An immigration system that is well-managed, efficient and focused on our economic needs is key to building Canada strong. Every year, Canada tables an immigration levels plan outlining the targets for temporary and permanent resident admissions for the next three years. Last year and through Budget 2025, we committed to taking back control over the immigration system and putting Canada on a trajectory to bring immigration back to sustainable levels.
The 2027-2029 Immigration Levels Plan builds on our progress toward sustainable immigration while supporting Canada's near- and long-term economic needs. It focuses on three priorities:
- Maintaining control of the immigration system by setting a target of 370,000 new temporary resident arrivals and 380,000 permanent resident admissions for each of the next three years, aligning with what was promised in the previous levels plan
- Ensuring fairness by fulfilling our previous humanitarian commitments
- Increasing collaboration with provinces and territories to meet their workforce needs by attracting and retaining the talent and skills that support our country's long-term prosperity
The levels plan stabilizes targets for new temporary resident arrivals at 370,000 per year. This includes 220,000 new workers and up to 150,000 new international students in 2027, 2028 and 2029.
This plan also stabilizes levels for permanent resident admissions at 380,000 per year, with an emphasis on economic immigration. These admissions include those who are already working or studying in Canada, not just new arrivals. Permanent resident admissions in the economic class will be maintained at more than 64% of total admissions over the next three years.
To inform the development of the levels plan, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) consults with provinces, territories, industry and other partners to understand their needs. Temporary and permanent resident targets allow employers across Canada to fill critical labour gaps and help educational institutions attract the best students to Canada. The levels plan supports Canada's goals to attract top global talent to complement the Canadian workforce in key sectors that benefit Canadians and our economy.
The targets also support the government's commitment to reduce the temporary resident population and keep permanent resident admissions at less than 1% of Canada's total population beyond 2027. These goals support Canada's efforts to slow population growth to allow our housing and services to catch up. According to the latest data from Statistics Canada, Canada's population is growing at the slowest annual rate in over a century and the number of non-permanent residents has declined over the last two years.
With the 2027-2029 Immigration Levels Plan, the federal government is ensuring the efficiency and integrity of the immigration system and providing greater certainty for applicants and Canadian businesses.
Attracting and retaining top global talent to complement the domestic workforce and meet labour market needs
Creating job opportunities for Canadian workers remains a government priority, while immigration continues to play an important role in strengthening Canada's workforce and supporting economic growth. As Canada's labour market needs evolve and we face external economic pressures, attracting and retaining talent from around the world has never been more important.
To attract talent, IRCC continues to develop responsive, targeted measures and lead global skills missions in partnership with provinces, territories and Canadian employers to recruit skilled workers, with a focus on talent that meets labour market needs.
To retain talent, Canada continues to take a targeted approach to economic immigration by refining programs to better identify candidates whose skills, experience and qualifications align with known labour market needs and support strong economic outcomes.
Category-based selection under the Express Entry system has allowed Canada to invite candidates with the skills and experience needed to fill critical labour gaps in key sectors and occupations. IRCC is now advancing broad reforms to Express Entry to better select candidates with the skills and experience needed to contribute to Canada's economy over the long term. These reforms include changes to the federal economic programs and the Comprehensive Ranking System, as well as new measures for high-wage occupations.
This builds on important work to strengthen Canada's economic resilience through targeted measures for medical doctors, graduate students and researchers, as well as Canada's Defence Industrial Strategy.
Strengthening the Francophone population outside Quebec
Francophone immigration outside Quebec promotes the vitality of Francophone minority communities, supports their economic prosperity and helps restore and increase their demographic weight.
We are working to increase the Francophone immigration target to 12% of permanent resident admissions outside Quebec by 2029. Of the overall permanent resident admission targets set out in this year's levels plan, Francophone immigration outside Quebec will represent
- 9.5% in 2027
- 10.5% in 2028
- 12% in 2029
In addition, as part of the 2023-2028 Action Plan for Official Languages, the Francophone Immigration Support Program has funded over 23 projects in the past two years through the Centre for Innovation in Francophone Immigration. These projects aim to reduce barriers to Francophone immigration, strengthen Francophone minority communities and support the recruitment of Francophone and bilingual candidates.
Supporting unique regional needs
Communities across Canada, including rural and remote communities, face unique demographic and labour market challenges that affect their economic development. Over the next three years, we will direct available immigration spaces to where they are needed most. This involves working closely with provinces and territories to address their diverse regional needs, in part through a time-limited workforce retention measure that is separate from this year's levels plan.
The 2027-2029 Immigration Levels Plan also increases planned admissions under the Provincial Nominee Program and Atlantic Immigration Program in collaboration with provinces and territories to help respond to ongoing labour market needs.
This work builds on other recent efforts to support the labour market in regions across Canada. The In-Canada Workers Initiative, announced in May 2026, is accelerating permanent residence applications in our inventories for people who are already contributing to Canada's economy. These people work across a wide range of in-demand sectors, including in small and rural communities and areas experiencing labour gaps. In 2027, we will complete our work to accelerate permanent residence applications through this one‑time initiative.
We are also listening to our rural and regional communities by making the Rural Community Immigration Pilot permanent to help address their distinct needs and persistent labour shortages.
We will continue to work collaboratively with provinces and territories to achieve our shared economic immigration objectives, including transitioning more temporary residents to permanent residence.
Time-limited measure to support people already in Canada
We are introducing a new time-limited measure that will support work to reset the immigration system. This measure will help up to 200,000 people already living in Canada transition to permanent residence through two cohorts: a workers cohort and a humanitarian cohort.
This temporary measure will provide fairness for people who have already established themselves in communities across the country through additional admissions space to process applications under select pathways in 2027. It will help fulfill previous humanitarian commitments, keep families together and reduce existing application inventories.
For the workers cohort, we will work with provinces and territories to support their regional labour market needs by transitioning up to 100,000 people already in Canada, as well as their families, to permanent residence.
The federal government will work with provinces and territories to allocate additional space provided through increases to their Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) allocations, which they can use to nominate workers who meet their regional needs.
Provinces and territories will also be able to identify workers who have already submitted an application under select federal immigration programs. This includes applications submitted under the Atlantic Immigration Program, as well as specific programs that are closed to new applications, including the federal business programs (Start-up Visa Program and SelfEmployed Persons Program), Agri-Food Pilot, and home care worker programs.
For the humanitarian cohort, we will transition up to 100,000 people to permanent residence to provide fairness to individuals already in Canada, many of whom have been waiting on a decision for many years. These transitions will keep families together and fulfill some of Canada's existing humanitarian commitments.
With this additional admissions space, our goal is to process all remaining applications under the Hong Kong permanent residence pathways and the Ukraine Family Reunification Pathway, as well as finalize applications from people who have already been found eligible for permanent residence on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.
It will also allow us to process permanent residence applications from spouses, common-law partners and dependent children of Canadians and permanent residents already living in Canada. This will significantly help bring wait times closer to 12 months for the spouse or common-law partner class for those who are destined for provinces and territories outside Quebec.
A well-managed immigration system must respond to changing circumstances while providing greater stability and predictability for newcomers, employers and communities.
This approach is part of the continued broader recalibration of the immigration system, which includes reducing the temporary resident population and improving processing times across our lines of business.
