Since 2020, Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has been delaying processing of permanent residence applications. While IRCC announced they are prioritizing processing for inland applicants (applicants who are currently residing in Canada) it has been apparent from IRCC forums that only the Canadian Experience Class (CEC) stream was prioritized. There has been a severe backlog for applicants (this includes inland applicants) for Federal Skills Worker (FSW) and Provincial Nomination Program (PNP). 

There IRCC website officially mentions that for all streams beyond CEC they "have limited capacity to process applications and you may experience a delay." 

For CEC, there is a clear weekly status on submission dates for the applications that are currently being processed. However, for PNP and FSW, there is zero visibility on this. This is keeping applicants in the dark and moving potential immigrants to other countries. It is also contradictory to Canadian immigration plan which makes it appear Canadian economy would be centered around higher immigration numbers. Application delays is bad and lack of visibility on status and revised completion dates worse.

Canadas immigration is merit based due to a points based system. However, applications with higher points in PNP and FSW are being deprioritized in favor of CEC inland applications. While inland applicants were prioritized due to pandemic, specifically PNP and FSW inland applications have not been prioritized. Lack of visibility of where ones application is and how far they are from receiving a decision is frustrating for applicants. IRCC forums make it appear there are significant applicants who have been waiting for more than 15 months. This is leading to an erosion of trust on IRCC and Canadian immigration system as a whole. 

Application submissions continue to be provided with a 6 month processing estimate and that is not being met for any of the application streams. The only way to regain the trust is to provide greater accountability and transparency from IRCC.

Requesting weekly visibility in:

1. # of applications processed by stream including number of background checks completed, portal emails and cetfificate of permanent residence (COPR) sent out.

2. Submission dates for the applications that are currently being processed for PNP inland, FSW inland, PNP Outland and FSW Outland streams.

3. Revision of expectations by updating processing timelines from 6 months to the current ongoing processing time for most (80%) of the applications that are not deemed complex".