Please forward this to ONE Canadian immigrant today and tell them to subscribe here.

TL;DR

Canada's total immigration backlog fell by 48,900 applications in February to 941,400, its lowest point since July 2025, according to the latest data from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. At the same time, the permanent residence inventory crossed one million for the first time on record.

IRCC's total inventory, all pending files regardless of age, held steady at about 2.09 million. The backlog counts only files that have exceeded the department's service standards. IRCC's stated goal is to process 80% of applications within those standards.

A falling backlog alongside a flat inventory means IRCC is clearing older files more efficiently, not that fewer people are applying.

The temporary residence backlog fell to 344,100 by the end of February, down from 427,900 in December 2025. Within that category, work permit backlogs dropped 11% and visitor visa backlogs fell 6%, according to CIC News.

Temporary residence inventory also shrank, falling to 824,500 from 910,900 in December. That represents a reduction of more than 86,000 pending files in roughly two months.

The improvement aligns with the federal government's 2026–2028 Immigration Levels Plan, which explicitly reduces temporary resident targets. IRCC has said the plan focuses on stabilizing permanent resident admissions while scaling back temporary entries to address what it calls economic needs in sectors like health care and construction.

Permanent residence moved in the opposite direction. The inventory reached 1,007,400 applications, the first time this category has passed the one-million threshold in IRCC's published data. The backlog within that category stood at 536,800, meaning more than half of all pending PR files had exceeded service standards.

Express Entry was the exception. Its backlog fell to a record low of 11%, as reported by Immigration News Canada. But Express Entry is one stream inside a much larger PR system. Family sponsorship and provincial nominee pathways continue to carry heavy congestion, which is why the overall PR inventory can grow even as one stream improves.

Under the levels plan, IRCC can only approve a fixed number of permanent residents each year under the levels plan. When more applications arrive than the annual cap allows, files queue up regardless of processing speed.

Citizenship grant inventory stood at 260,800 with a backlog of 60,500. That queue is smaller than permanent residence but has grown modestly in recent months.

Compared with December 2025, the overall system shed about 73,300 backlogged files while trimming total inventory by roughly 34,800. The backlog fell faster than the inventory, which suggests the department prioritized older cases rather than simply slowing intake.

If you're waiting on a work permit or visitor visa, the February numbers point to real improvement. Processing pressure in temporary residence has eased over two consecutive months, and your wait may be shorter than it would have been in late 2025.

If you're in Express Entry, the record-low backlog is 11%, but processing times still vary by stream and file complexity. A low backlog percentage does not guarantee a fast decision on your specific application.

If you're in a family sponsorship or provincial nominee stream, more than half of all permanent residence files are past service standards, and the annual cap on PR admissions limits how quickly the queue can move.