Immigration Levels Plan Sets 2027 Targets At 370,000 And 380,000

Immigration Levels Plan details for 2027–2029 were released by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada on November 5, 2026. The plan sets targets for new temporary resident arrivals and permanent resident admissions over the next three years.

Immigration Levels Plan Update

The Immigration Levels Plan sets 2027 targets of 370,000 new temporary resident arrivals and 380,000 permanent resident admissions. The 2028 and 2029 figures are currently notional and may be confirmed or adjusted in future annual updates.

The plan maintains the headline numbers across the three-year framework while emphasizing economic immigration, regional labour needs, Francophone immigration outside Quebec and people already living in Canada.

Canada’s temporary resident targets remain stable

The plan sets an overall target of 370,000 new temporary resident arrivals in each of 2027, 2028 and 2029. Each year’s target includes 220,000 workers and 150,000 international students.

The worker target is divided between 170,000 arrivals under the International Mobility Program and 50,000 arrivals under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program.

IRCC says the temporary resident targets are intended to provide greater predictability for employers, educational institutions, provinces and territories.

The targets apply to new arrivals under temporary worker and international student programs rather than every person who holds temporary status in Canada.

IRCC does not set these targets for visitors arriving with temporary resident visas or electronic travel authorizations, permit extensions, in-Canada study or work permit applications, or asylum claimants. The department says asylum claimant volumes and in-Canada applications are nevertheless included in the methodology used to pursue the broader non-permanent-resident population objective.

The projected temporary resident arrival range is 355,000 to 385,000 for each year. The ranges for 2028 and 2029 are notional and may be confirmed or adjusted by November 1 of the following year.

Permanent resident admissions set at 380,000 per year

The Immigration Levels Plan sets overall permanent resident admissions at 380,000 in each year from 2027 through 2029, subject to the annual confirmation or adjustment process for the notional 2028 and 2029 figures.

The planned range for total permanent resident admissions is 352,500 to 422,000 in each year.

These are planning targets and ranges, not a guarantee that every applicant will receive permanent residence.

Permanent resident admissions include people becoming permanent residents from inside Canada as well as applicants arriving from abroad.

IRCC assigns 244,700 admissions annually to economic immigration, representing 64.4% of the total target. The economic category includes federal high-skilled programs, federal business programs, economic pilots, the Rural Community Immigration Program, the Atlantic Immigration Program and the Provincial Nominee Program. Quebec’s skilled-worker and business targets are listed as to be determined under the Canada–Quebec Accord.

The Provincial Nominee Program has a target of 95,000 admissions in each of the three years, with an annual range of 83,000 to 106,000.

The Atlantic Immigration Program has a target of 6,000 admissions annually. Its range is 5,000 to 8,500 in 2027 and 5,000 to 7,000 in both 2028 and 2029.

The Rural Community Immigration Program has a target of 5,500 admissions in 2027, rising to 6,000 in 2028 and 6,500 in 2029.

The plan does not itself create a new Express Entry draw schedule, minimum Comprehensive Ranking System score or individual application entitlement.

Family and humanitarian categories remain broadly stable

The plan assigns 81,000 permanent resident admissions annually to family reunification. That total includes 66,000 spouses, partners and children and 15,000 parents and grandparents in each year of the plan.

The planned range for total family admissions is 76,000 to 89,000 annually.

Refugees and protected persons are assigned 49,300 admissions per year, with a range of 42,000 to 55,000.

The refugee and protected person category includes protected persons in Canada and dependants abroad, government-assisted refugees and privately sponsored refugees.

Humanitarian and Compassionate and Other admissions are set at 5,000 annually, with a range of 4,500 to 8,000.

IRCC describes the family, refugee and humanitarian allocations as stable across the three-year plan.

Francophone immigration targets rise outside Quebec

The Immigration Levels Plan increases the target for French-speaking permanent resident admissions outside Quebec.

The target is 9.5% of permanent resident admissions outside Quebec in 2027, equal to 31,825 admissions. The target rises to 10.5% in 2028, equal to 35,175 admissions, and 12% in 2029, equal to 40,200 admissions.

IRCC says the targets are intended to support the vitality and economic development of Francophone minority communities.

The figures apply outside Quebec and may be updated after Quebec tables its 2027 immigration levels plan.

The Francophone targets are overall planning objectives and do not mean that every French-speaking applicant qualifies for a particular federal or provincial immigration program.

New time-limited measure focuses on people already in Canada

The Immigration Levels Plan introduces a new time-limited measure to process permanent residence applications in 2027 through two cohorts.

The measure is intended to support up to 200,000 people already living in Canada, including up to 100,000 people in a workers cohort and up to 100,000 people in a humanitarian cohort.

The workers cohort concerns in-Canada workers and their accompanying family members. IRCC says it will work with provinces and territories to support regional labour market needs and use additional space connected with provincial and selected federal pathways.

The humanitarian cohort concerns people already in Canada who have been waiting for many years, including certain existing humanitarian commitments and application inventories.

IRCC says the measure is intended to support fairness, keep families together and fulfill existing humanitarian commitments. It does not mean that every temporary worker, work permit holder or humanitarian applicant will be included.

The plan also continues previously announced initiatives for 2026 and 2027 involving up to 115,000 protected persons in Canada and their in-Canada dependants, as well as 33,000 work permit holders.

Those initiatives are separate policy measures with their own implementation details.

Applicants should not treat the announcement as an automatic pathway to permanent residence without confirming whether IRCC or a participating province has published eligibility instructions.

What the 2027 plan means for workers and students

The Immigration Levels Plan gives workers a larger planned share of new temporary arrivals than international students, with 220,000 worker arrivals compared with 150,000 student arrivals each year.

The plan does not guarantee that a particular employer will receive a work permit approval or that a particular student will receive a study permit.

Temporary resident targets also do not replace the eligibility requirements for work permits, study permits, Labour Market Impact Assessments, provincial nominations or permanent residence programs.

For international graduates and temporary workers, the more relevant question will be how IRCC and provinces implement specific programs within the published levels.

IRCC says it is advancing reforms to Express Entry and federal economic programs to select candidates whose skills and experience align with long-term labour market needs, including skilled tradespeople and other high-potential workers.

Why the targets were kept unchanged

The Immigration Levels Plan is part of the federal government’s broader effort to restore stability and predictability to Canada’s immigration system.

IRCC says the plan balances economic needs with pressure on housing, infrastructure, health care and social services.

The government is also pursuing an objective of reducing the non-permanent resident population to less than 5% of Canada’s population and keeping permanent resident admissions below 1% of the population beyond 2027.

The temporary resident target is therefore designed to manage new arrivals rather than measure every temporary resident already in Canada.

IRCC consulted provinces, territories, municipalities, employers, educational institutions, community organizations and members of the public while developing the plan.

The department reported receiving 16,111 responses during its 2026 immigration levels consultation and noted that the results were not statistically representative of the Canadian population.

What applicants should watch next

The Immigration Levels Plan establishes annual planning numbers, but it does not publish every operational rule that applicants need to file an application.

Future instructions may provide more detail about provincial allocations, application intake, Express Entry categories, temporary resident processing and the time-limited 2027 cohorts.

Applicants should continue relying on the official IRCC program page, the relevant provincial or territorial immigration authority and any published ministerial instructions.

People should also distinguish between a target, a range, an announced initiative and an eligibility rule.

As of November 5, 2026, the confirmed national framework is 370,000 new temporary resident arrivals and 380,000 permanent resident admissions annually from 2027 through 2029, with the 2028 and 2029 figures subject to future confirmation or adjustment.

Frequently Asked Questions

Fact-Checked: Fact-checked against current IRCC and Government of Canada sources published for the 2027-2029 Immigration Levels Plan and the 2026 Annual Report to Parliament on Immigration.

Disclaimer: Immigration targets are planning figures and do not guarantee eligibility, approval or admission for any individual applicant.