Canada's 2027 Immigration Levels Plan: How Many PR Spots and Under Which Programs

In 2027, Canada plans to admit up to 422,000 permanent residents under its core plan, plus up to 200,000 extra spots for people already living in the country — up to 622,000 in total.

In short

• Canada’s core plan holds at 380,000 PR admissions a year for 2027-2029 — growth has stopped despite the one-time boost in 2027.
• In 2027, an extra 200,000 spots will be added on top of the plan for people already living in Canada: 100,000 for workers, 100,000 for humanitarian and family cases.
• The Express Entry quota dropped from 111,000 to 100,000 spots, while business immigration tripled — from 500 to 1,500 spots.
• Parent sponsorship and refugee programs are effectively frozen: no new parent applications are being accepted, and the humanitarian backlog now exceeds 10 years.
• Canada is promising to clear all remaining Ukrainian family reunification applications and cut the wait for spouses of Canadian citizens to around 12 months.

How many PR spots will Canada issue in 2027, 2028, and 2029

Canada’s new Immigration Levels Plan covers 2027, 2028, and 2029. For comparison: when the author’s family went through the PR process back in 2016, Canada was planning to admit around 300,000 new residents a year — the target has roughly doubled since then.

According to the new levels plan, the maximum for 2027 is around 622,000: the core plan allows for up to 422,000 new permanent residents (this is a ceiling, a buffer in case processing moves faster than expected). The actual target under the core plan is lower, at 380,000 people. On top of the core plan, up to 200,000 additional spots have been added for people who already live in Canada.

Counting targets rather than ceilings, the 2027 total comes to up to 580,000 PR admissions. Canada generally tries to keep immigration intake below 1% of its population, and 580,000 is already close to 1.5%.

and 580,000 is already close to 1.5%

For 2028 and 2029, the core plan stays at the same level — 380,000 PR admissions a year. The extra 200,000 spots that boost the 2027 figure are a one-time measure: there’s no such buffer in the 2028 and 2029 plans.

Express Entry and business immigration: what changed in the numbers

Express Entry is the system that selects skilled workers, the largest group of economic immigrants to Canada. Under the new plan, it’s allotted about 100,000 spots, down from 111,000 in the previous plan — the only notable cut in the entire document.

Most people who get PR through Express Entry have already worked in Canada: they arrived on a work permit or got authorization to work after studying at a Canadian institution. Candidates shouldn’t panic just yet — some of them will still get PR, either through Provincial Nominee Programs or through the one-time measure for people already in the country.

Business immigration, by contrast, tripled. This category covers the Start-up Visa for founders of innovative businesses and the self-employed persons program — for example, musicians, artists, and athletic coaches.

Entrepreneurs in this stream get 1,500 spots, up from 500 in the previous plan. New business immigration applications aren’t being accepted right now, so these spots will go to people who already applied and have been waiting years for a decision.

Provincial programs, the Atlantic region, and pilot projects

Provincial immigration programs get 95,000 spots under the new plan — nearly as many as Express Entry, and more than the 92,500 allotted for 2027 under the previous plan. The mechanism stays the same: each province selects the candidates it needs and issues them a nomination — a recommendation for PR. You can apply through two routes: via Express Entry or directly through the province’s own website.

The biggest increase in the new plan went to the Atlantic Immigration Program, which operates in four provinces in eastern Canada — Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador. It used to be a small program: the previous 2027 plan allotted it 4,000 spots. The new plan gives it 6,000, a 50% increase.

Pilot programs target specific occupations and regions — for caregivers looking after children or the elderly, and for agricultural workers. The Rural Community Immigration pilot is becoming permanent and gets its own quota of 5,500 spots: a candidate finds an employer in a small community who helps them obtain PR. Under the previous 2027 plan, all pilot programs combined accounted for fewer than 9,000 spots; in the new plan, together with the rural community program, it’s more than 13,000.

Quebec sets its own economic immigration quotas and publishes its 2027 plan separately, after the federal one.

Provincial and pilot programs: previous plan vs. new plan

Program	Previous 2027 plan	New 2027 plan
Provincial programs	92,500 spots	95,000 spots
Atlantic Immigration Program	4,000 spots	6,000 spots
All pilot programs	fewer than 9,000 spots	more than 13,000 spots, including the rural community program

The Rural Community Immigration pilot became permanent and got its own quota of 5,500 spots.

French-speaking immigrants: a growing share of the quota

French-speaking immigrants are getting an increasing share of spots outside Quebec under the new plan. In 2027, they’re expected to make up 9.5% of all new permanent residents outside the province, rising to 12% by 2029. In absolute numbers, that’s more than forty thousand people a year.

The growth shows up not only in the plan’s targets but in current selection as well: this year, roughly 40% of all PR invitations issued through Express Entry went to candidates with French-language ability. For a system that historically selected the bulk of its candidates based on English, that’s a significant share.

Family sponsorship, refugees, and humanitarian programs

Family sponsorship stays at the previous plan’s level: 66,000 spots for spouses and children, and 15,000 for parents and grandparents. But access to these spots isn’t equal. Parent and grandparent sponsorship to Canada was paused in 2026 — no new applications are being accepted, and the 15,000 spots go only to people who already applied earlier. A new intake is expected to open in 2027, but there’s no confirmation of that yet.

According to the plan, refugee and humanitarian quotas are unchanged from the previous plan: around 49,300 spots for refugees and protected persons, plus roughly 5,000 for humanitarian reasons. The trend becomes visible when you look at the trajectory: in 2024, there were more than 76,000 refugee spots, meaning the figure has dropped by roughly a third over three years. This is part of a broader shift in the plan’s priorities — the share of economic immigrants rose from 58% in 2024 to more than 64% in the new plan.

How long the wait is for humanitarian PR

The backlog for humanitarian PR applications filed from within Canada is more than 68,000 people. Immigration officials are telling new applicants directly that the wait will be more than ten years. A significant portion of this backlog is made up of Ukrainians who arrived under the CUAET program.

Immigration officials are telling new applicants directly that the wait will be more than ten years

For anyone just starting to plan a move to Canada, counting on refugee status or humanitarian programs isn’t a sound strategy — this route is long and unpredictable. Economic immigration is more reliable: it requires at least intermediate English and relevant work experience.

Temporary residents: students and workers

For international students and temporary workers, the new plan keeps the same numbers as before. Canada is planning 370,000 new arrivals a year in these categories: 220,000 workers and 150,000 students.

For comparison: in 2023, Canada welcomed nearly 972,000 temporary residents for the first time. Under the new plan, the intake is cut by two and a half times. The decline, which started earlier, has at least stopped with this plan — the figures match last year’s plan rather than dropping further.

The extra 200,000 spots and the chances for Ukrainians

On top of the core plan, Canada is setting aside 200,000 PR spots for people already living in the country. These 200,000 spots are split into two groups of 100,000 each.

The first group is up to 100,000 workers already employed in Canada, together with their families. Provinces will handle the distribution of these spots: each one decides for itself whom to keep and can nominate people who already work there. A province can also select candidates among those who’ve already applied for PR — under the Atlantic Immigration Program, the start-up and self-employed streams, the agricultural worker program, or the caregiver programs.

The second group is up to another 100,000 spots for people who have been waiting a long time for a decision on humanitarian and family applications. Here’s important news for Ukrainians: Canada is promising to clear all remaining applications under the family reunification program for Ukrainians, launched after the start of the war for relatives of Canadian citizens and permanent residents. It’s important not to confuse this: this specifically concerns the family reunification program, not all Ukrainians holding temporary documents. If a Ukrainian arrived under the program for Ukrainians and is working on a work permit, their chances lie more with the worker group through a province, not the humanitarian group.

Canada is promising to clear all remaining applications under the family reunification program for Ukrainians

Spouses of Canadian citizens waiting for PR from within the country got lucky too: immigration officials will process their applications together with their children’s, and the wait is expected to be cut to around 12 months. This applies to all provinces except Quebec.

Separately, outside the core plan and outside these 200,000 spots, a year-old measure remains in effect: according to available data, around 115,000 people who received Canada’s protection, along with up to 33,000 temporary workers, are being transitioned to PR in 2026 and 2027. The government hasn’t specified how many of them will get status specifically in 2027. The selection rules for the new 200,000 spots haven’t been announced yet either.

Where these numbers come from and what else might change

The new Immigration Levels Plan was released alongside Canada’s federal budget for the year — all the figures in it come from that document. But immigration is just one part of it: the budget also covers taxes, benefits, housing, and fuel prices.

The selection rules for the additional 200,000 spots haven’t been announced yet — provinces still have to publish them. Until that happens, the exact process for selecting candidates for these two groups remains unknown.

Frequently asked questions

Can I apply for Canadian PR directly, bypassing Express Entry and provincial programs, if I don’t live in the country yet

This article covers federal and provincial economic programs, family sponsorship, and humanitarian categories — all of them require meeting specific criteria (qualifications, language, a job offer, family ties). The new plan doesn’t introduce a direct ‘general’ path outside these categories: a candidate applies through one of the existing programs.

What should I do if I’ve already applied for business immigration but worry the new spots won’t cover my place in line

New business immigration applications aren’t being accepted right now, so all 1,500 spots in the new plan will be distributed among people who already applied and have been waiting years for a decision. There’s no need to track the queue separately or reapply — a decision will come within the application already filed.

Can I apply to a provincial program if I’ve already applied through Express Entry

Yes, these are two different entry points into the same provincial program: you can apply either through Express Entry or directly through the province’s website. They’re not mutually exclusive paths, but alternative ways into the same pool of provincial candidates.

What happens to people who already applied for parent sponsorship before the 2026 pause

The pause only affects new applications. The 15,000 spots that remain in the plan for the parent and grandparent category are reserved specifically for people who applied earlier — their applications will keep being processed.

Can a Ukrainian who arrived under CUAET expect faster processing through the extra 200,000 spots

It depends on the specific situation: if it concerns an application under the family reunification program for Ukrainians, such cases are promised to be cleared as part of the humanitarian group. But if a Ukrainian arrived under the program for Ukrainians and is working on a work permit, their chances lie more with the worker group through a province, not the humanitarian group.

Will the cut in temporary residents affect my chances of getting PR later

The plan doesn’t establish a direct link: quotas for students and workers as temporary residents and PR quotas are separate, though overlapping, categories within the plan. A smaller intake of temporary residents means fewer people who could eventually qualify through Express Entry or provincial programs — it’s not a direct cut to the chances of people already in the country.