IRCC to Address Permanent Residence Backlog along with Approval of 290,000 Study Permits

The IRCC has released the details of the action plan to address the recommendations made in the report by the Office of Audit General, released last October. The details provide an insight into how the IRCC will be addressing the backlog of the Permanent Residence applications for newcomers in every line of business.

The Office of Audit General report stated that the backlog of permanent residency has exceeded the acceptance levels in the year 2022 throughout the pandemic. The IRCC has aimed to process 80% of the application within the service standards of the immigration application type. 

However, the service standards differ as per the type of application, whether it is family class sponsorship or spousal work permit application. The use of AI has helped in easing up the processing of the application process. Last June Former Immigration Minister Sean Fraser announced that these tools had helped IRCC process 98% of spousal TRV applications.

Canada’s Immigration Minister Marc Miller commented that the number of study permits available for college and international students this year is roughly around 292,000. IRCC has clarified that cap-exempt study permits were included in their 360,000 estimate of new study permits approved in 2024. Therefore, only 292,000 new college and university undergraduate study permits will be approved this year.

Comments made by the Minister during the last meeting of the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration (CIMM) highlighted. “I can only cap the applications and not the actual issuance of visas,” he said. “The way it works through the math is that we assume a level of acceptance and rejection at our level, and it churns out a bunch of visas. What we did was cap the intake at a certain level then we distributed it generally by population across Canada.”

With the implication of a new system, the study permit applicants will require a letter of acceptance as well as a Provincial Attestation Letter (PAL). PAL signifies that the student is authorized to study in the province.

Navneet Kaur