IRCC publishes updated work permit processing times

The latest temporary residence processing estimates, released by Canada’s immigration department on July 15, show shorter work permit wait times across numerous countries—Nigeria taking the lead with a five-week decrease.

In-Canada work permit processing times continued their week-over-week decline, reaching their lowest level this year, while Pakistan moved in the opposite direction with a one-week increase.

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Beyond work permit wait times, the most notable changes are as follows:

The federal government reported no week-over-week changes for study permit processing times.

This article compares how temporary residence processing times have shifted over the one-week period from July 7 to July 15, for six of the top source countries for workers, students, and visitors.

Applicants from nearly all featured countries faced shorter work permit waits, led by a decline of more than one month for Nigeria; Pakistani applicants saw wait times lengthen.

Study permit processing times remained unchanged across all featured countries for a third consecutive week.

Visitor visa processing times edged down for submissions from Canada and the U.S., while Nigerian and Pakistani applicants saw increases of two and five days, respectively.

Of the featured countries, only India saw its super visa processing time decline. The Philippines experienced the most pronounced increase, at just over two weeks.

*Super visa applications cannot be submitted from within Canada.

How processing times and service standards differ

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) publishes processing times to give applicants a general indication of how long it may take for their permanent residence, temporary residence, or citizenship application to be finalized.

These estimates are intended as guidance and do not guarantee that an application will be processed within the published time frame.

IRCC uses two types of processing-time estimates:

Service standards are separate from processing-time estimates. They represent the internal time frame within which IRCC aims to finalize a particular type of application under normal circumstances, generally with a target of processing 80% of applications within that period.

Actual timelines may fall above or below the published estimate or service standard. Processing can be affected by application complexity, backlogs, operational pressures, and the need for additional documents or checks.

IRCC updates temporary residence estimates every week, while permanent residence and citizenship estimates are generally updated once a month. Service standards, on the other hand, are reviewed on a less frequent basis—with temporary residence standards last revised in 2018–2019.