Canada's Immigration System Undergoes Key Adjustments: 2025 Mid-Year Review Highlights Quota Reductions and Policy Updates
Entering 2025, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) introduced a series of policy adjustments that have reshaped the country's immigration landscape. These changes affect not only permanent resident applicants seeking to settle in Canada but also have a direct impact on the large population of international students and temporary workers.
Macro-level Controls: Reduced Immigration Quotas and Caps on Temporary Residents
The shift in Canada's immigration policy is first reflected in its macro-level figures. According to the 2025-2027 Immigration Levels Plan released in late 2024, the federal government lowered its annual admission targets for permanent residents. In a more landmark development, IRCC set an annual target for the temporary resident population for the first time, aiming to reduce their share of the total population from 7.4% in October 2024 to 5% by the end of 2026.
Data shows that the growth rate of the temporary resident population had already slowed significantly in the second half of 2024. This trend reflects the federal government's clear signal to control population growth and alleviate pressure on social services like housing and healthcare. Furthermore, the policy specifies that over 40% of PR spots in 2025 will be allocated to workers and students already in Canada, underscoring the "in-Canada priority" principle.
Reform of Federal Flagship Program: Express Entry Rules Rewritten
As the core system for federal skilled immigration, Express Entry experienced transformative changes in 2025.
As of March 25, IRCC eliminated the additional points for Arranged Employment. Previously, an applicant with a job offer supported by a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) could receive 50 or 200 points, which was a near guarantee of receiving an invitation. This move has significantly altered the competitive landscape, giving renewed hope to high-scoring overseas applicants without Canadian employer support while also increasing the relative advantage of in-Canada applicants.
Additionally, Category-based Selection draws underwent major adjustments. IRCC added a new "Education" category (including 5 occupations) while removing the "Transportation" category. The lists of eligible occupations for existing categories—such as Healthcare, STEM, Trades, and Agri-food—also saw additions and removals. Notably, the STEM category had 19 occupations removed, while the Trades category saw 19 added. The priority categories for 2025 have been confirmed as: French-language proficiency, Trade occupations, and Healthcare and social services occupations.
Federal-Provincial Dynamics: PNP Allocations Halved and Strategies Adjusted
While the federal level tightened, provincial immigration programs also faced immense pressure. In 2025, the federal government cut allocations for the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) by 50%.
In response to the drastic reduction in spots, provinces were forced to react. Provinces like Newfoundland and Labrador and New Brunswick successfully negotiated with the federal government for additional nomination spaces. Other provinces took stricter measures, including suspending some immigration streams, limiting application intake, and tightening eligibility criteria, to focus their precious allocations on the most critical sectors, such as healthcare and construction. Jurisdictions like Yukon and Newfoundland and Labrador also introduced new Expression of Interest (EOI) systems, replacing a previous model where eligible candidates could apply directly, thereby enhancing their screening capabilities.
New Opportunities Emerge: New Pilots and Targeted Pathways
While tightening some streams, IRCC also opened new, clearly targeted immigration pathways.
- Launch of Two Community Pilots: On January 30, the Rural Community Immigration Pilot (RCIP) and the Francophone Community Immigration Pilot (FCIP) were officially launched. The former aims to fill labor shortages in rural areas, while the latter serves the federal government's broader strategy to promote Francophone immigration outside of Quebec.
- New Pilots for Home Care Workers: Two new pilots for home care workers, targeting "Child Care" and "Home Support" providers, opened for applications on March 31. The in-Canada streams for these pilots were filled on the first day, reflecting huge demand.
- Agri-Food Pilot Closes: Meanwhile, the Agri-Food Immigration Pilot, designed to attract workers in agriculture and food processing, closed on February 13 after reaching its cap.
- Dedicated Pathway for Construction Workers Forthcoming: To address the housing crisis, the government has announced that a new permanent residence pathway for construction workers is in development. It is expected to admit up to 14,000 foreign construction workers and may provide a pathway to status for up to 6,000 undocumented construction workers already in Canada.
Comprehensive Tightening of Study and Work Permit Policies
For international students and temporary workers, 2025 has been a challenging year.
- New Study Permit Rules: IRCC set a processing cap of 550,000 study permit applications for 2025, with approved permits also dropping by 10% compared to the previous year. Master's and PhD students are now required to provide a Provincial Attestation Letter (PAL). Furthermore, international students must apply for a new study permit to switch institutions, unlike in the past when they could simply notify IRCC.
- Higher Bar for Spousal Work Permits: Spouses of international students are now only eligible for an open work permit if their partner is enrolled in a doctoral program, a specified professional degree program (e.g., law, engineering), or a master's program of at least 16 months. Spouses of temporary workers also face stricter requirements related to their partner's occupation level (TEER 0, 1, 2, or 3) and work permit validity.
- PGWP Adjustments: While the government removed the field-of-study restriction for graduates of college bachelor's programs applying for a Post-Graduation Work Permit (PGWP), it updated the list of eligible fields on June 25, adding 119 while removing 178.
Other Key Policy Updates
- Political Shifts: In March, economist Mark Carney became the new Prime Minister of Canada. His cabinet saw two changes in the role of Immigration Minister in short succession, signaling potential for further policy volatility.
- Extension of Temporary Public Policies: Special policies for PNP nominees, Ukrainian nationals, and Iranian nationals to extend their status or work permits were extended. The temporary policy allowing holders of employer-specific work permits to change employers while waiting for a new permit was also updated and made permanent.
- Citizenship Act Reform: The government introduced Bill C-3 to address the "first-generation limit" on citizenship by descent, allowing children of Canadians born abroad to inherit citizenship if they can demonstrate a "substantial connection to Canada."
- Quebec’s Independent Measures: As a province with its own immigration system, Quebec announced more aggressive reduction plans, suspended several immigration programs, and demanded that the federal government significantly reduce the number of International Mobility Program (IMP) work permit holders in the province.
In summary, the adjustments to Canada's immigration policy in the first half of 2025 clearly outline a more cautious, strategic, and domestically-focused future blueprint. For global applicants, this means a greater need to precisely align with Canada's priority needs and remain highly attentive to rapid policy changes.
Friendly reminder: There are many pathways to immigrate to Canada. We recommend first using UNA AI to generate an objective and neutral immigration plan, so you can gain an initial understanding of the possible immigration pathways and their requirements, and then choose to proceed with one-on-one consultations with a licensed Canadian immigration consultant partnered with UNA.
Newfoundland and Labrador Issues 131 Invitations on October 9, Its Largest Round Since Late August
Newfoundland and Labrador issued 131 Invitations to Apply (ITAs) from its Expression of Interest (EOI) pool on October 9, 2026, with 130 going to candidates under the Newfoundland and Labrador Provincial Nominee Program (NLPNP) and one through the Atlantic Immigration Program (AIP). The round, the province's first in two weeks and its first of October, was its largest since August 26 (140), more than triple the September 25 round (41) and bigger than all four September rounds. AIP selections remain minimal, with three of the five rounds held since the start of September including none at all. The province has now issued 2,826 ITAs across 17 rounds in 2026 — 2,430 under the NLPNP and 396 through the AIP — against a combined 2026 nomination allocation of 2,854 spaces, including an NLPNP allocation raised this year to 2,379 and an unchanged AIP allocation of 475. Candidates nominated through the NLPNP Express Entry Skilled Worker category receive an extra 600 Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) points.
10/12/2026
Low-wage LMIA freeze expands to 30 regions as Halifax, Regina and four other CMAs are added
The federal government updated its list of regions where low-wage Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) applications will not be processed on Oct. 9, 2026, adding six census metropolitan areas (CMAs) - Halifax, Fredericton, Kingston, St. Catharines-Niagara, Regina and Lethbridge - after their unemployment rates reached or exceeded 6%, while removing Kamloops and Chilliwack and keeping the 24 previously affected regions in place, which brings the total to 30, up from 26 last quarter. From Oct. 9, 2026 to Jan. 7, 2027, employers in these areas cannot hire new foreign workers, or renew work permits for existing ones, in non-exempt positions paying less than 120% of the provincial or territorial median hourly wage, although agriculture, construction, food manufacturing, hospitals and nursing care facilities are not affected. The measure, in force since Sept. 26, 2024, is one of a series of steps Ottawa has taken to tighten the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP), and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) separately extended its concurrent processing window from 60 to 90 days on Aug. 21, 2026, giving foreign workers in Canada with expiring permits more breathing room.
10/10/2026
Ottawa Commits $20 Million to Expand Practice Ready Ontario, Fast-Tracking Up to 200 Internationally Trained Family Physicians
On October 7, 2026, the federal government announced $20 million to expand Practice Ready Ontario (PRO), adding 50 positions a year for four years so that up to 200 internationally trained family physicians can be ready to practise in Ontario by 2028–29, including through a dedicated stream for French-speaking physicians and with a focus on underserved northern, rural and Francophone communities. PRO replaces the traditional two-year residency with a 12-week clinical field assessment, allowing experienced doctors to become licensed in under a year rather than the three to five years typical of other routes. Participants sign a three-year return of service agreement and practise under supervision, earning full independent licensure only after completing that commitment and passing the College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC) certification exam. The funding is the latest step in a coordinated federal-provincial push on health workforce shortages: Ottawa has already invited 891 physicians to apply for permanent residence in 2026 through a dedicated Express Entry category, and Ontario now lets doctors and nurses licensed elsewhere in Canada start work within days.
10/09/2026
IRCC Updates Job Offer Genuineness Guidance: Home-Based Businesses Can Support Employer-Specific Work Permits
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) revised its officer instructions on assessing the genuineness of job offers for employer-specific work permits on September 17, 2026, confirming that home-based businesses can make genuine offers to foreign workers and that a residential address is not, on its own, a reason for doubt. The revised guidance no longer says employers must have a physical location in Canada where the foreign worker will work, and it notes that a business address may differ from where employees actually work. Officers are told to consider all relevant evidence rather than treat any single factor as decisive. At the same time, the instructions state that a company with no employees, existing in name only and set up to facilitate the entry of foreign nationals, is not an operating business. The update also adds a procedural fairness step: an officer with concerns about an offer should send a letter explaining them, and the employer is given 15 days to submit evidence directly to IRCC. Employers must still show that they genuinely conduct business, need the worker they want to hire and can meet the wages and other terms they have offered.
10/08/2026
Ontario Raises Earnings Points Ceiling, Awarding 10 Points to Candidates Earning $80,000 or More
The Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP) announced on Oct. 7, 2026, that it has added a new top bracket to the scoring grid of the Ontario Workforce Priority Stream (OWPS), awarding 10 points under the "Canadian work experience: earnings history" factor to candidates with annual earnings of $80,000 or more, two points above the previous maximum of 8 points for earnings of $70,000 or more. The change took effect on Oct. 5 and has been applied automatically to affected profiles. Earnings are based on a Notice of Assessment issued by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) within the past five years, and higher-scoring candidates stand a better chance of being invited to apply for provincial nomination. Launched on June 26 and opened for intake on Aug. 4, the OWPS is currently Ontario's only provincial nomination route to permanent residence for foreign nationals, while a second phase of the overhaul, adding Priority Healthcare, Entrepreneur and Exceptional Talent streams, still has no launch date.
10/08/2026
B.C. issues 33 invitations in second rural health support draw as cutoff climbs to 60
On Sept 17, 2026, the British Columbia (B.C.) Provincial Nominee Program (BCPNP) held the second draw under its Temporary Rural/Remote Health Support Initiative (TRHSI), issuing 33 invitations to apply for provincial nomination to cleaning and security staff employed by a public health authority in a rural or remote part of the province, with a minimum score of 60 — 10 points above the 50-point cutoff used in the first draw on July 23, 2026 — while the number of invitations fell from 60 to 33, bringing the two-draw total to 93 invitations to apply (ITAs), or roughly 37% of the initiative's cap of 250 nominations. TRHSI is a one-time, time-limited permanent residence (PR) pathway launched when B.C. restructured its nominee program on April 23, 2026; registration opened June 15, 2026, and eligibility is confined to three National Occupational Classification (NOC) codes — 65312, 65310 and 64410 — with applicants required to have completed nine months of continuous full-time work with the same employer, in the same eligible region and in the same occupation. The registration window was originally set to close at midnight on Aug 31 but was extended to 11:59 p.m. on Oct 7, 2026 because of wildfire-related impacts. The wider context is that B.C.'s 2026 nomination allocation rose to 6,254 after the federal government added 1,000 spaces in August, with at least 35% of nominations required to go to candidates outside Metro Vancouver; and that since June 9, 2026, base Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) nominees applying for PR no longer need to wait for an Acknowledgement of Receipt (AOR) before applying for a Bridging Open Work Permit (BOWP) — a federal temporary measure running to Dec 31, 2026 that matters especially to TRHSI applicants, who have no Express Entry-aligned option.
09/20/2026
Canada holds back-to-back Express Entry draws: CEC cut-off eases to 519, while the senior managers category sets a record low
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) held Express Entry draws on two consecutive days, September 15 and 16, 2026, issuing invitations to apply (ITAs) to two very different groups of candidates. Round #443, conducted on September 15 at 10:21:41 UTC, issued 2,000 invitations under the Canadian Experience Class (CEC) with a minimum Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score of 519 and a tie-breaking rule of March 26, 2026 at 00:16:39 UTC; round #444, held the following day at 12:44:28 UTC, issued 250 invitations under the category for senior managers with Canadian work experience at a minimum CRS score of just 389, with a tie-breaking rule of September 1, 2026 at 23:05:13 UTC. Both rounds were authorized by ministerial instructions signed in Ottawa by Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA). The senior managers category, created in February 2026, has now run three draws, with the cut-off falling from 429 in its first round to 392 and then 389 -- a cumulative drop of 40 points and the lowest threshold in the category's short history. Over the same period, the CEC cut-off has declined for a third consecutive round after peaking at a 2026 high of 523 on August 18. Through round #444, IRCC has held 56 draws and issued 128,982 invitations in 2026, an annual record since Express Entry was launched.
09/18/2026
Express Entry round #442 issues 576 PNP invitations as the cut-off climbs back to 734
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) held the 442nd Express Entry round on September 14, 2026, issuing 576 invitations to apply (ITAs) for permanent residence to candidates in the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) category with a minimum Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score of 734, up 37 points from the 697 recorded on August 31, the lowest PNP cut-off of the year, while the size of the round edged past the 562 invitations issued two weeks earlier to make it the second-largest PNP round since June 22. The ministerial instruction behind the round was signed in Ottawa by Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab, and the tie-breaking rule was set at 21:39:50 UTC on August 29, 2026, barely two weeks before the draw itself, a sign that a substantial share of the candidates sitting exactly at 734 were recently nominated applicants who had only just entered the pool. With this round, IRCC has held 54 Express Entry draws in 2026 and issued 126,732 invitations in total, including 18 PNP rounds accounting for 8,537 invitations, 22.8 percent more than the 6,947 issued over the same period in 2025 and consistent with Ottawa's decision to restore the 2026 provincial nominee admissions target to 91,500. A pool snapshot published the day before the draw showed 226,793 candidates in the pool, of whom roughly 574 scored 601 or higher, almost exactly matching the 576 invitations issued, which means IRCC once again cleared out nearly the entire top tier of nominated candidates in a single round. Analysts expect the remaining PNP rounds this year to keep to a roughly biweekly rhythm of a little over 400 invitations each, with the cut-off driven largely by how quickly the provinces feed new nominations into the federal pool.
09/15/2026
Newfoundland and Labrador issues just 36 provincial nomination invitations on September 10, the smallest round of the year
On September 10, 2026, the Newfoundland and Labrador Office of Immigration and Multiculturalism (OIM) invited 36 candidates to apply for a provincial nomination through the Newfoundland and Labrador Provincial Nominee Program (NLPNP) — the province's 14th draw of the year, its smallest round of 2026, and the third round since the Expression of Interest (EOI) model launched in February 2025 in which no Atlantic Immigration Program (AIP) candidate received an invitation, the second such round in a row. The province has now issued 2,592 invitations in 2026, comprising 2,198 through the NLPNP and 394 through the AIP; by comparison, Newfoundland and Labrador issued 3,376 invitations across 13 rounds in all of 2025, meaning that this year's total is 784 lower despite one additional draw, with round sizes contracting steadily since mid-August. The province has still not published its 2026 nomination allocation, and industry media have suggested that the recent pattern of small, frequent draws may reflect a limited pool of remaining spaces, though the province has offered no explanation. For those invited, a federal temporary measure in effect since June 9 allows provincial nominees applying for permanent residence (PR) from inside Canada to apply for a Bridging Open Work Permit (BOWP) before receiving an Acknowledgement of Receipt (AOR), helping them avoid a gap in status during a base provincial nominee processing cycle that currently runs about 13 months.
09/14/2026
Alberta Issues 722 Invitations Across Three Early-September Draws, With Tech and Health Care Rounds Both Cutting Off at 60
The Alberta Advantage Immigration Program (AAIP) held three draws between September 1 and September 9, 2026, all aimed at candidates holding an Alberta job offer, issuing a combined 722 invitations to apply for a provincial nomination: on September 1, the Alberta Opportunity Stream invited 575 candidates with a minimum score of 56; on September 3, the Alberta Express Entry Stream – Accelerated Tech Pathway invited 96 tech workers with a minimum score of 60; and on September 9, the Dedicated Health Care Pathway – Express Entry invited 51 health care workers, also at a minimum score of 60. Invited candidates have a set window in which to submit a provincial nomination application, and once nominated they apply to the federal government for permanent residence (PR), with those already in Canada able to apply for a Bridging Open Work Permit (BOWP) while they wait; under Operational Bulletin 699, which Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) issued and brought into force on June 9, 2026, in-Canada provincial nominees who have not yet received an Acknowledgement of Receipt (AOR) for their PR application may apply for a BOWP on the strength of their submission confirmation email and proof of payment, a measure that runs until December 31, 2026. As of September 9, Alberta had issued 4,864 nominations this year, roughly 74 percent of its full-year allocation of 6,603, leaving 1,739 spots; the Worker Expression of Interest pool still held 35,957 active profiles, of which the Alberta Opportunity Stream alone accounted for 22,381 against just 837 remaining nominations in that stream, so competition remains intense. Health care and technology are both among Alberta's designated priority sectors for 2026, alongside construction, aviation, agriculture and manufacturing.
09/12/2026
