I Meant to Spend Five Minutes Checking IRCC’s New Processing Time Tool. Two Hours Later, I Had Charts.

Two hours later, I had ten tabs open, a spreadsheet of queue positions, and a deep respect for anyone trying to untangle how IRCC actually processes applications right now. 

Because if you’re even a little bit of an immigration geek (and I absolutely am), you know how easy it is to fall down that rabbit hole. 

Playing with the Tool 

The new processing time tool is slicker, smarter, and much more fun than it has any right to be. It lets you plug in a hypothetical submission date, say, September 2025, and instantly tells you how many people are ahead of you in line to be processed and the total number of people waiting on a decision. 

Here’s what I found when I did exactly that: 

• Canadian Experience Class (CEC): 12,100 ahead | 17,900 in total waiting 

• Federal Skilled Worker (FSW): 20,500 ahead | 23,800 in total waiting 

• PNP – Express Entry: 10,500 ahead |11,500 in total waiting 

• PNP – Non-Express Entry: 89,900 ahead | 94,700 in total waiting 

• Atlantic Immigration Program (AIP): 12,100 ahead | 13,100 in total waiting 

• Family Spouse (In Canada): 58,300 ahead | 61,600 in total waiting 

• Family Spouse (Outside of Canada): 50,100 ahead | 58,000 in total waiting 

• H & C: 63,100 ahead | 66,400 in total waiting 

• Protected Persons in Canada: 183,800 ahead | 190,800 in total waiting 

A few things jumped out: 

• The non-Express Entry PNP numbers are wild. That’s not a queue, that’s a crowd at a Taylor Swift concert! 

• The FSW queue is now larger than the CEC one, echoing what one Reddit user recently pointed out, for the first time in years, the FSW stream has taken the lead. 

• With wait times exceeding 10 years, a backlog of over 66,000 applications, and no specific work permit option for H&C applicants awaiting processing, this pathway is becoming increasingly unviable. It almost feels as though IRCC doesn’t want these applications at all. 

So far, so fascinating. But then I wondered, how do these queues compare to the overall immigration backlog? 

Zooming Out: The Big Picture 

According to IRCC’s latest inventory and backlog data, there are 901,800 total permanent residence applications sitting in inventory as of August 31,2025.

So, when you see “17,900 ahead of you” on the CEC tool — that’s roughly 2% of IRCC’s total PR inventory. Meanwhile, the base PNP backlog alone represents more than 10% of all pending permanent residence files. 

That’s a huge slice of the pie, and definitely information I would want to know if I was planning out my immigration strategy right now.

What IRCC Plans to Do About It 

IRCC’s latest Transition Binder (prepared for the new Immigration Minister in 2025) gives us a rare glimpse behind the curtain, and some bold targets. 

Here’s the gist: 

• Express Entry programs (CEC, FSW, FSTP) → All current inventory to be processed in 2025- That’s 48,200 applications as of February 2025, when the Transition Binder was released.  

• PNP – Express Entry aligned → All inventory to be processed this year (with limited exceptions). An additional 15,800 processed this year.

• PNP – Non-Express Entry (base streams) → Targeted processing continues, but not all inventory expected to clear this year, with a target to process only 35% of the inventory as of February 2025.

• Atlantic Immigration Program (AIP) → Only about one-third of inventory is expected to be finalized in 2025.

• Family – Spouse → IRCC aim to process 39% of inventory as of February 2025 for in Canada spousal sponsorship applications and 75% of outside of Canada application. 

• H & C → It looks like IRCC is cherry-picking H&C applications. Processing rates seem to depend on which country they’re from. Sure, some countries have bigger backlogs than others, but the gap still feels hard to justify. 

Clearing all inventory? That’s ambitious. Especially considering that processing everything in the Express Entry streams means clearing tens of thousands of files. But it also suggests IRCC is trying to bring balance: to reset wait times, stabilize the pipeline, and hopefully make their tools (like the one I’ve been playing with) more reflective of real movement. 

Why It Matters Right Now 

This little deep dive isn’t just a nerdy numbers exercise, it’s a snapshot of where the immigration system sits right before a major policy moment. 

IRCC’s new tool makes it easier to see the queues. The backlog data shows how big those queues are. And the upcoming Immigration Levels Plan will show where the department wants those queues to go. 

Will any of this make your application go faster? Nope. Does it make the process a little more understandable? Absolutely.

Also, there’s something very Canadian about knowing exactly how long the queue is, and how long you might be waiting in it. 

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