As of March 2025, Canada’s immigration backlog has viewed a decrease to 821,200, down from 892,100 in January, marking a decline of 7.95%.
This reduction continues a trend noticed over contemporary months, where the backlog has continuously stayed below a million, showcasing improved efficiencies by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).
In February 2025, the IRCC was processing a high volume of immigration functions—2,029,400 in total, with 1,208,200 processed interior the division’s established carrier requirements. This processing enchancment shows ongoing efforts to streamline operations and prick wait instances.
Month-to-month Breakdown of the Backlog Discount
- September 2024: Began with a backlog of 1,097,000.
- October 2024: Decreased by 3.73% to 1,056,100.
- November 2024: Additional reduction of 4.70% to 1,006,500.
- December 2024: Dropped by 6.38% to 942,300.
- January 2025: Fell by 5.33% to 892,100.
- February 2025: A basically intensive decrease of 7.95% brought it down to 821,200.
Processing Challenges and Alternate choices
IRCC continues to face challenges with particular visa classes. Shall we order:
Everlasting space functions: As of February 2025, there had been 842,600 functions, with main delays, critically within the Particular Entry machine, where 25% of functions exceeded the six-month processing purpose.
Visitor visas and peep permits: These classes experienced high backlogs, with visitor visas at 65% and peep permits at forty five% delayed processing.
IRCC’s Strategic Initiatives
To put together and further prick the backlog, IRCC has utilized a number of key programs:
Automation and Digital Processing: Increased utilize of automated systems for processing visitor visa functions and employing AI-pushed analytics to streamline easy cases.
Survey Allow Caps: A reduction within the amount of unique global scholar permits by 35% for 2024 to put together workload effectively.
Real Immigration Targets: The Immigration Stages Opinion for 2025–2027 aims to bring in 485,000 everlasting residents in 2025 and 500,000 in both 2026 and 2027, which helps give a take to processing predictability.
