January 2022: Canada lands 35,260 new permanent residents according to new data
To date, Canada has accepted more than 400,000 new immigrants for the second consecutive year.
Immigration levels for Canada are increasing. There were 433,000 new immigrants in Canada last year, breaking records from the previous years. This was mostly due to the transition of temporary immigrants to permanent residents.
In January, 65% of new permanent residents came under economic class, which surpasses the percentage targeted under the levels plan. Twenty per cent arrived in Canada under family class, which is below the goal of 24%. Likewise, refugee and humanitarian arrivals accounted for 15%, which falls below the target of 20% set in the levels plan.
The Canadian Experience Class (CEC) remained the leading program for new economic class landings, accounting for almost 7,700 immigrants. IRCC relied heavily on the CEC last year to achieve its immigration levels goal, as the CEC accounted for about one-third of new admissions. The Temporary Resident to Permanent Resident (“TR2PR”) Program, which was available to international graduates and essential workers between May and November 2021, was the second leading economic class admissions program, with over 7,000 immigrants landing in January. The Provincial Nominee Program came in third among the economic class, with 4,200 immigrants landing, followed by the Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP), with nearly 2,600 landings.
Recent IRCC data shows the department is processing FSWP applications at a higher rate. This is notable because the FSWP was Canada’s leading economic class immigration program between its founding in 1967 and the start of the pandemic. Last year, IRCC slowed down FSWP processing so it could transition as many international students, temporary foreign workers, and other temporary residents to permanent residence in fulfillment of its 2021 levels plan target. The rationale for this policy was that it would be much difficult for IRCC to achieve its levels plan goal if it sought to admit large numbers of FSWP and other immigrants overseas amid the operational difficulties caused by the pandemic.
IRCC has been processing more FSWP applications in recent months, which is a sign that they are beginning to normalize their operations. The key to this process will be striking a balance between processing applications submitted inside and outside of Canada.
The statistics from the January 2022 immigrant admissions figures may represent a low point in the number of immigrants that Canada is expected to see this year. How much of an increase we actually see may be diminished due to the number of in-Canada permanent residence applications that must be processed.