Major changes announced in IRCC’s 2025

Canada’s immigration department will establish a new pathway to permanent residence (PR) and will work toward launching a new work permit stream, according to its 2025-2026 Departmental Plan.

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The Plan, published on 20 June, 2025, says that Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) will

Further, IRCC mentioned that they were testing a new algorithm, GeoMatch, for helping Express Entry candidates choose where to settle. This new initiative is a collaboration with Stanford University.

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The Plan also re-affirmed many of IRCC’s existing commitments and policy statements, including

For its aspirational targets across both temporary and permanent resident applications, IRCC aims to process at least 80% of each application type within its service standards, and aims for at least a 90% client satisfaction rate.

As a results indicator, IRCC aims that at the end of each fiscal year, at least 65% of Canadians will support current immigration levels. In 2023-2024, this figure was 50%—down from 67% in 2021-2022.

IRCC also aims, at the end of each calendar year, for visitors and international students to account for monetary contributions of at least $36 billion to Canada’s economy.

Over the course of 2024, the Canadian federal government undertook a systematic initiative to reduce immigration levels in response to increased pressure on Canada’s infrastructure—particularly housing and social services.

This involved numerous changes, including capping study permit applications for processing, limiting eligibility for PGWPs and SOWPs, and imposing a moratorium on the processing of low-wage LMIAs in census metropolitan areas with an unemployment rate of 6% or higher.

The federal government held to this policy direction in its 2025-2027 Immigration Levels Plan, which cut overall permanent resident admissions by around 20%, and was the first annual plan to establish targets for net new temporary resident admissions.

Canada’s federal government has also mandated that provinces issue 75% of their PNP nominations to candidates already present in Canada.

As of the time of writing, the federal government has held the following Express Entry draws in 2025: