IRCC processing times, by program and country.

Pick the page for your application

• Visitor visa by country — Middle figure about 5 weeks; 170 countries.
• Study permit by country — Middle figure about 6 weeks; 92 countries.
• Work permit by country — Middle figure about 7 weeks; 61 countries.
• Super visa by country — Middle figure about 9 weeks; 38 countries.
• PR and Express Entry backlog — Federal Skilled Worker about 7 months; Canadian Experience Class about 6 months.
• Family sponsorship — Spouse abroad (outside Quebec): about 18 months.
• Citizenship — Citizenship grant: about 12 months, about 322,700 people waiting.
• Extensions in Canada — Visitor 341 days, study 56 days, work 121 days.
• PR card, passport, eTA — PR card 30 days for new PRs; eTA 5 minutes.

Each page has IRCC’s current figure, what it means, a date calculator, and recorded history since October 20, 2026. Temporary resident figures are listed by country; permanent residence, family and citizenship figures are listed by program with the number of people ahead of an application from your month.

History since October 20, 2026

Choose a country to see its recorded history.

IRCC publishes only the current figure and keeps no public history, so we record it ourselves. Our recording began October 20, 2026; a line appears once a value has changed, and a recorder feed is checked in your browser for a longer history when one exists.

What IRCC means by “processing time”

“We calculate them by checking how long it took us to process 80% of that type of application in the past… Your processing time starts the day we receive your complete application and ends when we make a decision on it.”Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, Check processing times, “How we calculate historical (backwards-looking) processing times” and “When processing times start” (read October 26, 2026)

Two kinds of figure appear on these pages. Visa and permit times by country are backward-looking: the time in which 80% of recent applications were decided. Permanent residence, sponsorship and citizenship waits are forward-looking: IRCC estimates the time left from the queue and how many cases it expects to finish each month.

“We calculate forward-looking processing times using: the total number of applications we already have to process for a given program; the number of applications we expect to process each month going forward… This means the amount of time you have left to wait will generally decrease, but can also increase.”IRCC, Check processing times, “How we calculate estimated (forward-looking) processing times” and “Why processing times change” (read October 26, 2026)

“There are a couple of reasons why your application may take longer than the processing time: your application may not be complete; your application is complex; we need to check more things on your application for security reasons; the cap for your program has been reached for the year… Calling us won’t help your application get processed faster.”IRCC, Check processing times, “Why your application may be taking longer than the processing time” (read October 26, 2026)

Why keep our own history

IRCC shows one current number and no history, so a change from 7 weeks to 12 is invisible unless someone wrote the old number down. We record IRCC’s figures from October 20, 2026 and add a point whenever a value changes, so each page can show whether your country is getting faster or slower. History is only as long as the recording: an early page will show a single point, and we do not backfill numbers we did not observe.

Worked example

A study permit applicant in Denmark sees 2 weeks, while one applying from Iran sees 21 weeks; the middle of IRCC’s country figures is 6 weeks. If IRCC received a complete application on October 26, 2026, the slowest country’s figure points to about March 22, 2027. Permanent residence works differently: Canadian Experience Class shows about 6 months with about 53,900 people waiting.