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Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has no plans to clear the entire application backlog this year, except for a few permanent residence streams.
According to the latest transition briefing binder for the Minister of Immigration, only Express Entryprogrammes, Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) enhanced streams (using the Express Entry system), IRCC community pilot programmes and Quebec skilled pathways will have their backlogs processed in 2025.
Other economic permanent residence pathways will maintain backlogs to varying degrees (depending on the pathway) and process only a corresponding portion of the backlog.
This article covers planned application processing, backlogs and wait times for Canada’s federally managed economic permanent residence pathways.
Message
Overview
IRCC intends to process all backlog applications for the following economic permanent residence pathways in 2025:
- Canadian Experience Class (CEC)
- Community pilot programmes
- Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP)
- Federal Skilled Trades Program (FSTP)
- Enhanced PNP streams (aligned with Express Entry)
- The Quebec Experience Program (PEQ)
- Quebec pilot programmes
- Quebec Skilled Worker Selection Programme (PSTQ)
The remaining economic permanent residence pathways will be processed only partially in 2025:
| Permanent residence pathway | Proportion of applications to be processed in 2025 |
|---|---|
| Agri-Food Pilot | 5% |
| Atlantic Immigration Program (AIP) | 33% |
| Caregiver pilot programmes | 14% |
| Economic Mobility Pathways Pilot (EMPP) | 12% |
| Base PNP (not aligned with Express Entry) | 35% |
| Quebec business | 3% |
| Start-up Visa Programme | 2% |
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Express Entry
All active Express Entry streams will be processed in 2025.
| Permanent residence pathway | Application backlog as of 11 September | Applications to be processed this year |
|---|---|---|
| CEC | 19,300 | 19,300 |
| FSW | 12,500 | 12,500 |
Processing times for these pathways are provided below:
| Programme | 2024-Q2 | 2024-Q3 | 2024-Q4 | 2025-Q1 | 2025-Q2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FSW | 6 months | 5 months | 6 months | 6 months | 6 months |
| CEC | 6 months | 6 months | 6 months | 7 months | 5 months |
Provincial Nominee Program (PNP)
PNP streams using the Express Entry system (also known as enhanced PNP streams) will be processed in 2025.
The remaining PNP streams (known as base PNP streams) will have only about 35% of their application backlog processed in 2025. Base PNP streams include all remaining PNP streams that do not use the Express Entry system to select immigration candidates or process applications.
| Permanent residence pathway | Application backlog as of 11 September | Applications to be processed this year |
|---|---|---|
| PNP (Express Entry) | 16,300 | 16,300 |
| PNP (Base) | 87,700 | 30,695 |
Application processing times for these pathways are provided below:
| Programme | 2024-Q2 | 2024-Q3 | 2024-Q4 | 2025-Q1 | 2025-Q2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PNP (Express Entry) | 6 months | 6 months | 7 months | 7 months | 6 months |
| PNP (Base) | 11 months | 11 months | 13 months | 24 months | 19 months |
Quebec
Quebec skilled pathways (including the Quebec Skilled Worker Selection Programme (SWSP), the Quebec Experience Programme (PEQ), and Quebec pilot programmes) are set to have their entire backlog processed in 2025.
Quebec business pathways (including the Quebec Immigrant Investor Programme, the Quebec Entrepreneur Programme, and the Quebec Self-Employed Programme) will have only about 3% processed in 2025.
| Permanent residence pathway | Application backlog as of 11 September | Applications to be processed this year |
|---|---|---|
| Quebec skilled | 27,600 | 27,600 |
| Quebec business | 4,100 | 123 |
Application processing times are provided below:
| Permanent residence pathway | 2024-Q2 | 2024-Q3 | 2024-Q4 | 2025-Q1 | 2025-Q2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quebec business | 20 | 17 | 22 | 108 | 108 |
| Quebec skilled | 8 | 8 | 11 | 8 | 9 |
Atlantic Immigration Program (AIP)
IRCC will process 33% of the AIP application backlog for the remainder of 2025:
| Permanent residence pathway | Application backlog as of 11 September | Applications to be processed this year |
|---|---|---|
| AIP | 12,100 | 3,993 |
AIP processing times are provided below:
| Programme | 2024-Q2 | 2024-Q3 | 2024-Q4 | 2025-Q1 | 2025-Q2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AIP | 12 months | 13 months | 17 months | 27 months | 24 months |
Federal economic pilot programmes
Canada’s federal economic pilot programmes include AFIP – the Agri-Food Immigration Pilot (now closed), the caregiving pilot programmes (including the Home Child Care Provider Pilot (HCCPP),the Home Child Care Provider Pilot (closed), and the Home Support Worker Pilot (closed)), and the Economic Mobility Pathways Pilot (EMPP).
The processing rate for the backlog of applications for each pathway in 2025 is provided below:
| Permanent residence pathway | Application backlog as of 11 September | Percentage of the backlog to be processed this year | Applications to be processed this year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agri-Food | 8,900 | 5% | 445 |
| Caregiving | 34,400 | 14% | 4,816 |
| EMPP | 2,500 | 12% | 300 |
Processing times for these pilot programmes are provided below:
| Programme | 2024-Q2 | 2024-Q3 | 2024-Q4 | 2025-Q1 | 2025-Q2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agri-Food | 22 | 32 | 60 | 180 | 228 |
| Caregiving | 31 | 29 | 27 | 84 | 108 |
| EMPP | 10 | 8 | 10 | 36 | 54 |
IRCC also recently closed intake for the “non-Canada” stream of the HCCPP, indicating that the department will not add applications this year.
Federal community pilot programmes
IRCC’s federal community pilot programmes include Rural Community Immigration Pilot (RCIP), Francophone Community Immigration Pilot (FCIP), and The Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot (RNIP) (now closed).
In 2025, IRCC intends to process the entire backlog of applications:
| Permanent residence pathway | Application backlog as of 11 September | Applications to be processed this year |
|---|---|---|
| Community pilot programmes | 3,500 | 3,500 |
Historical application processing times:
| Programme | 2024-Q2 | 2024-Q3 | 2024-Q4 | 2025-Q1 | 2025-Q2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Community pilot programmes | 12 | 14 | 12 | 12 | 7 |
Start-up Visa Programme
The Start-Up Visa Programme (SUV) Canada’s federal government will only process 2% of its backlog this year:
| Permanent residence pathway | Application backlog as of 11 September | Applications to be processed this year |
|---|---|---|
| SUV | 38,600 | 772 |
Historical application processing times:
| Programme | 2024-Q2 | 2024-Q3 | 2024-Q4 | 2025-Q1 | 2025-Q2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SUV | 48 | 51 | 71 | 420 | 420 |
For more information on the list of backlogged and in-process applications, visit the official Canadian government website at here.
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