Canada releases updated wait times for work permit applicants

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has released updated data showing the estimated processing times for various temporary residence applications as of August 26.

The most significant changes in IRCC’s latest update included:

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This article examines how processing time estimates for newly submitted temporary residence applications changed between August 19 and August 26.

IRCC is expected to publish its next temporary residence processing times update on or around September 2, 2026.

Applicants in Pakistan and the Philippines saw a one-week improvement in work permit wait times, with the Philippines reaching its shortest wait in at least three months.

India was the only featured country to see a change in study permit wait time, rising by two weeks after two consecutive months with no movement.

Applicants in the Philippines saw a modestly shorter visitor visa wait time, while all other featured countries recorded either no change or marginal increases of 1–2 days.

Super visa wait times shortened considerably for applicants based in Pakistan and the U.S., declining by no less than two weeks in each.

*Super visa applications can only be submitted from outside Canada

Processing times versus service standards

Processing times and service standards serve different purposes within IRCC’s application system.

Processing times give an indication of how long it may take the department to finalize a newly submitted temporary residence, permanent residence, or citizenship application.

They are not fixed timelines and should not be interpreted as a deadline, guarantee, or maximum wait.

The immigration department uses two types of processing estimates:

By contrast, service standards are performance targets established by IRCC for how quickly the department aims to finalize a particular application type under normal operating conditions, in 80% of cases.

Actual processing can differ from these published figures. The complexity of an application, inventory pressures, processing capacity, requests for additional information, and further checks can all affect how long a decision takes.

Temporary residence processing estimates are updated weekly, while estimates for permanent residence and citizenship are typically updated monthly. Service standards are revised much less often, with temporary residence standards last updated in 2018–2019.

IRCC finalized 1,566,455 temporary residence applications over the first six months of 2026. More than 401,000 remained in the inventory at the end of June.