francophone Community Immigration Pilot.

Family: reunification (spouses, partners and children, and parents and grandparents), as well as international adoptions.

Protection: applications for PR under protected persons in Canada, government-assisted refugees, privately sponsored refugees, and humanitarian and compassionate grounds.

The first look into waitlisted PR applications

IRCC’s application inventory update provided figures accurate of May 31, 2026.

As of this date, the department reported having a total of 705,315 permanent residence applications awaiting finalization as of May's end.

Under its Economic category, the department stated that 238,335 applications had yet to be finalized. Of these, 75% were in active processing, while 25% were waitlisted.

For its Family category, 159,765 applications were awaiting finalization, with 60% in active processing and 40% waitlisted.

As for the Protection category, a total of 307,215 applications required finalization—54% of which were deemed to be in active processing, and 46% deemed waitlisted.

The next update to IRCC’s application inventory webpage is expected in mid- to late August and will include data accurate as of June 30.

Planned permanent residence admissions in 2026

For 2026, the Canadian federal government plans to admit 380,000 permanent residents for settlement in Canada outside Quebec, broken down as such:

Economic: 239,800.
Family: 84,000.
Refugees and protected persons: 49,300.
Humanitarian & compassionate and other: 6,900.

In its latest webpage update, IRCC reports having finalized a total of 198,700 applications for permanent residence across these categories from January 1–May 31, 2026. This includes applications that were either approved or refused by IRCC.

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