According to the latest government data of Canada, the application backlog of Canada’s immigration has exceeded 2.1 million across all lines of business as of April 19.
IRCC has progressed backlog from last summer as follows:
- 2,130,385 persons from April 30 to May 2, 2022.
- 2,031,589 people in April 11-12, 2022.
- 1,844,424 persons in March 15 and 17, 2022.
- 1,815,628 persons from February 1, 2022.
- 1,813,144 persons from December 15, 2021.
- 1,792,404 persons from October 27, 2021.
- 1,447,474 persons from July 6,2021.
IRCC inventory has increased the number of applicants by 98,796 between April 11 to April 29. The list of this growth is largely driven by temporary residency. 638 individual backlogs of permanent residence have been increased over the same period. The backlog of 258 people was reduced by IRCC between April 12 and May 2.
Backlog of IRCC between April 11 to May 2
| Line of Business | Persons as of Apr. 11- Apr. 12 | Persons as of Apr. 30 – May 2 |
| No. Of PR | 529,631 | 530,269 |
| No. Of Citizenship | 399,583 | 399,325 |
| No. Of TR | 1,102,375 | 1,200,791 |
| Total | 2,031,589 | 2,130,385 |
Growth of the Backlog after the Pandemic
The inventory of permanent residents has increased from 410,000 people to 530,000 people. The number of temporary residents has doubled since the last of April. The number of Canadian citizenship applications has increased from people 240,000 to 400,000. During the pandemic, IRCC faced a struggle to manage the inventory due to some reasons such as restrictions on travel and social distancing.
The incremental inventory of IRCC is given below since the start of the pandemic.
Persons Backlog By IRCC
| Line of Business | Apr. 2020 | Apr. 2021 | Apr./May 2022 |
| PR | 410,000 | 550,000 | 530,000 |
| Citizenship | 240,000 | 395,000 | 400,000 |
| TR | 0 | 590,000 | 1.2M |
| Total | N/A | 1.535M | 2.130M |
Upgrade in Express Entry Program
Regardless of the marginal increment in the inventory of permanent residence list, since mid-April, backlogs of Express Entry were reduced by the IRCC.
Since December 2020, CEC and FSWP candidates have not been invited to the Express Entry Draws, due to decrement in the Express Entry backlog IRCC allows to start draws again for FSWP and CEC candidates.
The IRCC was holding back from inviting these candidates, as the backlog extended the processing time for Express Entry-managed programs beyond the norm of six months. As per IRCC, applications for new Express Entry will be processed in July within a service standard of six months.
The backlog has increased in all categories of temporary residents between April 11 to April 29.
Earlier, it was said by the IRCC that the list of temporary residence visas has increased. The CUAET (Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel) has been introduced by IRCC for increasing work permits and inventory for visas of temporary residents. which allows bringing Ukrainians into Canada. It does not come under the refugee stream.
204,227 applicants have applied through CUAET and 91,482 applications have been approved by IRCC. According to the IRCC, there are 24,645 Ukrainians who arrived in Canada between January 1 and 1 May.
Temporary residences Inventory between April 11 to 29
The Government of Canada recognizes the challenges posed by the growing list of IRCCs over the past two years. It was announced by the immigration minister of Canada that a series of measures track the backlogs which include the adoption of new technology and hiring processing of more staff.
Last Thursday, a study began for evaluating the backlogs of IRCC by the CIMM (Citizenship and Immigration Committee) of the Canadian Parliament. This report will come to a head in a written report which is available for the public with recommendations to improve the application processing of the IRCC.
