Canada’s Immigration Levels Plan 2026-28 Will Include New Pathways to Grant PR for Temporary Residents
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As specified in the budget 2025, Canada will undertake a new program in order to transition up to 33,000 work permit holders to permanent residency by 2027 in the upcoming Immigration Levels Plan.
The Immigration Levels Plan 2026-2028 will also include some of the other major changes, like:
- Reducing the temporary resident admissions target for 2026 to 385,000, which represents a decrease of 43% compared to the 673,654 of 2025 target.
- The target for international student admissions in 2026 will account to only 155,000, compared to the 2025 target of 305,900, it is a decrease of 49%.
- The target for admissions to temporary foreign workers would be around 230,000, which is a decrease of 37% from the 2025 target of 367,750. But a comparative increase of 8% to last year's 2026 target estimation under the Immigration Levels Plan 2025-2027.
- Granting permanent resident status to eligible Protected Persons in Canada over the next 2 years
- The permanent residents admission target for 2026 would remain at 380,000, which is unchanged from last year's plan.
- The government also plans to allocate 64% of permanent resident admissions to economic immigration, up from 59% in comparison to 2025.
- The plan will also consider industries and sectors impacted by tariffs and the unique needs of rural and remote communities.
The Liberal Minority Government under Prime Minister Mark Carney tabled the budget 2025 in Parliament on the afternoon of November 4, 2025.
The federal government is further expected to announce plans for Canada's immigration system in more detail when the minister tables the 2025 annual report to Parliament on immigration.
Also Read: Canada to Redefine Immigration Strategy to Attract Skilled Global Talent & Boost Innovation
Reduction Of Temporary Residence Targets
- The upcoming Immigration Levels Plan’s reduction of targets for temporary residence admissions for 2026 in comparison to 2025 represents a shift in planning, but not practice
- Irrespective of lowering the targets from 2025 673,650 to this year, we may not see significantly fewer temporary resident admissions than in 2025, as temporary resident admissions in 2025 have significantly lagged the existing targets.
- From January to August of 2025, Canada admitted only 154,515 temporary foreign workers, which is just about 42% of its annual target of 3,67,750 and over the same period, the country admitted only 89,430 international students, which is only 29% of the annual target of 305,900
Changes To Canada's Temporary Foreign Worker Program
Prime Minister Carney telegraphed upcoming changes to Canada's Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP).
- In his address to the Liberal Caucus in Edmonton on September 10. 2025, he states, “The TFWP must have a focused approach that targets specific. strategic sectors, and needs in a specific region. He also said that the government was actively working towards these objectives.
- The budget 2025, however, does not include a breakdown of worker admissions between Canada's 2 work permit programs: the TFWP and the International Mobility Program (IMP)
- The IMP has accounted for the largest share of work permits issued in Canada as in 2025, there was a target allocated of 285,750 admissions under IMP and only 82,000 under the TFWP While the last year's plan set 2026 targets at 128,700 for IMP and 82,000 for TFWP.
- The annual admission targets for 2026 for either the IMP or TFWP must witness an increase, compared to last year's plan, which had set a combined target of only 210,700, vs the upcoming 2026 target of 230,000.
Also Read: IRCC Conducts 3rd Largest Express Entry Draw Inviting 6,000 French-speaking Candidates
Permanent Resident Admission Targets
- It is anticipated that the upcoming plan will present only minor changes to 2026 admission targets for permanent residents, compared to the 2026 targets mentioned in last year's plan, and the overall admission target for permanent residents in 2026 would likely remain flat at 380,000
- The economic immigration target will rise modestly to 239,800, up from 229,750 in last year's plan, while the 2026 admission targets for family reunification could go down to 84,000 from previously 88,000, and the refugees and humanitarian targets to 56,200 from previously 62,250.
About Canada’s Immigration Levels Plan
Canada's immigration levels plan sets out the annual targets for admissions of temporary and permanent residents over the upcoming three years. While the targets of the upcoming year are firm, the targets for the following two years are notional and subject to revision
Last year's plan was the first Levels Plan to target temporary resident admissions and cut top-level targets for annual permanent resident admissions by 20% down from the 2024 to 2026 plan's target of 500,000 per year.
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