Canada work permit processing time, by country.

Work permit processing times: the picture across countries

Work permit processing times differ a lot by country because IRCC reports each country separately. Of the 61 countries with a figure, they spread like this:

Shortest listed: Guatemala (1 week), Belgium (2 weeks), Honduras (2 weeks), Libya (2 weeks), Mexico (2 weeks).

Longest listed: Iran (57 weeks), Bangladesh (49 weeks), Madagascar (38 weeks), Ghana (21 weeks), South Africa (16 weeks).

Large source countries: India (10 weeks), Nigeria (10 weeks), Philippines (9 weeks), Pakistan (9 weeks), China (5 weeks), Mexico (2 weeks).

151 entries have no number. IRCC shows “No processing time available” or “Not enough data” for them (151 and 0 respectively); that means IRCC has not published a figure, not that decisions are instant or stopped.

All countries

“Days” converts IRCC’s wording at 7 days a week and 30.4 days a month so countries can be compared; the IRCC wording is the figure of record.

History since October 20, 2026

Choose a country above 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 “processing time” means here

“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)

In practice that makes it a look backwards, not a forecast: of the work permit applications from outside Canada that IRCC finished recently for your country, 80% were decided within the stated time. It is a long-run marker, so about one in five took longer, and it is measured on applications that were already decided, so a sudden surge or backlog shows up late. The clock starts when IRCC has your complete application; an application returned as incomplete or still waiting for a document has not started its clock.

“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)

The calculator above only adds IRCC’s figure to your date. If today is past that mark you are in the slower 20%, which is common and not by itself a sign of a refusal. IRCC’s own advice, quoted above, is that calling does not speed things up; use your IRCC account to check status and to submit a case-specific enquiry when IRCC says you may.

Worked example

Take work permit applications from India. IRCC’s figure is 10 weeks, which this page converts to 70 days. If IRCC received a complete application on October 26, 2026, adding 70 days gives January 4, 2027 as the date by which about 80% of similar recent applications had been decided. An application still open after that date is in the slower 20%, which is not a refusal. For comparison, the middle country on this page is at 7 weeks (49 days). The figure describes decisions already made, so it will lag if IRCC’s workload has just changed.