January 1, 2025

In procession with the ringing in of the 2025 new year, Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), has rolled out ministerial instructions capping the number of applications accepted with respect to permanent resident visas in both the Agri-Food immigration class, and the parents and grandparents class.

Falling in line, these caps are another cut of many that we’ve seen taken by the Honourable Marc Miller, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, in an attempt to meet the immigration goals established by the Government of Canada. On October 24, 2024, Mr. Miller announced the 2025-2027 Immigration Levels Plan: a plan designed to pause population growth in the short term to achieve well-managed, sustainable growth in the long term. For the first time ever, the levels plan includes controlled targets for temporary residents, specifically international students and foreign workers, as well as for permanent residents. In the short term the levels plan has been created to alleviate pressure on housing, infrastructure and social services, and that means slowing immigration levels in the interim. In the long term, immigration will flow once again, and be used as a tool to grow our economic and social prosperity.

Between 2025-2026 the Immigration Levels Plan is expected to result in a marginal population decline of 0.2%, before returning to a population growth of 0.8% in 2027. This will result in, 2025, seeing a reduction of 105,000 new permanent resident approvals, and a reduction of 445,901 temporary residents. These reductions include a cap on international students and tightened eligibility requirements for temporary foreign workers. Some of the main goals of the Immigration Levels Plan include: helping temporary residents already in Canada transition to permanent resident status; focusing on long-term economic growth and key labour market sectors through express entry; and strengthening francophone communities outside Quebec and supporting their economic prosperity (francophone will represent 8.5% of the 2025 permanent resident admission targets).