Wait times rise for many temporary residence applicants, IRCC data shows
On July 7, the immigration department released updated processing times for temporary residence applications, showing increases across nearly every category.
Wait times for work permit applicants from Pakistan and Nigeria both lengthened, with Nigeria recording the sharpest increase at three weeks.
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Processing times for super visas rose nearly across the board, but Pakistan saw by far the most pronounced jump: approximately two and a half months in the span of a single week.
By contrast, this update brought few improvements, with work permit processing times falling by two days for in-Canada applicants and a full week for Philippines-based applicants.
There were also modest declines in visitor visa wait times, ranging from 1–4 days.
This article will examine how temporary residence processing times have changed from July 2 to July 7.
Work permits
Work permit processing times fell for Canada and the Philippines but climbed for Pakistan and Nigeria—with Nigeria's notable increase breaking the trend of declining wait times seen since June 24.
| Applying from: | Current (July 7) | Previous (July 2) |
|---|---|---|
| Canada | 127 days | 129 days |
| India | 9 weeks | 9 weeks |
| Pakistan | 6 weeks | 5 weeks |
| Nigeria | 11 weeks | 8 weeks |
| United States | 4 weeks | 4 weeks |
| Philippines | 7 weeks | 8 weeks |
Service standard:
- In-Canada submissions (initial and extensions): 120 days
- Outside Canada submissions: 60 days
Study permits
Study permit processing times remained unchanged week-over-week across all countries featured below.
| Applying from: | Current (July 7) | Previous (July 2) |
|---|---|---|
| Canada | 7 weeks | 7 weeks |
| India | 5 weeks | 5 weeks |
| Pakistan | 6 weeks | 6 weeks |
| Nigeria | 5 weeks | 5 weeks |
| United States | 5 weeks | 5 weeks |
| Philippines | 4 weeks | 4 weeks |
Service standard:
- In-Canada submissions (initial and extensions): 120 days
- Outside Canada submissions: 60 days
Visitor visas
Nigeria was the only country to see visitor visa processing times increase, while every other country—apart from the Philippines, which held steady—saw modest improvement.
| Applying from: | Current (July 7) | Previous (July 2) |
|---|---|---|
| Canada | 36 days | 38 days |
| India | 20 days | 21 days |
| Pakistan | 34 days | 38 days |
| Nigeria | 59 days | 56 days |
| United States | 29 days | 32 days |
| Philippines | 17 days | 17 days |
Service standard:
- In-Canada submissions: N/A
- Outside Canada submissions: 14 days
Super visas
Pakistan's super visa processing time jumped 77 days in a week, far outpacing the minor increases seen across nearly all other countries.
| *Applying from: | Current (July 7) | Previous (July 2) |
|---|---|---|
| India | 52 days | 50 days |
| Pakistan | 179 days | 102 days |
| Nigeria | 33 days | 32 days |
| United States | 123 days | 123 days |
| Philippines | 57 days | 52 days |
Service standard: 112 days
*Super visa applications can only be submitted from outside Canada.
Processing times versus service standards
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) publishes processing times to give applicants insight into how long their application may take to process—whether it be for immigration, temporary residence, or citizenship.
These figures are intended for guidance only and do not guarantee that an application will be finalized within the stated time frame.
IRCC's estimates fall into two categories, historical estimates and forward-looking estimates.
- Historical estimates: draw on past performance, indicating how long the department has generally taken to finalize 80% of applications.
- Forward-looking estimates: based on IRCC's current application volumes and processing capacity.
Service standards operate differently. They're internal targets that set out how quickly IRCC aims to process certain application types under normal conditions, generally aiming to finalize 80% of applications within that window.
Actual processing times can diverge from both figures: backlogs, operational constraints, and case-specific factors mean some applications move faster and others slower than expected.
While temporary residence processing times are updated weekly, permanent residence and citizenship wait times are generally updated monthly. Service standards are revisited even less often—temporary residence standards, for example, haven't changed since 2018–2019.
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