paused to new applicants on June 30, 2026<\/a>, here’s good news: IRCC has officially confirmed, for the first time, that it’s building a new pilot to replace this exact program and fix its known problems. No date or criteria yet \u2014 but at least now we know a replacement is actually coming.<\/p>\nFaster permanent residence for existing work-permit holders<\/h2>\n
If you currently hold a work permit, this one’s for you: up to 33,000 work-permit holders are planned to get access to an accelerated PR pathway in 2026\u201327 \u2014 a one-time initiative, separate from the regular admission targets.<\/p>\n
One-time processing of 115,000 protected-persons applications<\/h2>\n
If you’re a protected person in Canada waiting on permanent residence, here’s the news: IRCC plans to clear around 115,000 applications from this exact backlog over two years \u2014 a one-time push to shorten the wait.<\/p>\n
Master’s and doctoral students: exempt from the provincial attestation letter<\/h2>\n
Doing a master’s or PhD? You won’t need a Provincial Attestation Letter (PAL) anymore \u2014 the same letter required under the federal study-permit cap. For this group, study permit and Global Skills Strategy applications also move to priority processing, with a 14-day target.<\/p>\n
Private Sponsorship of Refugees: pause extended<\/h2>\n
If you were planning to sponsor someone through Private Sponsorship of Refugees, you’ll need to wait \u2014 the pause on new intake is extended through December 31, 2026.<\/p>\n
What to keep in mind: these are targets, not guarantees<\/h2>\n
IRCC itself published every figure and date above, but remember: this is an administrative plan, not a change in law. None of it can be relied on for your specific case until the actual regulations are issued. Always check IRCC’s own program page before making a decision.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
IRCC’s 2026-27 Departmental Plan names six concrete changes: Express Entry job-offer points, a Start-up Visa replacement pilot, faster PR for workers, and more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":28240,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-immigration-to-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/avalvisa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/avalvisa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/avalvisa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/avalvisa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28237"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/avalvisa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28251,"href":"https:\/\/avalvisa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28237\/revisions\/28251"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/avalvisa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/avalvisa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/avalvisa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/avalvisa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}