MIL-OSI Canada: 2025–2027 Immigration Levels Plan

Each year, the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship tables the Immigration Levels Plan, a forward-looking snapshot of immigration targets for the next three years.

The plan provides permanent resident admissions targets for 2025, with notional commitments for 2026 and 2027. For the first time, we’re extending our levels plan to also include targets for temporary residents, taking into account the full scope of all newcomers and helping reduce temporary resident (TR) volumes to 5% of Canada’s population by the end of 2026.

Development of the levels plan

When developing the Levels Plan, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) considers

• priorities and objectives for immigration, including those set out in the Immigration Refugee and Protection Act
• economic and regional needs
• international obligations and commitments
• processing capacity
• the capacity to settle, integrate and retain newcomers

Throughout the year, IRCC engages with a broad range of stakeholders and partners, including provinces and territories, to help inform our plan. IRCC also conducts public opinion research through surveys and focus groups with newcomers, Canadians living in rural areas, Francophones living in communities outside of Quebec, as well as Indigenous Peoples.

Findings from these consultations and public engagement initiatives informed the Immigration Levels Plan and are published in the Levels Consultation Report.

Permanent resident targets

Permanent resident (PR) programs include economic streams, family reunification, refugees and protected persons, and humanitarian and compassionate admissions.

This year’s levels plan reduces permanent resident targets starting in 2025 and forecasts decreases for the following two years, resulting in a pause in population growth in the short term to achieve well-managed, sustainable growth and economic prosperity for the long term.

The plan

• represents an overall decrease of 105,000 admissions in 2025, as compared to projected 2025 levels
• prioritizes in-Canada applicants and pathways for those already here
  • More than 40% of anticipated PR admissions in 2025 will be from those who are already in Canada as temporary residents.
  • Research has demonstrated that newcomers with in-Canada experience have positive long-term success. These skilled, educated newcomers can continue to support the workforce and economy, without placing additional demands on our social services.
  • Adjustments will be made to our economic immigration streams to prioritize transitions of workers already here to permanent residents and to be responsive to labour market needs—our in-Canada focus. We will put emphasis on our federal economic priorities in programs, including the Canadian Experience Class and regional immigration programs, to attract workers we need, such as in health care and trades occupations.
• focuses on economic immigration, with approximately 62% of total permanent resident admissions that will be dedicated to the economic class, in key sectors such as health and trades, by 2027
• continues to reunites families and loved ones, including spouses, children, parents and grandparents. In 2025, nearly 24% of overall permanent resident admissions will be allocated to family class immigration
• upholds Canada’s long-standing commitment to resettle the world’s most vulnerable, including human rights defenders, LGBTQI+ refugees, religious and ethnic minorities, and women and children in precarious situations
• strengthens Francophone communities outside Quebec and supports their economic prosperity. Of the overall permanent resident admission targets, Francophone immigration will represent
  • 5% in 2025
  • 5% in 2026
  • 10% in 2027

These targets allow for a continued increase in volume year-over-year of Francophone admissions outside Quebec, despite decreased overall PR levels.

Temporary resident targets

In March 2024, Canada announced a plan to decrease the number of temporary residents to 5% of the total population over the next three years, including temporary foreign workers and international students. Starting in 2025, Canada will have targets for temporary residents as part of the levels plan.

TR targets will capture the number of new workers and students arriving in Canada:

• Student arrivals are aligned with the previously announced
• Worker arrivals are those under the International Mobility Program and the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP).

TR targets were calculated by assessing a number of factors, such as the number of individuals expected to depart Canada in each program (such as when a permit expires), individuals transitioning to permanent residents, approval rates for each program, estimated renewal rates and other factors.

As such, categories excluded from the TR targets but included in the stock of TRs are:

• Work or study permit extensions or change of status from within Canada (since we would be counting an individual’s status more than once). This is factored into the outflows.
• Seasonal workers who enter and leave Canada within the same year (since they aren’t a part of our year-end population count).
• Asylum claimants who are seeking protection in Canada (since they are entitled by law to have their claim assessed so we can’t control the volumes like we do with other programs).

Measures designed to achieve the 5% target

• International student cap: IRCC introduced an annual cap on international student study permits, including a further 10% reduction in 2025 relative to 2024 targets.
• Post-Graduation Work Permit Program (PGWP) reform: IRCC tightened eligibility requirements for PGWPs to better align the program with immigration goals and labour market needs.
• Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFW Program) reform: ESDC introduced a 10% cap on employers hiring temporary foreign workers under the low-wage stream, and announced an increase to the starting hourly wage for temporary foreign workers in the high-wage stream by 20%.
• Limiting work permits for spouses of temporary residents: IRCC is tightening work permit eligibility for spouses of international students and temporary foreign workers.

For more information, please consult our latest news release on strengthening temporary residence programs for sustainable volumes.

Taken together, the targets are expected to result in a net decrease in temporary residents over the next two years. Specifically, compared to each previous year, we will see:

• 445,901 fewer TRs in 2025
• 445,662 fewer TRs in 2026
• a modest increase of 17,439 TRs in 2027

Asylum

Like many countries, Canada is experiencing more asylum claims as the number of displaced people worldwide continues to grow, and that contributes to growing volumes. To align with our humanitarian responsibilities, the government has been working on several measures to address integrity issues and strengthen the in-Canada asylum system, including

• implementing a partial visa requirements for Mexican nationals
• improving claims processing while maintaining the fairness and integrity of the asylum system, as announced in 2024
• reviewing visa decision making so that our highly trained officers have the right tools to detect fraud and reduce the number of non-genuine visitors
• exploring more measures to further strengthen visa integrity

Impact of the Plan

• The 2025–2027 Immigration Levels Plan is expected to result in a marginal population decline of 0.2% in both 2025 and 2026 before returning to a population growth of 0.8% in 2027.
• The plan will reduce the housing supply gap by approximately 670 000 units by the end of 2027.
• Continued robust GDP growth and enable GDP per capita growth to accelerate throughout 2025 to 2027, as well as improve housing affordability and lower the unemployment rate.