An earlier version of this article said Canada’s immigration target would rise to 500,000 new permanent residents in 2025. That is not what happened, and this page has been rewritten to reflect the current plan.
Canada reduced its permanent resident targets rather than increasing them. Under the 2026-2028 Immigration Levels Plan published by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada in November 2025, the target is 380,000 permanent residents per year for 2026, 2027 and 2028.
This article explains what the levels plan is, what the current numbers are, and what changed.
What the Immigration Levels Plan is
Canada plans its immigration in advance. Each year the federal government publishes a multi-year levels plan setting out how many permanent residents it intends to admit, broken down by category, along with targets for new temporary residents. It is a planning document rather than a quota that gets filled exactly, and each figure comes with a low and high range.
The plan matters to applicants because it determines roughly how many places exist in each program, which in turn shapes how competitive that program is over the following years.
The headline number: 380,000 a year
Overall planned permanent resident admissions are 380,000 for each of 2026, 2027 and 2028, with a planning range of 350,000 to 420,000 in each year. IRCC describes this as admissions stabilising, following a period of reductions from earlier and higher targets.
The 2025 target had been 395,000, so 380,000 is a modest further reduction and then a flat line for three years. The more significant shift is not the total but the mix inside it.
Where the 380,000 places go in 2026
| Category | 2026 target | 2027 | 2028 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total permanent residents | 380,000 | 380,000 | 380,000 |
| Federal High Skilled (Express Entry) | 109,000 | 111,000 | 111,000 |
| Provincial Nominee Program | 91,500 | 92,500 | 92,500 |
| Atlantic Immigration Program | 4,000 | 4,000 | 4,000 |
| Federal economic pilots | 8,175 | 8,775 | 8,775 |
| Federal Business | 500 | 500 | 500 |
| Total economic | 239,800 | 244,700 | 244,700 |
| Spouses, partners and children | 69,000 | 66,000 | 66,000 |
| Parents and grandparents | 15,000 | 15,000 | 15,000 |
| Total family | 84,000 | 81,000 | 81,000 |
| Refugees and protected persons | 49,300 | 49,300 | 49,300 |
| Humanitarian, compassionate and other | 6,900 | 5,000 | 5,000 |
Quebec sets its own economic immigration numbers under a separate agreement, and those figures are listed as to be determined in the federal plan.
The economic share is rising
This is the part of the plan that most affects skilled applicants. The economic category grows as a proportion of the total, reaching 64% of admissions in 2027 and 2028. Both of the largest economic streams go up in absolute terms, with Federal High Skilled rising to 111,000 and the Provincial Nominee Program to 92,500.
IRCC’s stated reasoning is that increasing Federal High Skilled and PNP admissions lets Canada attract talent for major projects while responding to the labour market needs of individual provinces. The practical effect is that provinces have more say in who is selected than they did a few years ago.
Family class stays broadly stable at between 21.3% and 22.1% of admissions, and refugees and protected persons account for 13%.
The bigger cut is on the temporary side
The reduction in permanent residents is small. The reduction in new temporary residents is not.
| New temporary resident arrivals | 2026 | 2027 | 2028 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall arrivals | 385,000 | 370,000 | 370,000 |
| Workers, total | 230,000 | 220,000 | 220,000 |
| International Mobility Program | 170,000 | 170,000 | 170,000 |
| Temporary Foreign Worker Program | 60,000 | 50,000 | 50,000 |
| Students | 155,000 | 150,000 | 150,000 |
IRCC has tied this to a commitment to reduce Canada’s temporary population to less than 5% of the total population by the end of 2027. The student figure represents a very large reduction from recent intake levels, and the balance of work permits shifts towards the International Mobility Program and away from LMIA-based hiring.
Two one-time measures
The plan includes two initiatives that sit outside the ordinary targets.
The first streamlines the transition to permanent residence of approximately 115,000 protected persons already in Canada and already on a pathway to it, over a two-year period. IRCC states that these admissions are in addition to the permanent resident targets in the table above.
The second accelerates the move to permanent residence of up to 33,000 temporary workers across 2026 and 2027, aimed at workers already established in their communities.
Both reflect the plan’s general direction, which is to select more permanent residents from among people already in Canada.
French-speaking admissions outside Quebec
The plan raises the target for French-speaking permanent resident admissions outside Quebec from 9% in 2026 to 9.5% in 2027 and 10.5% in 2028, supporting a stated goal of 12% by 2029. For applicants with usable French, this is one of the clearer advantages in the current system.
How to read the ranges
Every figure in the plan carries a low and high range, and the overall range of 350,000 to 420,000 is wide. Actual admissions depend on processing capacity, application volumes and policy decisions made during the year. Treat the targets as the government’s intention and a guide to relative priorities, not as a guarantee of how many people will be admitted in any category.
Levels plans are also republished annually, and figures for later years can change before those years arrive.
What this means if you are planning to apply
In short: a flat overall target, a larger economic share, more weight on provincial nomination, and a much narrower temporary route into the country.
We have written a companion article on what the 380,000 target means specifically for applicants based in the UAE, including which routes hold up best under the current plan.
Check your position against the current plan
If you want to know which of these categories you realistically fit into, request a profile assessment. We will tell you which routes are open to you under the current rules and which are not.
All figures above are taken from Supplementary Information for the 2026-2028 Immigration Levels Plan, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, published 5 November 2025. Confirm current figures on IRCC’s website before making decisions.
Not sure which route fits you? Speak to a licensed consultant — CICC (Canada) and MARA (Australia) regulated. No obligation.
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