On 22 April 2026 IRCC gave Parliament’s Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration its Comprehensive Data Package. Almost every figure in it is dated 28 February 2026. It contains numbers that IRCC does not put in press releases: how many applications were approved, how many are sitting in the queue, and how long someone applying today is being told to wait.
Two warnings before the numbers. IRCC states that this data is operational and subject to change, and that values are rounded to the nearest 5. Nothing below is a promise about what will happen to your file, and no one — including a licensed consultant — can turn a published average into a guarantee.
Approval rates went up almost everywhere
This is the clearest story in the package. Comparing January–February 2025 with the same two months of 2026 (IRCC, as of 28 February 2026):
68%
82%
73%
80%
30%
38%
46%
52%
97%
97%
93%
90%
79%
76%
90%
76%
| Application type | Jan–Feb 2025 | Jan–Feb 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Temporary residents, all types | 73% | 80% |
| Work permits, all types | 68% | 82% |
| International Mobility Program | 65% | 79% |
| Temporary Foreign Worker Program | 71% | 85% |
| Study permits (new) | 30% | 38% |
| Study permit extensions | 93% | 90% |
| Temporary Resident Visa | 46% | 52% |
| Super Visa | 79% | 76% |
| eTA | 97% | 97% |
| Visitor record extensions | 90% | 76% |
Read the improvements and the declines with the same eye. Approval rates for work permits and study permits rose. Visitor record extensions — the way a visitor already inside Canada asks to stay longer — fell from 90% to 76%. Super Visa slipped from 79% to 76%.
Study permits: better odds, and far fewer people trying
A rise from 30% to 38% is a real improvement. It is still fewer than four applications in ten. If you are planning to study in Canada, the honest framing is that refusal is the more likely single outcome, not the exception you can dismiss.
The other half of that number matters more than the rate itself. New study permit applications fell from 36,400 to 18,000 — a 51% drop. Extensions fell from 47,900 to 34,600, down 28%. IRCC’s 2026 arrivals target for study permit holders is 155,000. IRCC does not say why the rate rose. What the same tables do show is that it rose against a much smaller pool of applications. A weak application is not carried upward by a better average.
Work permits: the strongest improvement in the file
Work permit approvals moved from 68% to 82%. Inside that, the International Mobility Program went from 65% to 79% and the Temporary Foreign Worker Program from 71% to 85%. Volume dropped too: 85,000 work permit applications in the first two months of 2025 against 64,400 in 2026, down 24%, with 42,700 in inventory. IRCC’s 2026 target is 230,000 work permit arrivals — 170,000 through the IMP and 60,000 through the TFWP.
If you have a genuine employer relationship or qualify under an IMP category, this was the highest approval rate among the main temporary entry categories in the period IRCC measured. That is a statement about the two months IRCC measured, not a forecast.
Visitor visas: close to a coin toss. eTA: approved at 97%
Temporary Resident Visa approvals rose from 46% to 52% for the visitor visa itself, and from 48% to 54% for the temporary resident visa category overall. Applications rose slightly, from 359,600 to 364,500, with 287,500 in inventory. On the 2026 figure, 52% of Temporary Resident Visa applications finalised in those two months were approved.
The eTA sat at 97% in both years, on rising volume — 438,700 to 476,000, up 9%. The gap between 52% and 97% is not a difference in how welcome the traveller is. It is a difference in who has to prove what.
Permanent residence: the waits nobody advertises
IRCC’s PR inventory stood at 1,007,500 applications. Admissions between 1 January and 28 February 2026 were 53,400 against a 2026 target of 380,000.
The table below is dated 1 February 2026 in the package. The percentile columns describe how long it took to finish applications that were already complete, over the previous six months. The last column is different and more useful: it is what IRCC tells a person applying now.
7 months
7 months
7 months
10 months
13 months
14 months
2 years
3 years
3 years
7 years
▶more than 10 years
| Program | 80% finished within | Wait quoted to new applicants |
|---|---|---|
| Canadian Experience Class | 5 months | 7 months |
| Federal Skilled Worker | 7 months | 7 months |
| Provincial Nominee, via Express Entry | 9 months | 7 months |
| Provincial Nominee, no Express Entry | 16 months | 13 months |
| Quebec Skilled Workers | 8 months | 10 months |
| Federal Skilled Trades | 76 months | not published |
| Spouses and partners, overseas | 13 months | 14 months |
| Spouses and partners, in Canada | 14 months | 2 years |
| Parents and grandparents | 23 months | 3 years |
| Atlantic Immigration Program | 17 months | 3 years |
| Agri-Food Pilot | 23 months | more than 10 years |
| Quebec Business | 105 months | 7 years |
| Live-in Caregiver | 116 months | 7 years |
| Federal Business (Start-up Visa and self-employed) | 57 months | more than 10 years |
The most important line: Start-up Visa and self-employed
The Federal Business stream — Start-up Visa plus the self-employed category — holds 45,900 Start-up Visa applications and 8,100 self-employed applications. Admissions in the first two months of 2026 were 35 and 15 respectively. The self-employed target for the whole of 2026 is 500. Eighty per cent of finished cases took up to 57 months, and half took up to 50 months. And IRCC’s stated wait for someone applying now is more than ten years.
Say that plainly: a Start-up Visa application filed today is quoted a wait measured in more than a decade. IRCC’s own table quotes that stream at more than ten years for someone applying now, and any timeline you are offered for it should be reconciled against that published figure. The Agri-Food Pilot carries the same “more than 10 years” figure. Quebec Business and Live-in Caregiver are quoted at 7 years each.
Express Entry is still the fast lane
Canadian Experience Class: 80% of complete applications finished within 5 months, half within 2.6 months, against a 6-month service standard, with a 7-month quote for new applicants. Federal Skilled Worker: 7 months at the 80th percentile, 5 at the median, 7 months quoted.
The provincial comparison is the one to memorise. A provincial nomination processed through Express Entry: 9 months at the 80th percentile, 3 at the median, 7 months quoted. The same nomination outside Express Entry: 16 months, 15 at the median, 13 months quoted. Same nomination, different federal channel, and the difference is seven months at the 80th percentile and six months in the wait quoted to new applicants. The CEC inventory is 44,400 with 9,200 admitted in the first two months; PNP outside Express Entry holds 108,000.
Family sponsorship
Family Class inventory is 190,100 against a 2026 target of 94,500, with 12,200 admitted so far. Spouses and partners overseas: 13 months at the 80th percentile, 6 at the median, 14 months quoted to new applicants. In-Canada spousal cases are quoted at 2 years. Parents and grandparents sit at 46,700 in inventory against a 15,000 target and a 3-year quote for new applications. If you are sponsoring a parent, the figure to plan against is the three-year quote for new applicants rather than the 16-month median — and IRCC notes its data is operational and subject to change.
What IRCC’s processing-time data shows for temporary applications
| Application | Standard | 80% within | Quoted to new clients |
|---|---|---|---|
| Work permit | 60 days | 34 days | 45–65 days |
| Work permit extension | 120 days | 258 days | 100–120 days |
| Study permit | 60 days | 28 days | 30–50 days |
| Study permit extension | 120 days | 90 days | 40–60 days |
| Temporary Resident Visa | 14 days | 49 days | 40–60 days |
| Super Visa | 112 days | 206 days | not published |
| Visitor record extension | not published | 226 days | 205–225 days |
| eTA | 5 minutes | 93 minutes | 1 minute |
Two lines here deserve attention. The TRV service standard is 14 days, but 80% of cases took 49 days and new applicants are told 40–60. And extensions are slower than first applications across the board: a work permit extension at 258 days against 34 for a new permit, a visitor record extension at 226 days. Medians are lower — 13 days for a work permit, 25 for a study permit, 16 for a TRV — but you cannot plan a move, a job start, or a semester around a median.
Asylum claims
Asylum claims fell sharply: 19,505 in the first two months of 2025 against 12,615 in 2026, down 35%. India remains the largest source at 2,150, down 41%. Haiti is second at 1,585, up 31%. Iran is third: 1,230 claims in 2025 against 905 in 2026, down 26%. The Immigration and Refugee Board’s refugee protection inventory was over 295,900 claims as of 1 March 2026. Eligibility decisions are being made in 17 days, down from 21, against an internal 30-day standard — that is the first step only, not the hearing.
Two administrative numbers worth knowing
The client call centre answer rate went from 37.5% to 66.1%. Calls answered rose from 308,800 to 320,000, while the number of people asking for an agent fell from 823,700 to 484,400. Calling IRCC is now a realistic option rather than a lottery, though 66.1% is an answer rate, not a resolution rate.
Citizenship grant applications fell from 66,200 to 3,000, a 95% drop, with 320,300 in inventory. Grants are processing in 10 months against a 12-month standard, and 48,800 people became citizens.
What to do differently
Four practical conclusions, based only on the figures above.
- If someone is selling you a Start-up Visa, ask them to explain the ten-year quote. The number is IRCC’s, published in a document tabled in Parliament. Ask for the published figure and how it fits the timeline you are being offered.
- Treat a study permit as a 38% proposition and build the file accordingly. The improvement is real; the base rate is still low. If your plan has no second option behind it, it is not a plan.
- If you hold a provincial nomination, look hard at whether it can go through Express Entry. Nine months versus sixteen at the 80th percentile is the largest gap in the PR table that turns on which federal channel a nomination travels through — though whether a nomination runs through Express Entry is set by the provincial stream, not chosen by the applicant.
- Apply for extensions early. Extensions are the slowest category in the temporary system, and both extension approval rates fell rather than rose — study permit extensions from 93% to 90%, visitor record extensions from 90% to 76%. A visitor record extension quoted at 205–225 days needs to be filed long before status runs out.
All figures above are from IRCC’s Comprehensive Data Package for the CIMM committee meeting of 22 April 2026, as of 28 February 2026, with the permanent residence processing table dated 1 February 2026. IRCC describes the data as operational and subject to change and rounds it to the nearest 5. Nothing here is legal advice or an assessment of any individual case.
Source
- Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, Comprehensive Data Package — CIMM, 22 April 2026, Government of Canada. Retrieved 31 August 2026.
- Unless stated otherwise, every figure is as of 28 February 2026. The permanent residence table showing waits quoted to new applicants is dated 1 February 2026.
- IRCC states that this data is operational and subject to change, and that values are rounded to the nearest 5, so components may not sum to the totals shown.
- Processing times describe the period in which 80% or 50% of complete applications were finalised over a preceding window. A minimum of 10 cases is required for IRCC to publish a processing time.
